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Jewish Ethics 11th Grade Course Book Rabbi Elie Ganz Name _______________________________ Period _____ ​ Table of Contents Introduction 2 Unit 1: Substance Use and Abuse 6 Unit 2: Ethical Treatment of Animals 13 Unit 3: Body Modification (Piercings, Cosmetic Surgery, etc.) 22 ​ ​ Unit 4: End of Life Issues and Organ Donation 33 Unit 5: Extreme Sports and Dangerous Activities 64 Unit 6: Gene Selection, Stem Cells, Fertility, and Abortion 74 Unit 7: The Modern Jewish Woman 106 Unit 8: Self Help vs Vigilante Justice and Copyright Law 118 Unit 9: Business Ethics 141 Unit 10: Human Dignity 160 Unit 11: Crime, Punishment, and the Death Penalty 171 Unit 12: Mental Disability 177 Unit 13: Ghosts, Demons, and the Occult 195 1 Introduction to Jewish Ethics Rabbi Elie Ganz Judaism, as a religion, has much to say about how we live our lives. And it should. Think about, if the Torah is Hashem’s guide to the world (the word “Torah” itself means “guidance) shouldn’t it guide us through maximizing our life experiences as well as the challenges of ethical dilemmas? Ethics are concerned with human values and behavior and Jewish Ethics explore the Jewish understanding of those values and behaviors. Throughout Jewish history, our Sages and Rabbis have spent a lot of time carefully examining humanity against the background of the Torah to determine the wisest and most moral approach to ethical issues. For any person to better themselves in ethical areas, there are a number of criteria that must be met. These include: ● Desire to Learn and Grow­ we must believe in the value of becoming better people and of changing, not just ourselves, but the world around us too, for the better. ● Knowledge­ we must acquire the skills to learn and explore the original sources, then we must absorb the content and its messages. ● Open­mindedness­ we must be open to changing our point of view and our habits in the interest of this noble pursuit. ● Principled­ we must be people who stand firmly on principle, who are willing to expend energy and face adversity for the promotion of these values. Clearly the study of Ethics cannot be simply academic. With its study we must peer frequently into the honest mirror of introspection, allowing ourselves to see the frailty of our human nature and rising to the challenge of applying these lessons to our lives. 2 “The classic ethics text in Judaism, Pirkei Avot, begins with the words, “Moses received the Torah from Sinai and passed it down to Joshua who passed it down to the Elders”, and so forth. Why begin a book of values and attitudes with a history lesson? Precisely to teach the Jews of all ages that the values espoused by the rabbis in the tractate were not authored by these individuals, but rather, by God Almighty, and are immutable, as they are passed down in an unbroken chain from generation to generation.” Nachum Amsel, The Jewish Encyclopedia of Moral and Ethical Issues ​ After reading the paragraph above, please answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper. 1. If you were God, what type of information would you put in your “Torah” and why? 2. Would you keep the relevance of the information limited to that moment or devise a system through which eternal wisdom could be expounded? Explain. 3. Can we assume the rabbis’ contributions are imperative? Explain. 4. Can we assume the rabbis’ contributions are well-intended? Explain. 3 Introduction to Gematria ​ In Hebrew, each letter possesses a numerical value. Gematria assigns numerical value ​ to letters, words, or phrases. Thus Alef is equal to one, Bet to two, and etc… The ​ best­known example of Gematria is the Hebrew word Chai ("life"), which is composed of two letters that add up to 18. This has made 18 a "lucky number" among Jews, and gifts in multiples of 18 are very popular. Gematria Chart 4 Talmud Chapter Numbers ראשון Rishon 1 שני Sheini 2 שלישי Sh’lishi 3 רביעי Revi’i 4 חמישי Chamishi 5 שישי Shishi 6 שביעי Sh’vi’i 7 שמיני Sh’mini 8 תשיעי T’shi’i 9 עשירי Asiri 10 אחד עשר Achad Asar 11 שנים עשר Sh’neim Asar 12 שלשה עשר Sh’losha Asar 13 ארבעה עשר Arba’a Asar 14 חמשה עשר Chamisha Asar 15 ששה עשר Shisha Asar 16 שבעה עשר Shiv’a Asar 17 שמונה עשר Sh’mona Asar 18 תשעה עשר Tish’a Asar 19 עשרים Esrim 20 אחד ועשרים Achad v’Esrim 21 שנים ועשרים Sh’nayim v’Esrim 22 שלשה ועשרים Sh’losha v’Esrim 23 עשרים וארבע Esrim v’Arba 24 5 6 Unit 1: Substance Use and Abuse 7 1. 