Aharei Mot and Kedoshim

Big Ideas:

• Parts of the Torah are universal, while others are particular to the Jewish people
• Not all the Torah can be understood logically and rationally

Essential Questions:

• Who gets to decide which portions of Torah to pay attention to and which to ignore?
• Why do you think Leviticus 19 is called the "holiness code"?
• Which statement or passage in these two parashot is the most comfortable for you?  Why?
• Which statement or passage in these two parashot is the most uncomfortable for you?  Why?
• If you are teaching parshat hashavua there is a whole lot to choose from this week.  What would you choose and why?

Many of you know that I read the comics in both the daily and Sunday newspapers.  I do that for two reasons - first, I like to laugh (and I read that laughing is good for your health, both physical and mental.  Don't ask me where I read that - I can't remember!) and second, because I hope to find a connection to Jewish  values and ideas.  I usually get at least one laugh, and often find a useful strip to illustrate a point or trigger a discussion.
A third reason I read the comics is to find a relationship to the week's parasha.  Sometimes I'm lucky, sometimes not.  But this week was particularly interesting.  I read all the comics in Sunday's newspaper, and in almost all of them saw a connection to either Aharei Mot or Kedoshim, this week's double parasha.
Why were there so many obvious connections (at least obvious to me)?
I suspect it wasn't so much the comics that were relevant - it was rather the contents of the parashot.  After so many weeks of descriptions of sacrifices, sacrifices and more sacrifices, seemingly archaic and useless in our lives today, we come to a section of Vayikra (Leviticus) that speaks to all of us in a powerful way.
Aharei Mot contains a detailed description of Yom HaKippurim as it was observed in the time of the Temple in Jerusalem.  It expands on the laws of forbidden foods, and articulates forbidden sexual relationships.  All the rules set forth are to be followed because God commands them, and because they will differentiate the people of Israel from their contemporaries in the world around them.  It's all very particular to the Jewish people.
Kedoshim is a different story - most of the rules here are rules that seem to lead to the kind of society anyone would want to live in, a society that takes care of the less fortunate, that treats others fairly, that doesn't take advantage of the weak or disabled.  Of course there are a few rules that separate Jews from other people - not mixing wool and linen in clothing seems a particularly confusing law - one many modern Jews choose to ignore probably because it seems so unimportant in the scheme of things.

Some interesting commentaries here:

• The Law of the Farm explains why complicated problems cannot have simply solutions.
• Threat and Promise of Conformity challenges us to differentiate between the positive and negative aspects of assimilation
• Constructive Criticism builds a case for how we are to express disapproval in a way that is helpful rather than hurtful.  Those classical sources certainly understood the way people think.

Reflection:

• Which of the ideas in this week's parashot do you relate to in your own life?

Tazria/Metzora

Another double portion - since this is not a Jewish calendar leap year, and this is one of those that could really present a challenge if you want to design centerpieces for a Bar or Bat Mitzvah!

Big Ideas:

• Physical appearances can affect the way we relate to people
• People need to find reasons for things they cannot easily explain
• Science is one way to understand the world around us.  Religious thought is another

Learning Activities:

According to Maimonides, there is a non-medical cause for tzara'at - which is usually translated as "leprosy" in English, but which is almost definitely not the same as Hansen's Disease, the modern term used in medicine for this disease.  This commentary from Bar Ilan University tell what Maimonides believed was the cause of tzara'at

 ( Hilkhot Tum’at Tzara’at 16.10):

Tzara’at is a noun used collectively for many different things which do not resemble one another; whiteness in human skin is called tzara’at , and loss of patches of hair from the head or beard is called tzara’at, and a change in look of one’s clothing or houses is called tzara’at.   The change that is discussed in clothing or houses, which the Torah calls by the same word tzara’at, is not something which occurs in the normal way of the world, rather it is a wondrous sign that occurred in Israel to warn them against lashon ha-ra (slanderous gossip), for the walls in the home of someone who spoke lashon ha- ra would become affected, but if he mended his ways the house would become pure... 

• What does Maimonides suggest is the cause of tzara'at?
• What, according to Maimonides, is the cure, at least for a house?

The text of the Torah is quite clear - whoever shows sign of this disease is to be separated from the rest of the community.

