What Should a Yeshiva High School Graduate Know, Value and Be Able to Do?

What Should a Yeshiva High School

Graduate Know, Value and be Able to

Do?

Moshe Sokolow

Biography:

Moshe Sokolow is Fanya Gottfeld-Heller Professor of Jewish Education at the Azrieli School of Jewish Education and the editor

of Ten-Daat-A Journal of Jewish Education.

Respondents:

Jack Bieler

Yaakov Blau

Erica Brown

Discourse Orthodox Modern of Forum A Aaron Frank M e o r o t Mark Gottlieb

A Publication of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School

What Should a Yeshiva High School Graduate Know, Value and be Able to Do?

Moshe Sokolow

The content objectives in limmudei qodesh that follow are intended to prompt (or even provoke) discussion among yeshiva high school educators who are seeking to maximize their curricular and instructional efforts. Without a fixed external reference point, it is difficult to navigate even familiar terrain; without an objective standard, it is difficult to assess progress and accomplishment. These guidelines are homegrown and homespun; they represent my individual opinions predicated upon extensive observation, intensive analysis, and a modicum of discussion amongst colleagues and students at the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration of Yeshiva University.

It is my hope that these guidelines will be used to measure the effectiveness of current curricula in the subject matter areas that comprise the traditional limmudei qodesh curriculum. I am committed to all of the objectives I have delineated, but not obsessively so; I invite your responses and suggestions. From a spirited debate over what a yeshiva high school graduate should know, do and be, we can extrapolate together the guidelines we need to insure that our students meet both our most stringent requirements as well as our highest expectations.

I. NON-SUBJECT SPECIFIC AREAS Students will develop a positive attitude towards: o Locate classical texts by means o Torah study as a lifelong of either a concordance or commitment computerized data base o Mitsvah observance as a way of o Parse a sentence identifying the life conjugations of verbs and the o Religious authority as a guide to declension of nouns both Orthodoxy and o Anticipate exegetical questions orthopraxis and answers o Jewish communal service o Validate those questions and (including education) as a answers through reference to means of fulfilling our national appropriate commentaries destiny as well as realizing one’s o Qualify those interpretations personal ambitions through a display of critical thinking, ranging from Students will demonstrate the ability to: problem-solving, through o Read TaNaKH and Siddur with inferential and divergent proper vocalization and thinking, to evaluation and punctuation creativity

Meorot 7:2 Tishrei 5770 Sokolow & Respendents 2 II. TANAKH o Students will be able to list the names of Mishpatim, and the details of the mishkan the 24 canonical books of TaNaKH in and its furnishings. Students will also their customary order, and indicate the show familiarity with the texts of 10-15 names of their authors/redactors o selected exegetical comments on Shemot according to hazel. Students will demonstrate competence o Students will be acquainted with the in parshanut hilkhatit by correctly principal claims of biblical criticism associating contemporary ritual and regarding the authorship of the Torah, ethical laws with their scriptural roots and their refutation. (e.g., Shabbat) o Students will be able to assign the o Vayiqra: Students will also show principal medieval and early-modern familiarity with the texts of 10-15 parshanim to their proper historical and selected exegetical comments on geographical milieus and correctly Vayiqra. Students’ understanding of characterize their approaches as peshat, qorbanot will be measured by their ability derash, philosophical, or moralistic. to differentiate among related major o Students will demonstrate familiarity categories such as: olah, hatat, asham, and competence with a biblical shelamim; meanhot and nesakhim. Students concordance, lexicon and computerized will be asked to derive contemporary data base. consequences and morals from parashat Qedoshim. o Be-midbar: Students will show A. Humash familiarity with events that transpired o Bereishit: Familiarity with full range of during the sojourn in the wilderness, in narratives of creation, flood, dispersion, general, and the ability to distinguish and events in the lives of the avot, as between events of year 1 and year 40, in demonstrated by ability to score 80% particular, as demonstrated by ability to on a combination short-answer, score 80% on a combination short- multiple-choice test of 30 questions. answer, multiple-choice test of 30 Students will also show familiarity with questions. Students will be asked to the texts of 10-15 selected exegetical derive contemporary consequences and comments on Bereishit. Students will morals from the stories of Qorah and demonstrate competence in parshanut by Bil`am, and to distinguish the major correctly identifying the authors or structures of holiday qorbanot (e.g., styles of previously unseen comments. Sukkot). Several of those comments should o Devarim: Students will show familiarity comprise differences of opinion, which with the singular--first-person, the students will also be asked to recapitulative--nature of Devarim by resolve (e.g., Rashi v. Ibn Ezra v. comparing and contrasting a number of Ramban on Nimrod; Rashi vs. Tosafot narrative reports between Devarim and on Rivkah’s age at marriage) earlier books (e.g., meragelim), as well as o Shemot: Familiarity with full range of the restatement of halakhot in Devarim narratives of the oppression, slavery, (e.g., the “second” luhot). Students will redemption and exodus, as display particular appreciation for demonstrated by ability to score 80% biblical poetry by identifying instances on a short-answer, multiple-choice test of synonymous parallelism and word- of 20 questions; the peshat of Yitro, pairs in Ha’azinu and Ve-zot ha-berakhah.

