The main purpose of this posting is to respond to one of Hindy’s three requests on teaching biblical books. I outline below my approach to Genesis and mention some papers I have written on this theme. I take note that this posting partially responds to the thread on “What is Judaism†and to the thread on “Drugs in High School,†but I will confine myself mainly to comments on Genesis.
My basic approach to Genesis is to treat it like a novel: Its theme is *prophecy* and its main character is Joseph. I think such an approach can easily be adapted to a high school setting fruitfully as I show below.
Two articles on my views of Joseph in the context of Genesis are: 1) Dreams: The True religion-science conflict, CCAR: The Reform Jewish Quarterly, Winter 2012, pp 111-124, [
www.Rashiyomi.com] and 2) Joseph: A Biblical Approach To Dream Interpretation, Jewish Bible Quarterly: Vol 39 #4, pp231-238, [
www.Rashiyomi.com]
Here is a brief summary of the approach: All the main characters of Genesis – Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob – are people who changed history by the agency of prophecy. These people typically worked alone; they did not have followers or armies. They did not achieve their effects through political followings! Note also that the secondary characters of Genesis – for example, Kayin and Ismael / Hagar – also changed history through the agency of prophecy.
Although Genesis takes up 50 chapters, 25% of the book, the last 13 chapters deal with a person, Joseph, who is never called a prophet and has no dreams “from God.†Joseph achieved greatness by virtue of his dreams which he treated the same way as prophecies are treated. That is, he treated his dreams as 1) relating to communal needs, 2) not being sexual in nature and 3) requiring time to develop.
Like the teaching of any biblical book, relating it to modern day topics increases relevance. According to archaeologists it was our own Patriarch Abraham who introduced to the world the idea of prophecy without a sexual component (prior to Abraham, prophecies, even cultic prophecies, were connected with sexual rites). To further understand the significance of this we recall a controversy between Gersonides (Ralbag) and Maimonides on the relation between dreams and prophecies. Maimonides held that prophecies were qualitatively different than dreams. However, Gersonides held that dreams and prophecies lie on a continuum. Thus, Joseph’s treatment of his dreams as prophecy-like is consistent with Gersonides approach.
Returning to the theme of this posting, Genesis, we can see the Genesis influence on human history in that the secular world has begun to accept the idea that dreams influence human history as much as political forces: 1) Even secular science boasts of many very important scientific discoveries or inventions which had their roots in dreams. 2) In our own tradition, dreams, although technically they are not supposed to decide law, nevertheless do (hence the book, “Responsa from Heaven†(Sheeyloth UTeshuvoth Min Hashamayim)). 3) Politically, dreams were important in protecting us. A famous story concerning Jews fleeing from Christian Europe eastward relates that the monarch of one of the lands they fled to had a dream from Elijah. He inquired on who Elijah was and based on that, granted asylum to the Jews who fled. 4) On a pastoral level, dreams can play an important part in terminated relationships (cf. the book “Hello from Heavenâ€). In short, one can couple the learning of Genesis and Joseph with modern examples. These would make nice “term papersâ€.
One can be more aggressive in the “relevance†of Genesis. A particularly modern theme is the issue of how teenagers transition to adulthood. One thread on Lookjed deals with the frustration of this search which leads high-school students to improper use of drugs. But what does the secular world offer the teenager: They can go to a social worker and develop proper skills and a proper social circle; they can go to a psychiatrist and be “helped†in the transition through use of drugs.
But the Torah! The Torah says to the teenager, “Even if you are an immature tattle-tail engaged excessively in grooming, who hangs around with riffraffs (Gn37-02, Joseph!), you can still become a world-transforming adult if you take one of your dreams, believe in them, and treat them according to prophetic methods.†This is a very powerful statement and shows the superiority of the Jewish approach to the secular approach.
I close by mentioning the relevance of this posting to two other Lookjed threads: 1) “What is Judaism?†I would respond “Dreams / Prophecyâ€. That is what we gave the world and what we should continue to give. 2) “How do you deal with high-school teenagers who turn to drugs?†I would encourage them to keep private dream diaries and to aspire to change human history like Joseph.
Russell Jay Hendel; Ph.D; www.Rashiyomi.com/
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/03/2017 07:47AM by mlb.