1. Where is this text found? 2. What does it say? 3. What does Rash”i say? 4. What does Rashba”m say? 5. What do we learn from here? 8 2. 1. Where is this text found? 2. What does it say? 3. What do we learn from here? 3. 1. Where is this text found? 2. What does it say? 3. What do we learn from here? 9 1. Where is this text found? 2. What does it say? 3. What does Rash”i say? 5. 1. Where is this text found? 2. What does it say? 3. What do we learn from here? 10 6. 1. Where is this text found? 2. What does it say? 3. What does Rash’i say? 4. What do we learn from here? 11 7. 12 1. Where is this text found? 2. Who authored it and why? 3. What does it say? ` 13 Unit 2: Ethical Treatment of Animals 14 1. 1. Where is this found? 2. What does it say? 3. What do we learn from here? 2. 1. Where is this found? 2. What does it say? 3. What do we learn from here? 15 3. 1. Where is this found? 2. What does it say? 3. What do we learn from here? 4. 1. Where is this found? 2. What does it say? 3. What do we learn from here? 16 5. 1. Where is this found? 2. What does it say? 3. What do we learn from here? 17 6. 1. Where is this found? 2. What does it say? 3. What do we learn from here? 18 19 7. 1. Where is this found? 2. What does it say? 3. What do we learn from here? 20 8. 1. Where is this found? 2. What does it say? 3. What do we learn from here? 21 9. 1. Where is this found? 2. What does it say? 3. What do we learn from here? 22 Unit 3: Body Modification Piercings, Cosmetic Surgery, etc. 23 1. 1. Where is this found? 2. What does it say? 3. What do we learn from here? 2. 1. Where is this found? 2. What does it say? 24 3. What do we learn from here? 3. 1. Where is this found? 2. What does it say? 25 3. What do we learn from here? 4. 1. Where is this found? 2. What does it say? 3. What do we learn from here? 26 5. 1. Where is this found? 2. What does it say? 3. What do we learn from here? 27 6. 1. Where is this found? 2. What does it say? 3. What do we learn from here? 28 7. Proudly Bearing Elders’ Scars, Their Skin Says ‘Never Forget’ By JODI RUDOREN ​ September 30, 2012 JERUSALEM — When Eli Sagir showed her grandfather, Yosef Diamant, the new tattoo on her left forearm, he bent his head to kiss it. Mr. Diamant had the same tattoo, the number 157622, permanently inked on his own arm by the Nazis at Auschwitz. Nearly 70 years later, Ms. Sagir got hers at a hip tattoo parlor downtown after a high school trip to Poland. The next week, her mother and brother also had the six digits inscribed onto their forearms. This month, her uncle followed suit. “All my generation knows nothing about the Holocaust,” said Ms. Sagir, 21, who has had the tattoo for four years. “You talk with people and they think it’s like the Exodus from Egypt, ancient history. I decided to do it to remind my generation: I want to tell them my grandfather’s story and the Holocaust story.” Mr. Diamant’s descendants are among a handful of children and grandchildren of Auschwitz survivors here who have taken the step of memorializing the darkest days of history on their own bodies. With the number of survivors here dropping to about 200,000 from 400,000 a decade ago, institutions and individuals are grappling with how best to remember the Holocaust — so integral to Israel’s founding and identity — after those who lived it are ​ ​ gone. Rite-of-passage trips to the death camps, like the one Ms. Sagir took, are now standard for high school students. The Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and other museums are trying to make exhibits more accessible, using individual stories and special effects. Arguments rage about whether that approach trivializes symbols long held as sacred 29 and whether the primary message should be about the importance of a self-reliant Jewish state in preventing a future genocide or a more universal one about racism and tolerance. “We are moving from lived memory to historical memory,” noted Michael Berenbaum, a professor at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles who is among the foremost scholars of the memorialization of the Holocaust. “We’re at that transition, and this is sort of a brazen, in-your-face way of bridging it.” Mr.

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