Meorot 7:2 Tishrei 5770 Sokolow & Respendents 3 B. Nevi’im Eikhah; discuss the question of literality vs. allegory in re: Shir ha-shirim; and o Students will show familiarity with the describe how the historiographical “story line” of Nevi’im Rishonim (NR) perspective of Divrei ha-yamim differs from Yehoshua through the destruction from that of Melakhim. of the first Temple, by scoring 80% on

a short-answer/multiple-choice III. TORAH SHE-BEÀL PEH (Mishnah, examination of 50 questions. Students Talmud, Halakhah, Laws and Customs) will be acquainted with the concept of “apostolic” prophecy (shlihut) and A. General illustrate it by means of a “compare & o Students will list, in order, the six contrast” question focusing on the sedarim of Mishnah, and provide a brief respective prophetic careers of Moshe, précis of each. Shemuel, Eliyahu and Yirmiyahu. o Students will be able to list two-three Students will also demonstrate masekhtot in each of Seder Mo’ed, Seder appreciation for the lessons we learn Nashim and Seder Neziqin. from the lives of characters in NR by o Students will demonstrate familiarity discussing the triumphs and failings of with the traditional “tsurat ha-daf as well King David. as the “geography” of the “back of the o Students will be able to assign the book.” Students will be able to assign Nevi’im Aharonim (NA) to their proper the principal medieval and early-modern historical eras according to either mefarshim to their proper historical and information provided by the text, geographical milieus. indications provided by the content, or o Students will list and briefly describe the the opinions of hazal and parshanut. constituent books of the Mishneh Torah. They will display familiarity with the o Students will list the four divisions of major approaches to classical prophecy, the Shulhan Arukh, and list several topic i.e., Rambam and Yehudah Halevi. They areas of each division. will demonstrate their appreciation for o Students will be familiar with several the concern the NA took with matters contemporary halakhic works and of both ritual and ethics by citing demonstrate the ability to “navigate” examples of each from at least three them successfully. different books. They will show their o Students will appreciate the roots of understanding and appreciation for the torah she-beàl peh in torah she-bi-khetav and prophetic visions of aharit ha-yamim. the differences in priority and practice that are traditionally assigned to de-oraita C. Ketuvim: and de-rabbanan. o Students will understand the differences o Students will demonstrate an overall among halakhah, minhag, hiddur and recognition of the major characteristics humrah and be able to cite several such of Ketuvim Gedolim by correctly distinctions as they apply to ritual identifying—on the basis of content or practice. distinctive idiom—the sources of 30 o Students will understand the concept of quotations from Tehillim, Mishlei and mitsvot aseih she-ha-zeman geraman and Iyyov. Students will be able to discuss the illustrate it authorship of Tehillim, the distinctive o Students will understand the concepts character of Biblical wisdom literature, of le-khatehilah and be-diàvad and and the question of theodicy. illustrate them o Students will know the “story line” of o Students will understand the concept of Ruth, Esther, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah; lifnim mi-shurat ha-din and illustrate it recognize the contents of Kohelet and

Meorot 7:2 Tishrei 5770 Sokolow & Respendents 4 B. Specific Subject-Matter their different origins and historical o Laws and customs relating to general experiences account for their different daily Jewish life and private prayer. complexions and attitudes. o Laws and customs relating to public o Students will appreciate the centrality of prayer and the synagogue, including the Land of Israel throughout Jewish nusah ha-tefillah for weekdays, Shabbat, history and illustrate it by reference to holy days and high holy days. specific events in each of the four main  The synagogue, the beit periods of history. midrash, their special o Students will appreciate the role of objects and physical halakhah as a unifying force throughout arrangement; proper Jewish history and illustrate it by behavior within them reference to specific events in each of  Women and public the four main periods. prayer o The structure and functioning of the V HEBREW LANGUAGE/LITERATURE Jewish calendar o Laws and customs relating to dietary o Students will show an appreciation laws (kashrut) for leshon ha-qodesh by initiating and o Laws and customs relating to Shabbat utilizing opportunities to speak in o Laws and customs relating to Jewish Hebrew within both the formal and holy days (mo`adei yisra’el) informal curricula. o Laws and customs relating to Israeli o Students will appreciate the value of significant days Hebrew as a tool for decoding o Laws and customs relating to the Land classical Jewish texts. of Israel and Jerusalem o Students will appreciate Hebrew as a tool for contemporary intra- IV. JEWISH HISTORY (classical, Jewish communication. medieval, early-modern and contemporary) o Students will demonstrate passive facility in Hebrew by scoring 80% o Students will appreciate Jewish history on a test combining reading and as the record of the covenantal aural comprehension of classical relationship forged by God and the and modern Hebrew texts. Jewish nation at Sinai and at arvot mo’av. o Students will demonstrate active o Students will appreciate Jewish history facility in Hebrew by scoring 70% as the arena in which God’s providence on a test requiring translation into is regularly on display. Hebrew of individual words, o Students will acknowledge: that history phrases (including idiomatic is a process that affects, and is affected expressions) and paragraphs. by, individuals as well as societies and nations; VI. JEWISH PHILOSOPHY/ o … that the actions of MAHSHEVET YISRAEL individuals and societies influence history; and Students will: o … that the Torah dictates o understand Rambam’s 13 principles of which actions will influence faith and their relevance to modern history for better or worse issues of faith and belief o Students will be able to trace modern o understand how these principles make and contemporary Jewish communities Torah Judaism unique among all other back to their origins in the classical or faiths and beliefs in our times, including medieval periods and appreciate how agnosticism and atheism