• Knowing what we know now about the medical cause of leprosy (and how to cure it), what is the  point of reading this parasha?
• In today's world, do we believe there is a physical sign that can identify those who gossip?  How can we identify the source of malicious rumors today?
• How do you think the internet affects verbal bullying?
• What - if anything - is the difference between gossip and bullying?
• Traditional Jewish thinking forbids gossip of all sorts, whether it is positive or negative, as in this article from Aish HaTorah
• Some researchers (Science Now) have found that "...Gossip enforces group norms and strengthens social bonds."
• Why is it so hard NOT to gossip?

Assessment:

Here's a visual representation of the elements of the parashot.  Can you match the pictures to the text?

• What do you think are the most important elements of the parashot?
• How would you illustrate these parashot?

Haiti and Tzedakah

No one can be unmoved by the tragic outcomes of the recent earthquake in Haiti.  There is no questioning the hardships that exist and continue to affect the inhabitants of this country.  During the past few weeks millions of dollars have been collected from people all over the world who feel they want to help fellow human beings who are in trouble.

What guidance can we derive from Jewish wisdom?

Big Ideas:

• Tzedakah is an obligation.
• There is Jewish thinking that can help us decide when to give, to whom to give, what to give, how to give.

Essential Questions:

• When should I give?
• To whom should I give?
• How much should I give?
• What is my obligation to determine if the money I am giving is being put to good use?

Learning Activities:  Choose as many as you feel you have time for.  Or, divide your learners into groups and let each group select the aspect it wants to investigate, sharing results with the rest of the class.  Be sure to include at least one site describing Jewish wisdom about tzedakah and either scambusters.com or CharityNavigator.org.

• A traditional and detailed explanation of Jewish thinking about tzedakah is at this link, Just Tzedakah.  The site appears not to be maintained currently, and the links may not be active, but the information is well-cited and clear
• My Jewish Learning has a brief presentation of the rules governing tzedakah, and includes the question of how to determine if a claim is honest
• Maimonides described 8 degrees of tzedakah, which you can read about here
• Read the information at www.scambusters.com/ and http://www.charitynavigator.org/, two websites that evaluate the authenticity of groups collecting money for various causes, including disaster relief in Haiti
• A Conservative perspective on tzedakah is given in this post
• URJ has responded to the earthquake in Haiti in the following ways: Earthquake in Haiti
• USCJ has the following opportunity to give to Haiti:  Disaster Relief Fund - Give to Haiti
• The Orthodox Union has a Facebook page you can access concerning Haiti relief
• JRF has a page with links to a number of different reliable organizations which are accepting donations and aiding Haiti

Assessment:

• Learners will make informed decisions about donating to disaster relief in Haiti
• Learners will be able to explain how Jewish wisdom and thought guides decisions they make in their lives
• Learners will use what they have learned in regard to Haiti to guide their tzedakah in other areas.

Note:  There are legitimate differences among Jewish authorities as to one's responsibility for determining if someone who asks is honestly needy.  Some say you give first to whomever asks, and investigate later.  According to Rabbi Benjamin Yudin of Congregation Shomrei Torah, in Fairlawn, NJ, one gives first to whomever asks, since God is "rav hessed v'emet:, and the hessed of giving preceeds the emet of investigation (I heard this from a valued colleague, Emily Amie Witty, who shared the thoughts of her Rabbi with me as I was preparing this post).  Others say that one has the responsibility to be sure the tzedakah is going to a reliable cause.  In order to do this one should investigate the legitimacy of the recipient individual or group before giving. 
You may want to have this discussion with your students, and perhaps invite a member of the clergy in your school to participate in the conversation.
Part of our job as Jewish educators is to empower our students of all ages to make responsible decisions guided by Jewish thinking, and responding to the tragedy in Haiti can help us do just that.

Yitro

Big Ideas:

• A person's position often affects the way in which that person is perceived.
• The way in which one understands the events at Sinai is fundamental to one's religious beliefs.
• Mainstream Jewish thinkers understand Sinai differently.

Some Questions:

• In chapter 18, almost every verse has a reference to Yitro.  In each case Yitro is identified as "Hoten Moshe", Moshe's father-in-law.  Do you have any thoughts about why this label is repeated over and over?  Wouldn't it be enough to identify him by name after the first time?
• How do you understand the event that occurred at Sinai?  What Jewish thinker shares your understanding?
• How does your understanding of Sinai affect the way you are Jewish? 

