Cultivating Curiosity About the Teaching of Classical Jewish Texts Jon A
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Turn IT and Turn IT agaIn Studies in the Teaching and Learning of Classical Jewish Texts Jewish Identity in Post-Modern Society Series Editor: Roberta Rosenberg Farber – Yeshiva University Editorial Board: Sara Abosch – University of Memphis Geoffrey Alderman – University of Buckingham Yoram Bilu – Hebrew University Steven M. Cohen – Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion Bryan Daves – Yeshiva University Sergio Della Pergola – Hebrew University Simcha Fishbane – Touro College Deborah Dash Moore – University of Michigan Uzi Rebhun – Hebrew University Reeva Simon – Yeshiva University Chaim I. Waxman – Rutgers University Turn IT and Turn IT agaIn Studies in the Teaching and Learning of Classical Jewish Texts Edited by Jon a. LEvISohn and SuSan P. FEndrICk Boston 2013 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: The bibliographic data for this title is available from the Library of Congress. Copyright © 2013 Academic Studies Press All rights reserved ISBN 978-1-936235-63-6 (cloth) ISBN 978-1-61811-081-7 (electronic) Effective July 19, 2016, this book will be subject to a CC-BY-NC license. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Other than as provided by these licenses, no part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or displayed by any electronic or mechanical means without permission from the publisher or as permitted by law. Cover design by Ivan Grave Published by Academic Studies Press in 2011 28 Montfern Avenue Brighton, MA 02135, USA [email protected] www.academicstudiespress.com For our parents Steve and Sybil Levisohn Camille Munz Fendrick and David Fendrick And for our children Ariella, Maya, and Jesse Meira, Shoshana, Adina, Matan, and Elianna Contents Acknowledgements 8 Foreword Sharon Feiman-Nemser 11 1 Cultivating Curiosity about the Teaching of Classical Jewish Texts Jon A. Levisohn and Susan P. Fendrick 13 PART 1: Focus on Subject Matter 2 A Map of Orientations to the Teaching of Bible Barry W. Holtz 26 3 What Are the Orientations to the Teaching of Rabbinic Literature? Jon A. Levisohn 52 4 Teaching Talmudic Hermeneutics Using a Semiotic Model of Law Daniel Reifman 81 5 Neusner, Brisk, and the Stam: Significant Methodologies for Meaningful Talmud Teaching and Study Michael Chernick 105 PART 2: Focus on Teaching and Teachers 6 The Pedagogy of Slowing Down: Teaching Talmud in a Summer Kollel Jane Kanarek 128 7 Serendipity and Pedagogy: Presenting the Weekly Parashah through Rabbinic Eyes Carl M. Perkins 158 8 Introducing the Bible: The Comparative Orientation in Practice Jon A. Levisohn 186 PART 3: Focus on Learning and Learners 9 Teaching Ancient Jewish History: An Experiment in Engaged Learning Michael Satlow 212 10 “A Judaism That Does Not Hide”: Curricular Warrants for the Teaching of the Documentary Hypothesis in Community Jewish High Schools Susan E. Tanchel 236 11 Developing Student Awareness of the Talmud as an Edited Document: A Pedagogy for the Pluralistic Jewish Day School Jeffrey Spitzer 264 12 A Theory of Havruta Learning Orit Kent 286 PART 4: Focus on Context 13 “Torah Talk”: Teaching Parashat Ha-shavua to Young Children Shira Horowitz 324 14 Using the Contextual Orientation to Facilitate the Study of Bible with Generation X Beth Cousens, Susan P. Fendrick, and Jeremy S. Morrison 352 15 Academic Study of the Talmud as a Spiritual Endeavor in Rabbinic Training: Delights and Dangers Jonah Chanan Steinberg 377 16 Teaching Rabbinics as an Ethical Endeavor and Teaching Ethics as a Rabbinic Endeavor Sarra Lev 388 List of Contributors 415 Index of Biblical and Rabbinic Sources 416 General Index 418 01 Acknowledgements This book emerges from the Initiative on Bridging Scholarship and Pedagogy in Jewish Studies, a research project at the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis University. We owe a debt of gratitude, first, to Sharon Feiman-Nemser, director of the Mandel Center, for her enthusiastic support of the project from its inception, and her wise and experienced contributions to making it both exploratory and productive. We are grateful to the participants in the two Bridging Initiative research seminars in 2003-04 and 2006-07, who responded eagerly to our invitation to explore together what the serious study of the teaching and learning of classical Jew- ish texts could look like. The enthusiastic engagement of the participants in the Bridging Initiative conferences in 2005 and 2008 reaffirmed the importance of this work and contributed depth and texture to our understanding of the teaching and learning of classical Jewish texts. The work of the project could not have proceeded without the assistance of the staff of the Mandel Center over the last several years, as it progressed from seminars and conferences, to working papers and online vid- eos, to, now, this book: Nora Abrahamer, Janna Dorfman, Liz DiNolfo, Sarah Feinberg, Galit Higgins, Kimberly Hirsh, Valorie Kopp-Aharonov, Deb Laufer, Stacie Martinez, Crystal Massuda, Gevelyn McCaskill, Marcie Quaroni, Susanne Shavelson, Em- majoy Shulman-Kumin, Angela Viehland and David Weinstein. In particular, we want to acknowledge Belina Mizrahi and Beth Polasky for their assistance with the conferences in 2005 and 2008. At Brandeis, we appreciate the support and counsel of Marc Brettler, David Wright and Sylvia Barack Fishman, in their ca- pacity as chairs of the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, and of Sylvia Fuks Fried. At Academic Studies Press, we appreciate the patience and diligence of Sharona Vedol, Kira Nemirovsky, and Danielle Padula. 