Meorot 7:2 Tishrei 5770 Sokolow & Respendents 5 o describe the tension between hashgahah  Belonging and commitment to peratit and behirah hofshit family, community, nation and o recognize God as creator of the humanity universe  Recognition of tselem eloqim in o recognize Man as the acme of creation. all people  understand Rav Soloveitchik’s  Love and respect for oneself distinction between Adam I- and others’ person and Adam II property; courtesy o recognize the Jewish nation as the elect  Active caring and of God thoughtfulness - gemilut hesed—  understand the relationship of toward others Jews and non-Jews  Tsedaqah and tiqqun olam o recognize prophecy as God’s means of  Special respect towards revelation to man parents, elders, teachers and  understand the views of spiritual and communal leaders Rambam and Halevi on  Appropriate relationships prophecy between the genders at various o recognize TaNaKH as the literary ages record of revelation o recognize hazal as the keepers of the  Difference between taryag tradition of its proper interpretation mitsvot and the seven Noahide laws  Implications and VII. ORTHODOX COMMUNAL responsibilities of am segulah LIFE and or la-goyyim o Understand the nature of a community that lives by halakhah o Laws and customs relating to the Jewish  what a she’eilah is; when and how is life cycle, personal and family life it asked?  berit milah  what qualifications are required of a  naming rabbi to answer she’eilot  pidyon ha-ben  who are the gedolei ha-dor today  bar mitsvah and bat  emunat hakhamim mitsvah  what is a bet din, with what issues  medical ethics and does it deal, and how does it halakhah arrive at a verdict?  sexuality and modesty  what are the procedures, for  engagement and example, of marriage, marriage conversion or divorce?  family purity laws o Laws and customs relating to  death, burial and interpersonal relationships with other mourning Jews, and with non-Jews

Meorot 7:2 Tishrei 5770 Sokolow & Respendents 6 Responses

Jack Bieler:

Dr. Moshe Sokolow’s comprehensive subject-specific-areas” (specifically the section compilation of “What Should A Yeshiva High headed “Students will develop a positive School Graduate Know, Value and be Able to attitude towards:”—notably in the title, “Know” Do” is certainly worthy of discussion by Jewish precedes “Value”, even as in the body of the day school educators. Possessing a sense of listing, “Values” constitute the very first what an ideal graduate should carry away with section discussed) than to subject areas such him/her from his/her formative Jewish as TaNaKH, Torah she’be’al peh, Jewish education contributes to properly and philosophy, etc. Evaluation of student responsibly designing the formal and informal achievement is so much more difficult when it educational experiences that a school needs to comes to attitudes; but aren’t attitudes going to offer in order to even potentially achieve serve as the basis for whether or not significant results for at least the great majority everything else that has been learned will be of its student body. And while “Torah study as retained, practiced, applied, reflected upon, and a lifelong commitment” heads the list of play a decisive role in the graduate’s lifestyle “Non-subject-specific areas,” considerable and general world outlook? empirical and anecdotal evidence indicates that graduation from high school marks the end of (For those who would like to consider my most individuals’ intense formal Jewish development of just those areas within a day educations (with the exception of post-high- school framework, see school study in Israel), thereby sharpening the http://my.mli.org.il/visions/articles/Newslette impetus to make the student’s day school years r/open/Bieler.pdf ) as meaningful and personally transformative as possible. Rabbi Jack Bieler is the Rabbi of Kemp Mill Synagogue. He has taught in day schools for Either because of personal inclination or a over thirty years, written extensively about the difference in religious educational philosophy, philosophy of Jewish education, and served as I would tend to devote more time and a mentor for Bar Ilan University’s Lookstein attention to defining and developing those Center for Jewish Education Principals admittedly more elusive and esoteric “Non- Seminar.

