Building the Future: a Theory of Jewish Education

[PDF version here]

Building the Broken

[11] Unhappy storm-tossed one, uncomforted!

I will lay bright red gems as your building stones

And will make your foundations of sapphires.

[12] I will make your battlements of rubies,

Your gates of precious stones,

The whole encircling wall of gems.

[13] And all your children [banayikh] shall be disciples of the Eternal One,

And great shall be the happiness of your children.

 (Isaiah 54:11-13)

Children, or Builders?

          Rabbi Elazar said in the name of Rabbi Hanina: Students of Torah increase peace in the world. As it is said: “And all your children [banayikh] shall be disciples of the Eternal One, and great shall be the happiness of your children” (Is. 54:13).

          Read not: “your children” [banayikh]; rather: “your builders” [bonayikh].

 (Babylonian Talmud, Brachot 64b)

Of Kashrut and Kugel

In the modern era, we see a transformation: from a community in which practice is learned through the imitation of one’s parents and peers (a “mimetic community”) to a text-based community, where practice is primarily determined by canonical legal texts.

In a traditional, mimetic society, practice is handed down as a whole from one generation to the next, and the distinction between halakhah (biblical and rabbinic law) and minhag (communal custom) is glossed over. In a text-based society, the differences between halakhah and minhag come to the fore.

Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929, Germany) aspired to replace what he deemed to be the traditional, somewhat dismissive attitude toward minhag (“it’s only a minhag”) with one that would give it the same status as law. He believed that the traditional dishes handed down from mother to daughter—minhag—should be as irreplaceable as the legal requirement of separation of meat and milk—halakhah. To paraphrase: Kugel is as important as kashrut.

(Lawrence Kaplan, “Kashrut and Kugel”)

Pre-modern	Modern
Mimetic (imitational) learning	Text-based learning
Halakhah (written law) equal to minhag (unwritten custom)	Halakhah (written law) preferenced over minhag (unwritten custom)
Kashrut alongside kugel	Kashrut over kugel

The Jewish Neighborhood Experience (mimetic learning)

The best [Jewish supplemental] schools intentionally develop a community among their students, staff, and parents. They begin with the assumption that leaning cannot be separated from context, and that to a large extent the school’s most important message is embedded in the culture and relationships it fosters. Hence, they devote much time to building a community that attends to the needs of individual children; embraces them in an environment where their classmates become their good, often their best, friends; and connects them to the larger congregational body. … The best schools believe: “If your kids know the alef-bet before everyone’s name in the class, everyone gets an F.” They strive “to create a Jewish ‘neighborhood’ experience, which no longer exists in the places where the students actually live.”

(Jack Wertheimer, Learning and Community, pp. 347-348)

Paradigm Shift (reclaiming minhag)

The prevailing paradigm of Jewish identity in America is preoccupied with the question “How Jewish are American Jews?” in contrast to what we could be asking, which is “How are American Jews Jewish?”

(Bethamie Horowitz, as cited in Charmé and Zelkowicz, “Educating for Jewish Identities: Multiple and Moving Targets")

Children AND Builders

This is the very basis of our communal and individual life: the feeling of being our fathers’ children, our grandchildren’s ancestors. Therefore we may rightly expect to find ourselves again, at some time, somehow, in our fathers’ every word and deed; and also that our own words and deeds will have some meaning for our grandchildren. For as we are, as Scripture puts it, “children” [banayikh]; we are also, as tradition reads it, “Builders” [bonayikh].

I can think of no better description of what it means to be a mimetic community.

(Franz Rosenzweig, “The Builders”)