Bo

It's always a challenge to find new ways of seeing familiar text.  Parashat Bo is well-known as one of the foundation texts for our celebration of the Pesach seder - the questions, the matza and maror, the Pesach itself.  Here are some things you may not have thought about before:

• According to Rambam, this whole experience was really a test for those Israelites who were living as assimilated people in Egypt.  How was it a test?  What made it a challenge?  What do you think this felt like to the Israelites?
• Many of the traditional commentaries refer to the idea that only 20% of Israelites chose to leave Egypt with Moshe and Aharon.  In fact, there is an opinion (Torah.org, paragraphs 7 and 8, referring to Rashi's interpretation) that the 80% who were not willing to leave were killed during the plague of darkness.  I did not see a reference to this in any of the liberal commentaries I read.  Why do you suppose the more traditional commentaries talk about this and not the modern, liberal commentaries?
• According to Dr. Eliezer Diamond, in his commentary from February 2006, it is challenging to think of ourselves as obligated to God's service - especially in our individualistic culture.  Where is our autonomy if we are obligated to God?  What does it mean to be free?  Is there a purpose to the ending of Egyptian slavery beyond the immediate release?
• This section of Torah coincides with the celebration of Martin Luther King Day.  There is a wonderful photographic essay on the Jews and Blacks in America that illustrates the roles Jews played in the civil rights movement in the United States.  The last few pages also highlight some of challenges to the relationship between Jews and Blacks that have developed over time.  Your students might be interested in seeing this article.
• Here are some customs you may not be familiar with (from Answers.com).  How do they express the big ideas of Passover?  Which of these customs might you want to incorporate into your own celebration of Passover?

"The Samaritans in Erets Israel observe the Passover rites on Mount Gerizim near Shechem. To this day, the slaughter of the paschal lamb is the climax of their ceremony. A number of sheep are set aside on 10 Nisan. On the eve of the 14th they are slaughtered, roasted for six hours in ovens dug in the earth, and distributed to the families to be eaten in their homes with bitter herbs, to the accompaniment of song and dance. 

"The Ethiopian Jews (Beta Israel) cease to eat leaven three days before the festival, consuming only dried peas and beans until Passover eve. Then they fast until their high priest slaughters the paschal lamb on an altar in the courtyard of the synagogue. The blood is sprinkled around the entrance to the building. 

"In the Caucasus, the Jews wear clothes of "freedom" with wide, loose sleeves, some with a dagger or even a pistol in their belt. They reenact a drama in which one of their number goes out, knocks on the door and pretends he has just arrived from Jerusalem. All the others ask him for news of the Holy City and whether he has a message of liberation and redemption.

"Certain Sephardim and Oriental communities also enact a drama, eating hastily, standing, with loins girded and staff in hand, like the Israelites in Egypt. Some wrap the afikoman in a cloth which they put over their shoulder and leave the room saying, "This is how our ancestors left Egypt."

"The secret Jews of Spain and Portugal, the Marranos, observed the festival on 16 Nisan in order to avoid suspicion on the previous day. They clandestinely baked unleavened bread on that day and held a secret Seder at which they consumed a whole roast sheep while wearing traveling shoes and holding staffs in their hands. Marranos in Mexico smeared their doorposts with the blood of lambs, like the ancient Israelites, and beat the waters of a stream with willow branches to symbolize the crossing of the Red Sea.

An afterthought:

This parasha happens to be my own Bat Mitzvah portion.  Interestingly, as my Bat Mitzvah observance was held on a Friday night I never actually studied the Torah portion - only the Haftorah.  In retrospect, what a shame I missed the opportunity to be aware that this powerful text was to be read the following morning!!  On the other hand, perhaps when I was younger the power of the words would not have been as impressive to me as it is today.  And here is one of the challenges I believe is at the heart of the Jewish educational system as it is today, particularly in pre-Bar/Bat Mitzvah settings.

How do we find the opportunity to support mature understanding of Jewish wisdom, thought and experience if the only people we encounter in our educational programs are children?

It's a big question.

Odds and Ends, Thoughts and Ideas, Challenges and Questions

This post is longer than usual, but I hope you will find many things to think about.  And tonight is Shabbat, so you should have plenty of time to do your thinking!!
Please share your thoughts with the rest of the reading community so we can learn from each other.