Yaakov Blau:

The general community is indebted to Dr. General Issues: Soklow for his fine article, which serves as an excellent springboard for discussion. In that The article lists what a yeshiva day school spirit, below are comments on several points graduate should know, but does not that the article raised. differentiate between levels within those

Meorot 7:2 Tishrei 5770 Sokolow & Respendents 7 schools. While the list is quite appropriate for should be careful about the fine line between someone in one of the higher classes, it is not teaching and indoctrination, and I feel that the realistic to expect the achievement of all those line is crossed several times in the article. Let goals for someone in a lower track and, I me cite two examples. The first is the stating as would argue, even for someone in a middle a fact that God’s hand is clear in history, track. Students in lower tracks deserve the something which I personally do not see as same first-rate education as those in higher clear and apparent unless one starts with the tracks, but having unrealistic goals is not doing assumption that it must be true. The second is them a service. the suggestion that teachers and students list the gedolei ha-dor, a list that I doubt all of our Second, day schools can only devote so much schools would find common ground on, even of the day to limmudei qodesh, and the article among the Modern Orthodox and certainly assumes that many more areas are being less so if the haredi view is part of the covered than can be done, if a school is to take discussion. both its limmudei qodesh and limmudei hol seriously. Additionally, many of those areas Specific Issues suggested in the article are covered, albeit in a In terms of the specific content, I question less depth, in elementary school (e.g. early students need to know, by heart, hazal’s list of nevi’im rishonim) and do not belong on the list of who wrote the various books of TaNaKH. goals for a high school. They should certainly be exposed to the gemara It could be that Dr. Sokolow, when suggesting in Bava Batra, but instant recall from memory is that the students be tested on all the various not necessarily crucial. areas that he feels that they ought to know, was Teaching about biblical criticism, while advocating that high schools give tests even for certainly an important area to discuss, can do areas covered in elementary school. It was more harm than good in the hands of the unclear, however, if those quizzes, that he wrong educator and needs to be approached repeatedly suggested be given, were to be given with extreme caution. Dr. Sokolow posits that along the way or at the end of high school. If it students be able to identify the location of was the latter, I submit that it is highly unlikely random pesukim in ketuvim, but the educational that schools will test their students on all those significance of the average student being able areas at once. Moreover, I question whether a to do so is unclear, especially in light of other school would or should not graduate a student more pressing educational aims and goals that for not being able to answer all those questions we hope to accomplish. Additionally, I at once. question whether it is the school’s job to teach Despite the misgivings mentioned above, nusah ha-tefilah, as this properly belongs in overall I feel that the content-based parts of province of the synagogue and home. Finally, I the article, by that I mean what material to think that discussing women and prayer, ensure is covered, are very much in place. The without a school context and an atmosphere of requirements of what "beliefs" should be openness and the ability to ask really difficult achieved are in my view more problematic. Is it questions that have no easy solutions is a risky truly meaningful to list all the beliefs that we proposition for most schools. It may, in fact, would want our students to absorb? I would generate a whole slew of problems to which imagine that there is little disagreement about teachers will be hard pressed to give satisfying what values we want our students to answers. internalize; the meaningful discussion should As I stated in the beginning of my response, be about how to impart those values. One also Dr Sokolow’s article is fine start to what will

Meorot 7:2 Tishrei 5770 Sokolow & Respendents 8 hopefully be a continuing dialogue among Rabbi Yaakov Blau teaches TaNaKH, Talmud educators, as we learn from each other’s ideas. and Social Studies at the Frisch Yeshiva High School in Paramus, NJ.

Erica Brown:

Dr. Moshe Sokolow sets out an ambitious and helpful. Children are naturally interpretive exciting program for yeshiva day school beings and, more than stress what they should students in his paper “What Should a Yeshiva know, we should be able to help them acquire High School Graduate Know, Value and be reading skills for life. Able to Do?” Whether or not this plan is realistic is another matter, given the Aside from women and public prayer, Dr. background of many such students, the time Sokolow makes no other mention of gender pulls of a dual curriculum, and an already issues. It gets no attention in his section on exhausting day. What Dr. Sokolow does Orthodox Communal Life. That is a lacuna in convincingly is raise the bar on what students my estimation. Students need to know, both should know and be capable of achieving. In the girls and boys we teach, that gender issues addition, he sets a standard for learning and for are a serious matter today and are one of the outcome-driven teaching that is rarely achieved ways that we are wrestling with and being in Judaic studies on the high school level. thoughtful of the pressures that modernity exerts on tradition and how we deal with such I have a few specific comments about the encounters. content and one larger question about the general pedagogic stance of the paper: Many of the issues presented in the philosophy section were medieval in scope and Specific Educational Goals: not contemporary in feel. We need to discuss evolution and creation with students. We need In the TaNaKH section, I would not rank to struggle with them on issues that are at the exposure to the “principal claims of biblical center of their lives, not necessarily at the criticism” so early on, either in his list of center of Maimonides’ life. The area of Torah u- expectations or in the developmental stages of Madda was absent, as were issues of doubt and high school education. Preparing students for the role of reason. what they may encounter in university and elsewhere is fine in the senior year when they General Educational Issues are well-grounded in TaNaKH but that was not made clear. There are both religious The larger issue for me is a function of this last sensitivities and issues of development that critique. This is a very cognitively-based need to be addressed and are merely assumed program of learning. And while it adds much here. needed rigor to Judaic studies on the high school level, there is something slightly arid In his approach to specific biblical books, I about it that makes me wonder if it will reach would have liked to see broader literary themes children where they are and not only where we that appear across books and are foundational think they should be. In the language of to biblical literature generally. I did not find education, there seems to be more stress on any outright emphasis on close-reading, literary authenticity to original primary and secondary techniques that I think would have been sources than there is on relevance to the lives