Learning Activities:

• Read chapter 18 carefully.  How many times is Yitro referred to as "hoten Moshe"?  How do you understand this?
• Find information that describes these Jewish thinkers' beliefs about revelation.
• Joseph Soloveitchik
• Abraham Joshua Heschel
• Eugene Borowitz
• Mordecai Kaplan

Assessment:

• Choose one of the people you learned about and prepare a presentation for the rest of the group explaining why this understanding of revelation is meaningful for you.
• Create a chart that compares and contrasts the various ways in which Jews understand the events at Sinai
• Find evidence in the popular culture of the world around you that a person's position affects the way in which he or she is heard and understood.  Who do we listen to?  Who do we ignore?  

Avatar and Jewish Education??

You can enter the words "Avatar" and "Jewish" in a search engine and find numerous discussions of the content of the movie and its Jewish underpinnings (or not!).  It is of no concern to me whether James Camaron had Jewish thoughts in his head when he created the movie or not.  It simply is not an issue for me as a Jewish educator.  What does matter is how the viewer understands the movie.  Our learners are going to see this movie.  Is Jewish thought a factor in how they  understand it?  That's my issue.


Big Idea:

• Everyone sees and understands the world through his or her own perspective.
• Most of our students have already or will soon see the movie Avatar.
• As teachers we have an obligation to be familiar with the culture within which our students live.
• As Jews we have a Jewish lens with which to understand the world.

Questions to guide your thinking:

• What did you see in the movie that appeared to you to reflect Jewish thought or wisdom?
• What did you see in the movie that seems to contradict Jewish thought or wisdom?

Learning Activities:

• The Talmud says the following:  "We do not see things as they are.  We see them as we are."  How does this statement relate to your ideas about Avatar? (Note:  I've seen this quotation many times (even here!), but don't have a proper source.  Perhaps a reader can help me.)
• There is a website, Jewish Wisdom Quotes, that lists dozens of sayings with Jewish origins that you are welcome to visit.  Choose a topic that interests you from their list of possibilities, and explain how it applies in your life.

Assessment:

• You may want to encourage your students to choose a wisdom quote each week and find examples in the news of its application in the world
• When this idea of using a Jewish lens to see the world is learned, you can challenge your learners to apply Jewish wisdom to any and all issues that arise in class.
• A personal note:  I love reading comics.  Most days I can find a comic strip that either reflects or contradicts Jewish thinking.  Suggest this to your students.

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.

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?

Hayei Sara

We have been reading the parashot this year through the lens of language - the power of words.

Big Idea #1:

• Stories can change depending on the storyteller and the audience. That there are different versions does not necessarily mean one is true and others are not.

In Nechama Leibowitz' discussion of this parasha she compares the words Avraham uses in talking to his servant with the words the servant (Eliezer) uses in describing the task to the family of Rivka. You can read the commentary here. What are the similarities? What are the differences? What do you think explains why certain words or phrases are different in the two versions?

Essential Questions:

1. Have you ever told a story more than once?
2. Does it always sound the same?
3. What might be the reasons the story changes from one occasion to another?
4. Is there a person in your family who is the "custodian" of family stories? Who gets to say, "That's not how it happened!"
5. How does your position in the family affect your "ownership" of the family stories? How are family stories preserved?

Big Idea #2

• People differ in the way they respond to life experiences.

Essential Questions:

1. What are some of the experiences Sarah had in her life?
2. Do you know people who have had the same concrete experiences, either good or bad, but whose response to those experiences is different? How can you explain this?
3. How can the way one responds to an event affect what comes afterward?
4. What are some lessons in Torah, in Jewish wisdom and thought, which can help us respond appropriately to life events?

Big Idea #3

• Not all important ideas or events are broadcast loudly and clearly. Sometimes they are not so obvious at first glance

Essential Questions:

1. According to the Torah, who buried Avraham?
2. What, if anything, surprised you about this?
3. Do you believe this incident symbolizes a reconciliation between the brothers? Explain your opinion.
4. What are some occasions in family life that might lead to separation? to reconciliation? What are some ideas we can use to encourage shlom bayit, peaceful relationships within a family?