From Michael Tucker, in the AARP Bulletin, January 1, 2010 edition on-line.

"Pen Man"

"You’d think that Indianapolis teacher Dan Stroup would have major writer’s cramp by now. That’s because every past and present student of his eighth-grade Bible class receives a personal, handwritten birthday letter from him every year. “I wanted them to know that I not only cared about them in the classroom but outside the classroom,” says Stroup, 54, who teaches at Heritage Christian School. Stroup figures he’s penned about 33,000 letters to 2,500 students over 25 years, using regular pens and tablets of lined paper. “If students know I care about them, they’re more open to what I teach,” he says."

What a wonderful idea - and what a valuable suggestion.  Can you think of ways to show your students  that you care about them?  How about helping them learn their Hebrew birthdays through a lesson on the Jewish calendar, and using that as an opportunity to both reinforce their connection to Judaism and to let them know you are thinking about them.  Just a thought.

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from Jeffrey Rosen, NYT Magazine, January 8, 2010:  Prisoners of Parole
Rosen writes about a pilot project to reduce parole violations, and through that reduce jail time, in Hawaii.  He writes that

"...a variety of recent research suggest[s] that people are more likely to obey the law when they view law enforcement as fair and legitimate."

While Rosen focuses on law enforcement and ways in which that can be more effective, surely the same ideas are relevant in the classroom.  The words that appear over and over in articles about classrooms that work include the following words:  fair, firm, consistent.  That is the big idea of Rosen's article, and it is a big idea in teaching and learning.
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from John Tagliabue, NY Times, January 5, 2010:  Rising Price of Faith in France's Shrinking Parishes
France has a problem with its churches.  The population is less and less active in religious practice, the number of priests is a fraction of what it once was, and the cost of upkeep of the admittedly beautiful buildings is higher and higher.  The solution in some towns has been to continue to support the traditional buildings, while in others the decision has been made to demolish what have become underused and increasingly expensive structures and replace them with modern and more efficient buildings.

"In other countries, notably England and Italy, disused houses of worship have been converted into homes, stores or museums. In France, there is an emotional resistance to the practice, though in Dijon, an abandoned church now serves as a theater, and in Alsace, also in the east, former synagogues now serve as museums."

Why am I bringing this article?  In my opinion the fundamental problem is inability or unwillingness to think seriously about the future.  For our institutions the questions we must ask include the following:

• What is the infrastructure that is necessary to support a future that may look very different from today?  
• Do our buildings meet the needs of tomorrow's Jewish populations?  
• Do our institutions support creative and innovative programs that engage people whose connections to Judaism are based on a variety of different forces?  
• Are we encouraging platforms for developing community that are realistic for today and tomorrow?

These are really important, really challenging, really tough questions.  We need to begin to answer them now.
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Footnotes in Gaza is a new book by Joe Sacco, reviewed on December 27, 2009 in the New York Times Book Review.  It suggests that the reason for Palestinian hatred of Israel can be traced to 2 incidents in 1956 during which Israeli troops massacred Arab residents during one of the many wars between Israel and her neighbors which have taken place over time.  Two letters to the editor of the NY Times challenge this assertion.
Choosing an arbitrary date on which to begin a historical narrative ignores what came before.  In the case of the Middle East situation one can hardly claim seriously that the conflict began in 1956.  How the author/illustrator does this is one thing - how the reviewer repeats this ridiculous accusation is even worse.
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from David Brooks, January 12, 2010: The Tel Aviv Cluster
If you want to feel really proud of being Jewish and having Israel 'in the family', read this article.
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If you are teaching about the Holocaust, or even if it is not a part of your regular curriculum, please take time to note with your students the death of Miep Gies, who helped hide Anne Frank in Amsterdam and saved her diary when the Frank family was deported to Auschwitz.  A detailed obituary is available at Legacy.com .  You can find a good resource for learning about her and about World War II at the following website:   http://teacher.scholastic.com/frank/miep.htm .  There are lesson plans appropriate for grades 4 - 8 on that website as well.
If you are looking for a Jewish source of information about Righteous Gentiles, this link to the Jewish Virtual Library website is a good resource.  It does not mention Ms. Gies, but it does mention several others who risked their lives to save Jews during the Shoah.