Meorot 7:2 Tishrei 5770 Sokolow & Respendents 9 of children in day schools today. Certainly this students more and find out what has made a program is not realistic for students with difference to them in their learning. learning accommodations, who form a large part of many school populations. It had the Following some research by Susan Handelman, feel throughout of an honors-only appeal. But I once asked a group of teachers to have their even then… students write them anonymous letters about where they “were at” in their religious lives. In So many students today are not interested in a subsequent meeting, we reviewed the results the intellectual depth of Judaism. That does and spoke openly about what they learned in not mean that we deny them its riches but that the process. One excellent teacher was stunned we think more experientially about how to by the lengthy correspondence she received reach them so that Judaism truly matters. To from one of her most intelligent students (she quote from John Kotter, a leadership thinker, was able to guess the student’s identity). It was “People change what they do less because they a heart-breaking record of how little she has are given an analysis that shifts their thinking taken in of what she has learned in her yeshiva than because they are shown a truth that career because she has deep-seated theological influences their feelings” (The Heart of Change, issues that have never been surfaced by any Harvard Business School Press, 2002, p. 1; teacher to date. She was in such a posture of emphasis in the original). The italics here are doubt that she was able to get good grades but important. I would challenge any day school not able to integrate what she was learning educator today to ask his or her students a with whom she was becoming. Clearly the most basic question: Why Be Jewish? exercise opened up this teacher’s mind and heart to the inner life of one of her students. In formulating this question, I am not trying to She had no idea of the pain or the struggle. reduce a sophisticated, demanding set of And then there are all of those students who expectations to spiritual babble. I am trying to are not struggling. They are just profoundly understand how, given what Dr. Sokolow bored and indifferent. They study for grades presents, he accomplishes the first category of (or not) and just let this wash over them. No objectives he sets out, namely: Torah study as a meaning. No wonder. No real learning. lifelong commitment, mitsvah observance as a way of life, religious authority as a guide and I thank Dr. Sokolow for provoking this Jewish communal service as a career choice. important conversation. It will force us to With all the rigor we can attach to studying reconsider what we mean when we say that we Judaism, how will we add meaning to the offer a dual-curriculum where the general actual living of Judaism? studies far outshines the Judaic content in Unquestionably, we have to add depth and scope, methodology and sequencing. It also somewhat uniform standards to Judaic studies forces us to ask the more profound identity on the high school level. We also need to add questions of when the “how” and “what” are more experimental forms of study and other eclipsed by the “why”. modalities of learning, in line with research we have on multiple intelligences in the classroom. Dr. Erica Brown is the Scholar-in-Residence for We need to provide students with a richer The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington range of Jewish experiences to add heft to their and its Managing Director for Education and observance. We also need to speak to our Leadership

Meorot 7:2 Tishrei 5770 Sokolow & Respendents 10 Aaron Frank:

At our final high school faculty meeting of the masorah in everyday modern life. While every school year, I shared with the teachers that I subject in the school could and should touch see two major challenges for Jewish education. upon this need, I believe that the Jewish The first is to battle ignorance. Battling history classroom is most critical in helping ignorance is done through content acquisition. students shape their identity and their story as One must be armed with the tools of our contemporary Jews. masorah, the knowledge of subjects such as TaNaKH, Torah she’be’al peh, Jewish History, Over the past few years at our school, it has Jewish Thought and Hebrew in order to be an been the faculty of our high school Jewish educated Jew. Achieving mastery in these history department that has taken the role of areas will create literate Jews who will stand up placing our heritage in context. By exploring to misrepresentations and misinterpretations of how the Jewish people have engaged with each Judaism, both from within the Jewish other and with the surrounding societies in community and from the external world. Dr. which they lived throughout history, our Sokolow’s comprehensive exposition of curriculum helps explore Jewish identity specific content knowledge is an incredibly through social and communal context. valuable tool for any Jewish high school to use Through studying the struggles of their as a framework when reflecting on curricular ancestors to maintain Jewish tradition while content and knowledge goals. still engaging with the world around them, students see that their own personal struggles But battling ignorance is not enough. The to address the dichotomy of tradition and second element we discussed was the goal of modernity are part of something much bigger helping students to find relevance in Judaism. than themselves. Rather than seeing their This is similar to what was referred to in the questions of relevance as singular and title of Dr. Sokolow’s piece as “valuing” and individual to them, they realize that Jews have throughout the article as “appreciation.” While always struggled with these issues, and that I do not take issue with any of the elements of they can turn to their own history for insight Judaism that Dr. Sokolow expects students to into their questions. appreciate, an expansion of the necessity for discussions surrounding relevance is important. As our Jewish history faculty began to understand the extent of the power that Jewish The most important guidance we can provide history had to speak to our students and for our students is to answer the simple connect them to our people’s past, present and question, “why is this relevant?” In a world of future, they decided to develop a new course unprecedented freedom for Jews in the United for our ninth grade, implemented this past States and a commitment to universalism, why year, called “Jewish Social Studies.” Divided is Israel relevant today? In a world of into three parts—Ameinu, Moladeteinu, and individual choice, why is Torah law still Artseinu—the course uses history and other significant? In a world of post-modernism, social sciences to engage students in thinking why is Jewish community still important? We about questions of Jewish peoplehood and must, in our classrooms, in our assemblies and, who is a Jew, our relationship to the State of certainly in our informal discussions with Israel, and our relationship to America. students, show them the relevance of our Designed to reflect Beth Tfiloh’s mission