Jewish Music in Popular Cultural Settings

Matisyahu - Jewish/rap/reggae performer - has written and performed the soundtrack for a commercial about the Vancouver Winter Olympics you can see here.

His original song is here.

Great opportunity for compare and contrast:

What is the big idea of the lyrics as used in the commercial? Why do you think the creators of the commercial chose this song? This segment of the song?

What do you think is the big idea of the lyrics in the complete song?

Does the segment reflect the entire song? Explain your answer.

Jewish Thinking - Ahead of the Curve

Most of us are familiar with the yetzer hatov and the yetzer hara in Jewish thought. Most simply, these are translated as the 'good inclination' and the 'evil inclination'. And yet they are considerably more complex than that. It is said that without the 'yetzer hara' - the 'evil inclination' - no one would have the ambition to do anything productive. You can read more about this idea at My Jewish Learning.

Recently, scientists have been studying dopamine, a molecule in the brain that brings pleasure. The New York Times Science Section wrote about it on October 27.

And as I read the article, all I could think about was how like the 'yetzer hara' this dopamine seems to be!

I don't know about you - but for me it's another example of the modern implications of Jewish wisdom.

Isn't it great when science gives us an opening to mention traditional Jewish thinking?

Thoughts on the New Year

David Brooks writes in the NY Times today about a perceived change in culture in the United States in the years since the end of World War II. His article, High Five Nation describes a cultural shift from a default position of humility to one of self-congratulation and pride. He even quotes Bing Crosby at the end of the war,

• “All anybody can do is thank God it’s over,” Bing Crosby ... said. “Today our deep down feeling is one of humility,” he added.

Brooks goes on to quote an article written by correspondent Ernie Pyle:

• “We won this war because our men are brave and because of many things — because of Russia, England and China and the passage of time and the gift of nature’s material. We did not win it because destiny created us better than all other peoples. I hope that in victory we are more grateful than we are proud.”

(by the way, I'm not sure his evaluation is totally fair - a friend today commented that the celebrations in Times Square of the Allied victory were hardly understated - and yet..) There is an element of his argument that rings true to me as a Jewish educator.

At this time of year, as we approach Rosh HaShanah, much of the liturgy we participate in and that we are preparing our students to participate in revolves around our belief that ultimately it is God who is responsible and to whom we are responsible, not only ourselves.

When we survive a life-threatening incident we thank God for sparing us.

When we hear of a death the traditional response is "Baruch Dayan Emet", 'Blessed is the Righteous Judge', which again confirms our belief that life and death are in God's hands.

It is God who decides who lives and who dies.

There is, I think, an essential humility in this belief that David Brooks would admire.

In the year coming, I wish you all a productive and fulfilling partnership with God in achieving all you wish for.

More on Revenge after the Shoah

Last night I saw a preview of a new play by Daniel Goldfarb - "The Retributionists". The story is loosely based on history - you can read the background at this article in the Jewish Week.

Truth behind the story of "The Retributionists".

(excerpt below from 8/25/09 Jewish Week)

"Cohen’s book “The Avengers: A Jewish War Story” tells a revenge tale more fully, while also noting the consequences: Jewish acts of vengeance made Zionists uneasy since they knew it would hurt the cause of statehood. He focuses on partisans Abba Kovner, Ruzka Korczak and Vitna Kempner as they escape from the Vilna ghetto and form a paramilitary group that fought alongside the Lithuanian and Russian armies. After the war, several wanted to take justice into their own hands and formed a Nazi-hunting group called Nokmim, Hebrew for “the avengers.”

The group planned to poison the water supply of several German towns, but was thwarted by someone suspected of being a Zionist informant. Kovner was arrested by the British military before the plan went through, but the group’s backup plan eventually succeeded: a partisan disguised as a baker snuck into a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp where he rubbed arsenic on 3,000 loaves of bread. He then fled, anxiously awaiting the result. It remains unknown how many died, but The Associated Press reported days later, on April 26, 1946, that “nineteen hundred German prisoners of war were poisoned by arsenic in their bread early this week in a United States camp and all are ‘seriously ill.’”

You may want to examine this incident in more detail with your high school students.

One can also see this play through the lens of today's world - a world in which some people wish to right what they understand as historical wrongs through revenge against those they hold responsible, others seek to look ahead to plan positively for the future.