Va'Era

This parasha (summary here at My Jewish Learning, full text here at Mechon Mamre) continues the drama of liberation from Egypt.  Most of us are familiar with the story line, having heard it many times as children and as adults either in studying Torah or in celebrating Pesach around a seder table.
I have a few questions for you to think about:

• Moshe is 80 years old when this part of the story begins.  I wonder, in today's society, when things change at a greater rate than ever before in history (as this story, Old Fogies in their 20's , shows quite dramatically) how do we relate to our elders?  In what ways is it possible to respect the wisdom of age while at the same time valuing the importance of change?
• Does it matter to you that there may be a natural explanation for the plagues, as explained here in an article entitled "A Skeptic's Guide to Passover", by Michael Lukas published in Slate last spring?
• What if there is a scientific explanation?
• What if there isn't?
• Is there a relationship between the way we remember the story of Hanukkah and the way we remember the exodus from Egypt?  Can you compare and contrast these two stories in terms of the role of God, in terms of miracles, in terms of how we celebrate?
• How can you reconcile the idea of Free Will, a basic understanding of Judaism, with the story of how God "hardened Paro's heart" in this parasha?
• There is a traditional saying in Hebrew:  "One mitzvah leads to another, one sin leads to another."  How might this apply to Paro's actions?
• If Paro didn't have a choice about his actions, should he have been punished?
• Is there a  traditional Jewish attitude toward people who are oppressed?  Toward slavery?  There were Jewish slaveholders in this country before the Civil War, as you can read in this article from JewishEncyclopedia.com.
• How does it make you feel to know there were Jewish slaveholders?
• Why do you think Jews who lived in the north were mostly opposed to slavery, while those who lived in the south mostly supported it?
• Do Jews have any special responsibility to confront injustice in the world?
• If you answered yes, explain why you think so.
• If you answered no, explain why you think not.
• Do you think that the Hebrews who were living in Egypt in slavery thought about leaving before Moshe and Aharon came to talk to Paro?  Why?
• Why do you think God insisted on so many plagues?  Couldn't God have rescued the Jews more quickly and without so many bells and whistles?

What are the big ideas you think we can learn from this parasha?

Shemot

New year, new book of the Torah, new ideas (I hope)!

Beginning with the first verses of the parasha, we have a review of the names of those who came into Egypt.  As teachers we know that before we can go forward we have to be sure our learners remember what came before (although I sincerely doubt that in the early days of Torah study this parasha came after the December vacation.  Of course, it doesn't always fall out that way now either!)
We also learn from the text that the descendants of Yaakov have become quite numerous - so numerous that they are viewed as a threat by the Egyptians.  And, according to verse 12, their numbers apparently "embarass" the Egyptians.

• Why should the Egyptians be "embarassed"?
• Do you think the Hebrews are assimilated into the general population or not?  What is your evidence? 

The story of the two midwives (Shifrah and Puah) who rebel against Paro's orders to kill the Hebrew boy babies is familiar to most of us, but I never noticed the reward before (look at 1:21)

• Do you think the midwives are Hebrews or Egyptians?  What is your evidence?
• Why do you think they disobeyed Paro's direct order?  Did they really think he would believe the story they told him about why the babies lived?  What might the consequences be for their disloyalty?
• If the midwives were in fact Egyptian, can you think of a different time in history when people who were not part of the Jewish people saved Jews?  Explain your answer.

Skipping down to the second chapter we learn of the birth of a baby to an as-yet unnamed couple from the tribe of Levi.  We all know that he was put in a "teva" at the age of 3 months and adopted by Paro's daughter.  For a few years he is nursed by his birth mother.
In 2:10 Moshe comes to live with Paro's daughter.

In 2:11 he is described as "grown".

• Fill in the blanks - what happened between verse 10 and verse 11?
• What was Moshe's childhood like?  How was he treated by the Egyptians around him?  Did he think he was different from them?  Did he wonder about his birth parents?  Did they wonder about him?  Did everyone know what his background was?  How did he see himself - as an Egyptian noble?  as a Hebrew?

When Moshe saw the Egyptian who was attacking a Hebrew, he looked around - 

• Why?
• What was he looking for?
• What did he find?

The next day (according to the text) he went out again and tried to stop a fight between two Hebrews.

• What happened?
• Why did Moshe run away?
• According to the text, Paro was ready to kill Moshe.  But he had raised him as a grandson.  What does that suggest to you about Paro? 