1 For the entire Beth Tfiloh Mission Statement, see http://www.bethtfiloh.com/podium/ default.aspx?t=17137. Meorot 7:2 Tishrei 5770 Sokolow & Respendents 11 statement,1 our Jewish Social Studies course is to creating a community where it is all intended to provide our newest high schoolers integrated. In a world where many are with the tools to address the questions that minimizing the need for full-day Day Schools.2 they grapple with regarding their own personal I would claim that we need teachers in every Jewish identities and philosophies – and the classroom, in the math and the Talmud grounding in identification with the Jewish classroom and everything in between who can people that will give their Jewish identities serve as models for students, who can share relevance. their stories as Jews and who are leading lives of Jewish meaning. At Beth Tfiloh, we have found that students take their deepest questions and struggles Students must not only see that the curriculum about Judaism to their Jewish history speaks to modern issues but that there are classrooms. Because their teachers encourage adults who are committed to living a life of discussion and debate on issues which can Torah who have not checked their sometimes be too controversial for a TaNaKH commitment to modern values such as gender, or Talmud classroom, and because the racial and economic equality and many others students’ questions and struggles are placed in at the door. a larger context of millennia of similar questions and struggles, students find With this in mind, I would simply add to Dr. themselves identifying strongly with the Sokolow’s thoughts that in order to be a relevance of Jewish history to their lives. At Yeshiva High School Graduate,3 students the same time, the Jewish history department is should understand the value, relevance and assisted by student perception that history is a preciousness of the treasure of Torah and “real” academic subject, unlike TaNaKH or Judaism. They should engage with it, wrestle Talmud, which they sometimes mistakenly with it and dialogue with it. They should perceive as religiously coercive and non- embark on a lifelong journey to connect with academic. Beginning with our ninth grade God, to the Jewish people and the entire Jewish Social Studies course, and continuing world. Students should believe in their hearts through the study of medieval Jewish history, that that their voice matters in the ongoing modern Jewish history, and the history of discourse of our people. They should use Zionism and Israel, Beth Tfiloh high school Jewish values to inform their life in the students have a built-in forum to discuss and synagogue, in the university, in the gym and in debate issues of Jewish identity, peoplehood, the beit midrash. religious philosophy and struggles with modernity. This forum has proved While the knowing is certainly critical, enormously fruitful in helping answer that ultimately, in our schools it is a means to an question of relevance for our students. end, a means to the ultimate goal—the goal of making Torah matter. For, in the end, if The success of our Jewish history department Judaism matters to our students, we will create in addressing questions of relevance for our a generation that will put forth the light of our students is rooted in the way that Beth Tfiloh tradition to our people and to the entire world. encourages questioning and debate regarding all issues in all aspects of the curriculum. Rabbi Aaron Frank is Principal of Beth Tfiloh Helping students to find their path and their Dahan Community High School in Baltimore story in this process are role models committed MD.

2 Certainly we live in extremely challenging economic times that require much rethinking in the day school world. For a discussion on this issue, please see my article, “Grassroots Resource Merging: A Collaborative Day School Model in a New Economic Order” in Conversations 4, Spring, 2009. 3 Beth Tfiloh is certainly a unique day school which is, in many ways, both a yeshiva and a community school.

Meorot 7:2 Tishrei 5770 Sokolow & Respendents 12 Mark Gottlieb:

Of the making of books there is no end. The cumulative effect of Prof. Sokolow’s Modern Orthodox day school educators might content objectives, with its focus on cultivating say the same of manufactured curricula, mass a foundational command of religious textual produced by some well-intentioned central and cultural literacy, comes down heavily on agency and still sitting on a shelf of many an the side of E.D. Hirsch’s traditionalism in administrator’s bookcase. But by identifying a those heady debates on educational theory of series of thoughtful content objectives in the last quarter of the past century. Some limmudei qodesh, Moshe Sokolow offers attention is paid to the application of critical something both more useful and—hopefully— skills and the development of affective, more enduring than typical curricular fare. In decision-driven (religious) character education establishing baselines for the knowledge, associated respectively with Bloom, Kohlberg, belief—and critical skill-sets which a typical Kilpatrick and others; still, the emphasis on (ideal? average?) yeshiva high school graduate basic Jewish literacy is perhaps the most should possess, Prof. Sokolow is throwing distinctive contribution of Prof. Sokolow’s down an educational gauntlet, proposing a content objectives and a much needed rigorous and largely quantifiable series of corrective to the general culture’s increasing standards which our students and schools can impatience with the written word. On a deeper be benchmarked against. level, a recovery of religious textual literacy is a sine-qua-non for the development of a genuine By going back to the basics of biblical, rabbinic Jewish worldview or theology of culture, a and practice-oriented literacy, Sokolow deliberate way of thinking about everything in eschews some of the more faddish trends in the world, from politics and economics to educational theory that have insinuated pleasure and purpose, and all points between. themselves into our own educational community in favor of the simplicity of the eternal. Of course, this is not to say that the Thomas Mann defined authenticity as a kind of adumbrated objectives are simplistic or easily "life full of citations," a way of being that achieved—on the contrary, they are broad and draws on our lived and total engagement with ambitious, perhaps overly so for our our textuality, one which constructs our adolescent denizens of a largely post-literate consciousness out of the shared storehouse of popular culture (“Students will our sacred scriptures, texts, and sources. demonstrate…by correctly identifying—on the Currently, our educational institutions fall far basis of content or distinctive idiom—the short of this ideal. This lack of Torah sources of 30 quotations from Tehillim, Mishlei literacy—the inability of the vast majority of and Iyyov. Students will be able to discuss the our students to quote or even simply recognize authorship of Tehillim, the distinctive character biblical verses, rabbinic statements, or other of biblical wisdom literature, and the question sources—if not countered by champions like of theodicy”—not easy for the generation Sokolow, will preclude all articulations of a weaned on text-messaging and Twitter). But genuinely rich and deep religious form of the solidity and unapologetic rigor of Prof. thinking and living. We pray this war of image Sokolow’s standards are refreshingly bracing, and sound-byte against the Word is not already and provide an excellent starting point for lost. serious curricular deliberation.

Meorot 7:2 Tishrei 5770 Sokolow & Respendents 13 But the border between virtue and vice, in Sokolow’s content objectives may or may not intellectual endeavor as in life, can be quite be a shortcoming of such a project, but it porous, and the strength of Professor certainly merits more attention than the Sokolow’s pellucid outline of content current format permits. objectives for the yeshiva high school graduate—its stark simplicity and focus on If genuine student-centered consideration plays content-knowledge—is also its acknowledged a minimal role in the listed content objectives, limitation. Sokolow is silent on the intellectual and religious disposition, quality and character of Many will be familiar with Joseph Schwab’s the teacher delivering the intended content contribution to the professional lexicon of the objectives. Erica Brown has poignantly four “commonplaces” of educational commented on the question of authenticity deliberation: student, subject matter, milieu, and integrity in the practice of teaching and teacher. This heuristic may be helpful in (“Sincerity and Authenticity in Teaching,”, The structuring some of our observations about Torah U-Madda Journal 11 ([2002-3)]: 264-272) both the strengths and limitations of Prof. and the significance that the subjective nature Sokolow’s proposal. Clearly, Sokolow’s success of the teacher plays in student learning, is in identifying a rich catalogue of general and especially of the religious kind. Learning is subject-specific content objectives; the always and necessarily embodied in the person pedagogical paths to the fear and love of God, of the teacher, a ubiquitous living text. More both in their affective and cognitive needs to be done to ensure that our students’ dimensions—the ultimate end of all our teachers and role-models authentically reflect educational endeavors—are more difficult to the richness and depth of the divine bounty-- cultivate and assess. In short, while the stated broad learning, ethical seriousness, and goal here is “What Should a Yeshiva High experience-- we are trying to cultivate in our School Graduate Know, Value and be Able to community. If our particular community is to Do?” there’s a lot more “know”, than “do” have any lasting success, these qualities of and “be.” internal coherence and religious purpose, powerfully conveyed by our best teachers in Although the syntactical format of Professor the very lifeblood of their person, may play as Sokolow’s content objectives starts with the substantive a role as any content objective student as its focus (“Students will be possibly could. acquainted with the concept of apostolic prophecy, shlihut, and illustrate it by means of a Let me offer a couple of comments addressing compare & contrast question focusing on the specific items in Prof. Sokolow’s outline, the respective prophetic careers of Moshe, first speaking to an issue that Prof. Sokolow Shemuel, Eliyahu, and Yirmiyahu,” students courageously names; the other, to an area he will x, students will y, etc.) the actual student— curiously nearly ignores. the concrete particular, the flesh and blood individual, shaped in a thousand different ways One of Prof. Sokolow’s more suggestive by milieu, culture, community, habit, passion, content objectives would fill a lacuna in our personality, etc—is very nearly absent from educational community many have identified consideration. How do we maintain our desire but which few have seriously tackled in for clear standards while successfully practice: “students should be acquainted with addressing the interests and abilities of all our the principal claims of biblical criticism students? What is the place of spiritual regarding the authorship of the Torah and their specialization in our schools and educational refutation.” Some more philosophically- institutions? The one-size-fits-all feel of inclined students may be satisfied with the