Big Idea:

• After the Shoah ended, those who survived had differing responses to the tragedy.
• The world continues to be a place in which some groups suffer at the hands of others.
• We face a challenge in deciding on appropriate responses to wrongdoing.

Essential Questions:

• What does Jewish wisdom tell us about response to evil?
• What does Jewish wisdom teach us about punishment of wrongdoers?
• What can we do about injustice in the world today that is aligned to Jewish thought?

Activities for Learning:

• Read about Jewish social action here
• Mazon, a group dedicated to fighting hunger in the world, has the following list of text sources on its website. Incidentally, the website also has quotations from every parashah along with suggestions for social action projects associated with each.
• www.islamtoday.com is a site you may or may not want to visit. It includes an article about a joint Jewish/Moslem effort to fight anti-semitism and Islamophobia.
• There was a symposium in 2005 entitled "Freeing the Captives; The Jewish Response to Human Trafficking. After reading the brochure, you or your students may want to contact one or more of the presenters for more information about this massive problem.
• There are many Jewish organizations devoted to fighting injustice. Teams of students may research some of them: American Jewish World Service, Jewish Funds for Justice, The Jewish Service Corps, Hazon, Tzedek, Mechon Hadar, Uri L'Tzedek.
• On1Foot is "an open-source online database of Jewish texts on social justice." It is a wonderful resource for planning learning.
• Create with your students a plan for activities in pursuit of social justice in your community. Research needs, available services, population, etc. and decide how your efforts can be most productive. Be sure to include study of texts in planning and executing your activities.

Jewish Thoughts on Revenge

You may or may not want to see the movie "Inglourious Basterds" - I am personally not a fan of Quentin Tarantino's work, as I find the extreme violence is not to my personal taste - but I think we can not ignore the conversation that the film has motivated. You may be interested in reading the following article in the Wall Street Journal about reaction to Tarantino's newly released film.

First of all, the story told in this film is not history. That much is acknowledged by the creators and producers and emphasized in every story and review I have read.

Second: it is - as are all Tarantino's movies - filled with as much gratuitous violence as it is possible to include in a movie.

Third: when shown in preview to a group at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City it was greeted with vastly different reactions from the audience - some cheered, some walked out.

Your high school students may very well have seen this film before school begins for the year - it opened BIG its first weekend. If you choose to ignore it you will miss an opportunity to use it as a trigger to discuss some important Jewish values:

• What does Jewish wisdom say about revenge?
• What does Jewish wisdom say about guilt? about forgiveness? about compassion? about contrition? about reward and punishment?

Big Ideas:

• There is evil in the world.
• People are responsible for evil they do.
• Judaism has some clear guidelines governing reward and punishment.
• Judaism includes the concept of teshuvah - translated either as repentence or returning.
• Elul is traditionally a time of the year when Jews work at teshuvah

Essential Questions:

• What is the Jewish understanding of teshuvah?
• Is there a Jewish response to evil?
• What are some Jewish ideas on reward and punishment?
• What does Judaism say about taking revenge?

Some Resources for finding the answers to the essential questions:

• OU.org on teshuvah in Elul
• Rabbi Louis Jacobs on Reward andPunishment
• The Uniqueness of the Holocaust by Dr. Eliezer Schweid
• Some Ghetto Thoughts on Rescue and Revenge, 1942

Assessments:

• Your students will see how Jewish thinking is and is not supported by popular culture.
• Students will be able to support their opinion, with reference to sources, that teshuvah is or is not possible for those who perpetrated the Shoah
• Elul will become a time during which students will purposefully work at teshuvah in their own lives
• Students will begin to use "Jewish language" in describing the world around them.

Further Thoughts:

Your students will probably return to class having heard at least some minimal discussion about the release of the person who was convicted in Scotland of responsibility in the Lockerbie disaster. Why not take the opportunity to discuss this in the context of the information they have read concerning "Inglourious Basterds" about reward and punishment, compassion, revenge, etc.

If you are addressing any of these issues in your Jewish classroom, please share your thoughts with the rest of the readers by commenting on this post. We have much to learn from each other.

Thoughts on Teaching Big Ideas in Torah

Don Hewitt, the creator of 60 Minutes, just died.