Moshe marries the daughter of Yitro, a Midianite priest.  He names their first son Gershom

• What does Gershom mean?
• Who is the 'Ger'?  Where is the 'sham'?  Think about the possibilities.

In 2:24 we hear that God heard the groaning of the people, and remembered his covenant with Avraham, with Yitzhak, and with Yaakov.

• Why now?
• Where has God been all this time?

In 4:14 we read that God is angry with Moshe.

• Why is God angry?
• Do you think God has a right to be impatient with Moshe?

In 4:23 God tells Moshe what to threaten Paro with.

• Why is this here?
• What is the relationship between the threat here and what is to come?

6:1   Then the Lord said to Moshe, "Now you will see what I will do to Paro,  for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land."

• Does anything strike you about this phrase (look at the Hebrew if you are not sure)?
• Does the wording surprise you?  Explain.

Here are a few sources you may want to read for help in answering the questions above.  

• Becoming a Leader by Rabbi Shimon Felix may help you understand how Moshe evolved as a leader.
• This article from Haaretz by Naftaly Gliksberg focuses on the interchange between Paro's daughter and Moshe's sister - very interesting and not a perspective I have thought about before.
• The Bumpy Road to Redemption by Rabbi Avraham Fischer deals with the impatience we often feel when things don't go quickly enough for us.
• Rabbi Avi Weiss, of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, uses the story to ask some important questions about our willingness to take a stand when necessary.

Jews and God, and VaYechi Redux

I just watched Julia Sweeney's one-woman show "Letting Go of God" on Showtime.  She is a very funny comedian who was raised Catholic and has become a proud atheist.  The monolog is funny and engaging, and if you are interested in seeing it you can either watch the first 15 minutes or so on YouTube or, which I recommend, the entire show on Showtime (if you have it).  The schedule is here  - just go to "more airings" for the times and dates.

The first time I was the show I missed the beginning, and just watched the last portion.  What struck me was her description of a conversation she had with someone after her father died, and when she had already decided she was sure there was no God.

Her friend said to her, not exactly in these words, but close:  "You know you're Jewish."

Sweeney was surprised, and asked what was meant by that comment.

The answer was that what she was doing - struggling to understand God - was a particularly Jewish thing.  Almost obligatory, if I remember the exchange properly.

And I loved that comment.  We do struggle to understand God.  And we have room in our Jewish community for many ways of understanding God.  And that, to me, is one of the most wonderful things about Judaism.

Jewish thinking is questioning - not simply memorizing and repeating.  We know that, and we need to help our learners - whatever their ages - to learn that.

On her blog, juliasweeney.blogspot.com, she wrote the following:

I am thinking about some of the questions that people have asked.  Some people worry about having meaning in a world without god in it.  I don't have the best answer for that yet (I am mulling on that one) but I remember once being at a convention with Daniel Dennett (such a hero of mine) and he said (Dennet is a philosopher and scientist at Tufts and has written several books, some of which really impacted me) and anyway, he was talking to someone else and he said, "People say to me, 'You're a philosopher, what is the meaning of life?' and I say, 'I don't know but I do know the secret to happiness.  Find some subject that you love and spend the rest of your life studying it from every angle you can.  That is the secret to happiness."

 My personal opinion is that God is precisely what helps me find meaning in the world.  I do, however, appreciate the statement about finding some subject that you love and studying it for your entire life.  That subject will be different for different people.
In fact, if we look back at Yaakov's blessing of his sons we can understand them as recognizing and celebrating the various talents of each one.  Jewish wisdom?  Howard Gardner Multiple Intelligences?  Learning Styles?  Myers Briggs?

It's a wonderful day when there is overlap between what I learn in the scientific world about thinking and what I learn in the world of Jewish thinking.

Parshat VaYechi

The end of the book of B'reisheet, this parasha is also the end of the stories of the avot and imahot - the founding generations who were the source of the Jewish people.  The book is called B'reisheet - In the beginning - because of the first word of the first parasha, and refers to the beginning of the world, to the creation.  I would like to suggest that it is also an appropriate title for the entire first book:  B'reisheet - In the beginning of the creation and development of the People of Israel.

A big section of this parasha is devoted to the blessings Yaakov/Yisrael gives to his sons.  There are many ways to understand these blessings.