Meorot 7:2 Tishrei 5770 Sokolow & Respendents 14 cognitive pluralism of Rav Soloveitchik’s Of course, Sokolow’s stated goal of approach, providing epistemological “refutation” is not quite right. To say that justification for the jettisoning of questions of “students should be acquainted with the historicity, authorship and dating of our sacred principal claims of Biblical criticism regarding text. But, truth be told, this tack has little the authorship of the Torah and their appeal to students, especially adolescents, who refutation” is a bit like saying “students should are interested in doing justice to difficult be acquainted with the principal claims of neo- textural or historical questions raised in the Darwinian evolutionary theory and its wider world of scholarship, looking for refutation.” Strictly speaking, both would be concrete resolutions to often intractable unrealistic objectives; even more, this (perhaps problems. unintended) triumphalist framework borders on the intellectually dishonest, and may even What may be most relevant from Rav cause more damage to the sincere and seeking Soloveitchik’s sidestepping of the critical- student if not approached with sophistication historical questions confronting our students— and respect for the genuine complexity of the even those who avoid the heterodox courses at problem. Better to simply say that the case for university, but want to be free of the self- Torah mi-Sinai in the modern intellectual world identification (and accompanying doubt) as needs to be strongly made—credibly, with intellectual Marranos in the wider world of integrity, sensitivity and depth. Again, this may learning outside the walls of the beit midrash—is be too much to ask of our population; but the implicit acknowledgement that our there is no doubt that our students—and our community must begin to develop a non- mesorah—deserve no less. apologetic, constructive Orthodox biblical hermeneutic. More promising than Rav After examining Sokolow’s richly detailed Soloveitchik’s approach, at least from a content objectives in TanNaKH, I was left pedagogical point of view, of simply bypassing wondering whither Talmud? Compared to the the historical-critical questions, may be Rav discussion of TanNaKH standards, Prof. Kook’s strategy of “building the palace of Sokolow’s treatment of Torah she’ba’al peh, and Torah above” the challenging claims from the Talmud specifically, is a bit sparse. This is world of critical historical scholarship. This is speculative, but my sense is that Sokolow’s not the forum to say definitively what that relative silence in this area is a function of the theological move would yield in terms of very real struggle to articulate a meaningful specific content or solutions; it is enough to relationship to Talmud for many in our say that our community needs to develop contemporary audience. Recent conversations, multiple resources towards a theologically mainly in Israel but slowly trickling stateside, significant account, out of the sources of our on the omnipresence of Talmud in the mesorah (starting with which the sugya in Bava traditional yeshiva high school curriculum and Batra 14b and the Ibn Ezra’s sod yud bet), of the the perceived crisis of value looming on the maculation of the Torah text. And whether dati-le’umi horizon have sharpened the focus of that’s through Mordecai Breuer’s behinot this educational deliberation. Much of the method or other serious intellectual and discussion to date has centered around the religious approaches, I think the attempt to question of “relevance” in our contemporary introduce critical historical scholarship in the Talmud curriculum, with the sides of Orthodox day school movement—in age- and traditional Brisker analytical study squaring off developmentally-appropriate contexts, to be against the newer schools of applied, sure—is, in fact, long overdue. contextualized, values-driven interpretation

Meorot 7:2 Tishrei 5770 Sokolow & Respendents 15 and teaching. Sokolow may not want to enter would look like in a yeshiva high school is an into that difficult debate now, but If Talmud is important desideratum, as well. If our to be more than just an internally-coherent but community is to aspire to produce whole, existentially empty study for our students, integrated students, viewing their humanistic much more needs to be said and done. Rav and scientific studies not as mere instruments Shagar zt”l and others in his wake have begun to a career or profession, but as pathways this important work on Talmud as a spiritual towards creating a more coherent narrative of and worldview-forming discipline, but Modern self, other, and world in relation to God, than Orthodoxy in North America must now play this educational enterprise cannot allow a catch-up. bifurcation between our students’ learning and their lives. Prof. Sokolow’s inclusion of the nature of she’eilah (halakhic question posed to a rabbi) as Values, cultural context, inspired role- an evaluative norm is important; not only modeling, apprenticeship (shimmush) and because it acknowledges the central nature of intellectual coherence—as well as rich and intelligent, contextually-sensitive seeking of compelling subject-specific content, of religious counsel and authority, something our course—are all constitutive elements in the community and others have struggled to get shaping of religious character, intellect and just right, but because it opens the discussion personality; content objectives, however clear up to not only what cognitive content we seek or useful, do not a worldview make. But let us to convey to our students, but how we think be grateful for Prof. Sokolow’s modest about our relationship to the world around us, contribution in sketching the scope of both the in and out of school, as divinely commanded theological literacy and critical skills necessary creatures, servants of God—how and what we to advance, with God’s help always, a more value, not just what we know. In this spirit, and vibrant educational community for our perhaps as a postscript or sequel to Prof. students and children. Sokolow’s current effort, a series of content— and value-driven—objectives that address what Rabbi Mark Gottlieb is Head of School, Yeshiva learning English literature, European or University High School for Boys, Manhattan, American History, Science, etc., would ideally NY.

Meorot 7:2 Tishrei 5770 Sokolow & Respendents 16