He is quoted in an article in the LA Times as follows:

My idea was that television reality ought to be packaged as entertainingly as television entertainment," Hewitt said. "I believe that it all comes down to that ancient phrase: 'Tell me a story.' I think people are interested in stories, not issues, even though the stories may be about people coping with issues. In the Bible, the issue was evil, but the story was Noah."

What a wonderful trigger for thinking about teaching and learning Torah.

During the month of Elul we are close to the end of the Torah cycle, which means, naturally, that we are also close to the beginning. So perhaps in thinking about how we will learn Torah this year with our students we can remember to keep in mind that while the story is the "hook," the Big Ideas are the "issues".

Planning a lesson ought to begin, therefore, at the end:

I. Big Ideas/Enduring Understandings/What do I want my students to remember after they have forgotten everything else?

II. Essential Questions/What are the questions they need to challenge themselves to answer in order to reach these understandings?

III. Activities/What are the learning activities our students can participate in/create/view/organize to help them answer these essential questions? What are the resources to which I can direct them so they can be active participants in their learning?

IV. Assessment/How will I as the teacher be able to know if my students have learned the big ideas?

This lesson planning strategy is known as Understanding by Design, or, more informally, as Backward Design, and was popularized by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. No matter what you are teaching, it suggests that you must start with the important outcomes you hope to reach. This is a different from a model that states goals and objectives as discreet bits of content knowledge. It is about learning things that are IMPORTANT.

If you want to learn more about this strategy, you can type the words "Understanding by Design" into any search engine and read about it on the web. While most of the articles refer to meeting state learning standards and other issues in general education, the ideas for planning learning are equally relevant in Jewish studies.

I would suggest that if our students are learning Torah without the sense that what they are learning is FUNDAMENTALLY IMPORTANT, then what they may know temporarily will soon be forgotten.

What does it mean to be Jewish?

Daniel Goldfarb, a playwright, has written a play called The Retributionists. It is a story based on a historical event - a plan by a group of Jews in 1946 to take revenge on the perpetrators of the Holocaust.

You can read more about the play here at the Playwrights Horizons site.

Goldfarb has written other plays, all examining the question of what it means to be Jewish in the world today.

An interesting article about both the play and the playwright appeared in the NY Times this past Sunday. You can access it through the link here - At Ease In His Own Pigeonhole

The last paragraph of the article reads as follows:

"He said his goal is not to provide answers so much as raise questions. When pressed to take sides [about the characters in and subjects of his plays] he demurs: 'I am a big proponent of: Write what you're confused about. Being Jewish provides endless confusion.... If you are in the process of trying to figure out what it means that you're Jewish, then you're Jewish.'"

What a wonderful quotation to bring to our students in high school and perhaps middle school.

How to do this? Please share your suggestions here so we can all learn from each other.

Jewish Thoughts on War and Peace

It happens that this week's parasha, Parshat Shofetim, includes some guidelines for behaviors in war. The Israelites are given certain limits, including the requirement to invite a peaceful surrender before initiating battle, and restrictions on destruction of both people and, interestingly enough, of trees. You can read the text in Deuteronomy Chapter 20 at this link: Mechon-Mamre.

I found this particularly interesting in view of a speech President Obama gave recently, in which he referred to the war in Afghanistan as a necessary war. His words:

"This is not a war of choice. This is a war of necessity," Obama told the annual Veterans of Foreign Wars conference -- cautioning that the insurgency would not be defeated overnight. "Those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so again. If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which Al Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans." (from the LA Times, reporting on a speech given Monday, August 17, 2009)

This speech can serve as a trigger for discussion of what those words - "war of necessity" - mean in the context of Jewish thinking.

Big Idea:

Jewish wisdom can be a way of understanding the world around us

Essential Questions:

1. Why does President Obama consider the war in Afghanistan a war of necessity?
2. In what way would Jewish wisdom support or not support his description?

Learning Activities:

1. Read Obama's speech. It is quite long, so you may want to divide it into sections for your students to read. Discuss what he said, focusing on his reasons for considering the war in Afghanistan a necessary war.
2. Read the articles at these links below.

• Maimonides on War
• War 101 in Jewish Thought

Compare and contrast Obama's thoughts on necessary war with those of the Jewish thinkers in the articles you read. Your students may choose to create a chart, have a debate, or express their understanding in another way. The important outcome is that they understand that they can apply Jewish thinking to the world in which they live.