Before reading any of the commentaries, I urge you to look at the text of the blessings and see if the text raises any questions for you.  B'reisheet Chapters 48 to the end of the book.
Here are a couple of thoughts to get you started:

• Why does it take a third party to let Yosef know his father is sick, and to let Yaakov know Yosef is coming?
• Why does Yosef bring his sons?  Why doesn't Yaakov (here referred to as Yisrael) recognize them?
• Why do you think Yisrael reverses his hands when he blesses Yosef's sons?  What does it remind you of?
• What do you expect Yisrael to say to all his sons?  Why?
• What surprises you about the blessings of the sons?
• Do you think Yisrael has changed during his lifetime?  Explain why you think so.
• Why do you think Yisrael wants to be buried in the Cave of Machpelah?  Why not with his favorite wife Rachel, who is buried in Bethlehem?
• Why do you think Yosef had his father embalmed?
• Why do you think the Egyptians mourned Yisrael?
• Why do you think Yosef's children and animals remained in Egypt, in Goshen, when Yosef and his brothers went to bury Yisrael?
• What do you think about the brothers telling Yosef what their father supposedly said to them before he died?  What does it tell you about them?  What does Yosef's answer tell you about Yosef?
• In what way does this parasha satisfy you (or not) as the end of the first section of Torah?

The following commentaries suggest a few interesting interpretations, but don't answer all the questions above.

• Yaakov 'opens his tent' to the diverse natures of his sons.  This commentary from Rabbi Kerry Olitzky builds on that thought
• Aish HaTorah describes in detail the blessings of each of Yaakov's sons.  Go especially to the sections which are entitled Blessing the Tribes and The Future Leader for some traditional insights into the blessings.
• Rabbi Elyse Winnick talks about the blessings at Hillel.com in an article entitled All in the Family.  I think she raises some thoughtful ideas about the tension between community and individual that are particularly relevant to our lives today.

Can you come up with your own interpretation of any part of the parasha?

Hazak, Hazak, VeNitchazek!

VaYigash II

Just some more thoughts on Yosef before Shabbat -
As I read the text describing Yosef I can't help but think of all the adolescent and post-adolescent Jewish kids who have separated themselves from the Jewish community.
Think about it.

• He lives in Egypt, among the Egyptians.
• He dresses like them, talks like them, marries the daughter of one of their priests, even names his firstborn son a name that means (according to at least some commentators) "the one who causes me to forget my background) and - according to this blog I was reading - isn't even a Hebrew name!
• He has so carefully hidden his identity as a member of the family of Yaakov that his brothers don't recognize him even after more than one meeting and extensive conversations with him.

Is this the person one would expect to fulfill the role of savior of the descendants of Avraham and Yitzhak?  I wouldn't think so.

So maybe one lesson here is not to write anyone off - not the one who quits religious school the day after his Bar Mitzvah, not the one who refuses to join Hillel in college because it's not important to her, not the one who chooses a mate of a different religion.

Because if we look at the Torah, the text which defines us as Jews, it seems even the least likely candidate may come to play a key role in our future.

And if there is a lesson for us - as Jewish educators - perhaps it is that we need to go out of our way to create powerful emotional moments that remain a part of all who share them, since we can never be sure which of these moments will be brought to the surface at a time we least expect it.

After all, if Yosef hadn't become who he became, if he hadn't provided sustenance for his family during the famine, if he hadn't been willing to forget the harm and remember the good associated with his relatives, the story might have been quite different.

VaYigash

Today's questions are based in large part on "Teaching Torah", by Sorel Goldberg Loeb and Barbara Binder Kadden, one of the must-have resources for anyone who teaches Torah to learners of any age.  Here are some of the issues raised in the chapter on VaYigash:

• We remember how the brothers felt about Yosef, caused, we agreed in our conversations, by his father Ya'akov's favoritism.  It seems from the text that Binyamin has taken Yosef's place as his father's favorite.  What evidence do we have about their feelings toward Binyamin?  
• Yehudah is to become a prime ancestor of the Jewish people - even his name and the name of his tribe are to be the name of the people in the future (Yehudah/Yehudim).  How has he grown into this role through the story until now?
• Teshuvah is a big part of understanding this parasha.  Which of the personalities has (or have) done teshuvah?  What is the evidence?
• Some stories are told multiple times in this parasha and in those preceding it.  Are they exactly the same each time they are told?  What are some of the reasons a story changes with retelling?  How do we define "history" if the story changes over time?
• The people of Yosef's family are to live separately in the area of Goshen, not totally integrated with the Egyptian population in the rest of the country.  Do you think this is an accident or is it part of a plan?  Explain why you think so.  How does living apart affect a group?  Why do some people choose to live mostly with people who share their identity (homogeneous community) while others prefer a more heterogeneous community?  
• Serach is a granddaughter of Yaakov.  I have a friend who recently added the name "Serach" to her own name.  I invite you to read about Serach and try to figure out why she may have done this.  Serach Bat Asher is a study guide from Hillel.org which, while intended primarily for use around Pesach, is a thorough examination of this character.  Serach is Model for Jewish Memory  is an essay by Rabbi Neil Gilman of the Jewish Theological Seminary.

I urge you to share your thoughts about these questions with other readers by posting a comment.  We learn best when we learn together.

Miketz

First, in case you missed it, the video of Senator Orrin Hatch's Hanukkah song.  You just can't make this stuff up!!

Hanukkah Song

And one of my personal all-time favorites as well:

Tom Lehrer's Hanukkah Song

On to the parasha:

Most all of the commentaries I came across talked about the relationship between parashat Miketz and the holiday of Hanukkah.  Since the parasha is always read on the Shabbat of Hanukkah, it is not surprising that this connection is a focus of attention.

• Rabbi Perry Netter speaks about Joseph's assimilation in this video clip.  It is easy to see the similarity between Joseph's assimilation into Egyptian culture and ours in the majority culture of our country.
• One of the themes of this parasha is Joseph's forgiveness of his brothers for what they have done.  Rabbi Joseph Telushkin offers an interesting discussion of forgiveness in this podcast which highlights Jewish thinking about forgiveness.  It also explains the difference between Jewish thinking on forgiveness and Christian thinking on the subject.  I believe it is important for our students to know that "Judeo-Christian Theology" is not an accurate title.  There are real differences on some issues.  This is one of them.
• Here's a cartoon that may make you smile.  Do you think it is appropriate for students?  Explain your thoughts.
• Please take a look at the G-dcast video which, as usual, presents the issues in this week's parasha in a way that our learners can relate to their own lives.  

I hope you are enjoying Hanukkah, and that these resources give you some new ideas and provoke some new insights.

Here are a few questions you might like to think about:

• At what point do you think Joseph sees the 'big picture?'
• What about his family?
• What is your opinion of the way Joseph acts in this parasha?
• Describe the evidence that Joseph is changing.
• How do you think your students view Joseph?
• Why do you think this story is so long and detailed, in contrast to the other stories in B'reisheet?

Hanukkah - Holiday of Lights and Ambiguity

I miss the Hanukkah I knew when I was young.
I miss the absolute truth I knew about the Maccabees and their fight for religious freedom.
I miss the unalloyed pleasure in lighting the hanukkiyah, singing the brachot and songs, and opening the presents each night.

Why do I miss these long-ago celebrations of Hanukkah?  Because my understanding of this holiday has been impacted by what I have read and learned since those days, and because it is more difficult to unpack complex ideas than to absorb simple ones.

Big Ideas:

• Hanukkah was about the preservation of Jewish practice according to the halacha as interpreted by a particular group of Jews of the time
• Violence can be justified if your enemy threatens your existence
• History is written by the winners
• Historical context and events have a powerful effect on the way we understand the world

Essential Questions:

• Who were the Maccabees?  What was their mission?
• What is a "just war"?
• How are we like both the Maccabees and the Hellenists in our lives today?
• How does the story of Hanukkah impact the various ways we understand our Jewishness today?
• How did such a minor holiday get to be so important to us?

Learning Activities:

• Read the article in My Jewish Learning about The Maccabee Revolt for a summary of the story of Hanukkah
• The Jewish Way of War is a brief summary of some of the rules governing war in Jewish tradition
• The following quotation from President Obama's speech in Oslo is here:

..."The concept of a "just war" emerged, suggesting that war is justified only when it meets certain preconditions: if it is waged as a last resort or in self-defense; if the forced used is proportional; and if, whenever possible, civilians are spared from violence...."  You may want to read Obama's entire speech here 

• Gary Rosenblatt has written a thought-provoking article about today's Maccabees
• Yosef Yerushalmi, a leading Jewish historian who died recently, suggested the following:

" ... Zakhor, still Yerushalmi’s best-known book, contrasts the study of history—in which the historian first marshals the facts, then interprets what they mean—with collective memory, in which the meaning of the story precedes and determines the events related. Yerushalmi argued that before the modern era, memory structured the stories Jews told about themselves. ..."