8 Acknowledgements We would be remiss if we did not particularly mention Lee Shulman. Throughout the evolution of the project, over and over again, we called upon both his scholarship and his friend- ship, and neither one ever failed us. We also express our gratitude to the Mandel Foundation for its partnership with Brandeis University in creating and sup- porting the Mandel Center and its work. The conference on Teaching Rabbinic Literature in 2008 was graciously and generously supported by a grant from the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Re- ligion, as well as a grant from Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP). Another grant, from an anonymous source, enabled the videorecording of the conference and the publication of the video footage on the web. Finally, we are grateful to Targum Shlishi, a Raquel and Aryeh Rubin Foundation, for supporting the publication of this book. A number of the chapters of the book have been revised and condensed from articles first published elsewhere. Chap- ter 2 is adapted from the third chapter in Barry Holtz, Textual Knowledge: Teaching the Bible in Theory and Practice (JTSA Press, 2003) and is reprinted by permission of JTS Press. Chapter 3 is adapted from Jon A. Levisohn, “A Menu of Orientations to the Teaching of Rabbinic Literature,” Journal of Jewish Educa- tion 76:1 (2010), and is reprinted by permission of the pub- lisher (Taylor & Francis Ltd.). Chapter 6 is adapted from Jane Kanarek, “The Pedagogy of Slowing Down: Teaching Talmud in a Summer Kollel,” Teaching Theology and Religion 13:1 (2010), and is reprinted by permission of the publisher (John Wiley and Sons, Inc.). Chapter 8 is adapted from Jon A. Levisohn, “Introducing the Contextual Orientation to the Bible: A Com- parative Study,” Journal of Jewish Education 74:1 (2008), and is reprinted by permission of the publisher (Taylor & Francis Ltd.). Chapter 9 is adapted from Michael Satlow, “Narratives or Sources? Active Learning and the Teaching of Ancient Jewish History and Texts,” Teaching Theology and Religion 15:1 (2012), and is reprinted by permission of the publisher (John Wiley and Sons, Inc.). Chapter 10 is adapted from Susan E. Tanchel, “‘A Judaism That Does Not Hide’: Teaching the Documentary 9 Acknowledgments Hypothesis in a Pluralistic Jewish High School,” Journal of Jew- ish Education 74:1 (2008), and is reprinted by permission of the publisher (Taylor & Francis Ltd.). Chapter 12 is adapted from Orit Kent, “A Theory of Havruta Learning,” Journal of Jewish Education 76:3 (2010), and is reprinted by permission of the publisher (Taylor & Francis Ltd.). Chapter 14 is adapted from Beth Cousens et al., “Using the Contextual Orientation to Fa- cilitate the Study of Bible with Generation X,” Journal of Jewish Education 74:1 (2008), and is reprinted by permission of the publisher (Taylor & Francis Ltd.). Foreword Sharon Feiman-Nemser Kiddushin 40b: Rabbi Tarfon and the Elders were once re- clining in the upper story of Nitza’s house in Lod, when this question was raised before them: “Is study greater, or practice?” Rabbi Tarfon answered, saying: “Practice is greater.” Rabbi Akiba answered, saying: “Study is greater.” Then they all answered and said: “Study is greater, for study leads to practice.” Writing this Foreword is a particularly pleasurable task because Turn It and Turn It Again, the first book from the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis University, captures so much of what the Center is about. Since its founding in 2002, the Mandel Center has become the address for serious research on teaching and learning in Jewish education. This collection of studies by thoughtful teachers of Bible and rabbinic literature exemplifies a new tradition of scholarship in Jewish education and demonstrates how the study of practice can lead to improved practice. An early project of the Mandel Center, the Initiative on Bridging Scholarship and Pedagogy in Jewish Studies was established to give teachers of Jewish studies—wherever and whomever they teach—the opportunity to explore how to create transformative learning experi- ences for their students. Led by Jon Levisohn, it brought together scholars and Jewish educators in seminars and conferences to work on questions of pedagogy and to understand better how research can strengthen practice. Besides introducing participants to research on the teaching and learning of specific subjects, the project supported teach- ers from diverse institutional settings and educational levels in studying some aspect of their teaching and/or their students’ learning.