• David Brooks has written about The Hanukkah Story in today's NY Times

• The Eighth Day is an excellent trigger for a conversation about tradition and change in the context of the era of the Maccabees.  It is available from Ergo Media

• Finally, The Jewish Week has a special section it calls Text Context and the articles are a valuable aid to understanding what it means to be Jewish in America (and Israel) and how Hanukkah became what it is to us today.

Assessment:
Such a lot to read about what I already described as a minor holiday.  I can only suggest you read what you have time to read, and think about the issues the articles raise.  I am confident that you will look at Hanukkah differently, but please continue to enjoy the lights, the brachot, the songs and the presents.

VaYeshev, Part II

He was groomed for his role from early childhood, doted on by his father and prepared for the future in many ways.  He was good at what he did, and focused on what was ahead.  He even dreamed about it.

As an adult he achieved fame and wealth, as well as the attention of at least one woman (probably more) who - for whatever reason - was attracted to him.  Was it his position?  His looks?  His proficiency at his task?

How could one not talk about Tiger Woods in connection to this week's parasha!?!  I have heard the opinion that for a person in his position it is impossible to resist the temptations all around him.  Money, power, fame - all strong attractants, it seems, to groupies.  Is it even possible to keep track of all the famous men who have - just within the past year - been exposed as "players"?

How did Yosef resist the temptations that these men gave in to?  Did he understand that his role was too important to jeopardize with a personal scandal?

Is this why we call him Yosef HaTzadik - Yosef the Righteous?

I have it on good authority that sixth graders are quite familiar with the current saga of Tiger Woods, so I would not hesitate to use the story as a trigger for discussion of this week's parasha.

Does Tiger Woods need a lesson on Jewish values?
And by the way - what would be appropriate teshuva for these public figures?

VaYeshev

The stories of Yosef, well-known and often-retold in religious school classrooms, contain more detailed narration than any other of the stories of B'reisheet.  There is more description of peoples' feelings than anywhere else.

A few thoughts:

1. The brothers of Yosef seem to have little love or affection for their "baby" brother.  What is it about the family dynamics that leads to their actions?  Who do you hold responsible for the situation?  Whose responsibility do you think it was to improve the situation?  Explain your answer.
2. What do you think we are supposed to learn from the encounter Yosef has with the "man" when he is looking for his brothers?  What does the story tell us if the "man" is simply a man?  What if the "man" is actually God's messenger?  
3. Where do you think Reuven was when the brothers decided to sell Yosef to the Ishmaelites?  Whose idea was it to do this?
4. Does Reuven seem to know what has actually happened to Yosef?  Does your answer to this question affect how you feel about him?
5. Skipping over (for the moment) the story of Yehudah and Tamar, what are your thoughts about Yosef's behavior in the house of Potifar?
6. What kind of person do you understand Yosef to be from what we read in this week's parasha?  If you didn't know what comes next, what might you imagine at this point?
7. Back to Yehudah and Tamar - what is this story doing here?  How can you connect it to the story of Yosef?  To the bigger story of the development of the Jewish people?

Some interesting commentaries that may help you shape your thoughts:

• God Was In That Text
• G-dcast - take a look, click on and read the lyrics, and note how much is not in the original Torah text.  What do you think about adding this additional material?  Does it change the story?  Does it make it clearer?  Does it confuse the issues?  Explain your response.
• Divine and Human "Nudging"on the Path of One's Destiny is written by Jill Minkoff, a student at the Academy for Jewish Religion.  What is the tension between "destiny" and "free will" that she describes?  How can you know if your decisions are the decisions God would want you to make?  What is "bashert"?  

Social Networking before the Age of Twitter

What Facebook Can't Give You, a fascinating article that appeared in the November 25th issue of Wall Street Journal, describes a group of approximately 20 men, of whom 75% happen to be Jewish, who have been meeting together since 1957.

I recommend the article as a good read, but also for the following paragraph, which appears somewhere near the end.

'Daddy's Ideas'

'The men had hoped their sons would create an adjunct group that would one day assume the Wednesday 10 mantle but none took the initiative. "Daddy's ideas are not the ones children tend to take on," says Mr. Menschel.'

 Does that mean those ideas were not good?  Of course not.  I think it means that the founding generation cannot expect those that follow to necessarily value what they value.  Or, at the least, cannot expect the next generation to express even the values that are shared in the same ways.

As this is true for those 'movers and shakers' in the Wednesday 10, it is often true of our institutions.  It is the reason that to be successful going forward institutions have to be willing to re-invent themselves, to welcome the new ideas of those who come after the founders.

And this is particularly challenging in the context of a religious institution.  Because most religion is by its nature conservative, and Judaism is no exception, there is a need to preserve the values, practices and wisdom of  the past.

How we do that in a popular culture that often seems to look ahead, with little regard for the past, is one of the most difficult tasks we face.

Meaningful Assessment

How do we know if our learners have learned?  Sometimes we ask them outright:

Baby Blues Nov 29

By Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott

This cartoon appeared in Sunday's newspapers, and is not yet available online.  You may be able to find a site that shows it.  For those who cannot, there are 3 frames in which a teacher asks the class as a group whether they understand the work, whether they have any questions, and whether they know what to do for homework.  They all answer "YES" to the first question, "NO" to the second, and "Yes to the third.  The final panel shows that the student actually has no idea what she learned or what she is supposed to do for homework.

And sometimes we get meaningless answers!!

There are better ways to assess learning.

A good article - Why Every Student Needs Critical Friends, by Amy Reynolds, describes one way of involving the learner in assessment.

Understanding formative and summative assessment is the subject of this clearly written article in the December 2007 issue of Educational Leadership.  It urges the teacher to help the learner answer these three questions:

1. Where am I going?
2. Where am I now?
3. How can I close the gap?

A list of possible assessment tools is part of this extensive learning module from edutopia, a reliable source of good information for educators.

Developing valuable and meaningful assessment is one of the most challenging aspects of teaching and learning.  I urge you to find out more.  I also urge you to try different types of assessment in your classroom, knowing ahead of time that some will work better than others in helping your students answer the 3 important questions above.  And remember, if they can't answer question #1, they can't begin to answer the other 2 questions.

It won't be perfect when you start, but if you are serious about evaluating learning and helping your students do the same I am sure you will get better at it as you go along.

VaYishlach

As I typed the title to this post I thought about the column in yesterday's NY Times Magazine about Camel Case, a term I had never heard before but which describes the practice of capitalizing letters within a word (as in the hump of a camel!).  Just a note - when I do this, it is to emphasize the use in Hebrew of attached prefixes and suffixes.  Not really important, except I hope it helps the reader differentiate the prefix or suffix from the word.

And now to the parasha:
There are several stories in this week's parasha.  Yaakov is told by God to return to Canaan.  Knowing his brother is there, and more than a little nervous about meeting him after all these years, he devises a plan to send messengers ahead.  The rest of the summary is here at My Jewish Learning, with some questions you can think about .  As we have seen each week, there are some aspects of this story that are troubling to the 21st century reader.

[By the way, I recently read in a sixth grade textbook that all this took place in "Palestine", with no mention of the land of Canaan.  Strange, since the country was not named "Palestine" until the Roman conquest.  One wonders who is writing (or editing) social studies textbooks.]

G-dcast.com is a site that offers a short (usually about 4 minutes long) cartoon video about each parasha of the Torah.
In its video of Vayishlach the creator of this week's commentary suggests that the "man" with whom Yaakov wrestled was neither an angel nor himself.  Watch the episode by clicking on the link and consider whether or not you agree with the conclusion.

The rape of Yaakov's daughter Dinah is another of the incidents described in detail in this parasha.  Many of you have read The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant.  This novel based on the incident described here has been widely discussed, particularly in women's groups - the audience to whom the book seems to be addressed.

• Do you think it is appropriate to rewrite stories from the Torah today?
• Why might one want to do this?
• Why do women today often react negatively to stories in the Torah?
• In what way might this story sound different to girls [and women] than to boys [and men]?  How might your teaching acknowledge this?

I look forward to your thoughts and comments.