Articles

What Is Jewish Education?

All parents who identify strongly with being Jewish will agree that they would like their children to have a Jewish education. Jewish education is very important in helping to keep children frum. Now, if you were to ask several people to write down on a piece of paper what a Jewish education means to them, there will be a large variety of ideas. Almost everyone has a different definition of what they feel is a Jewish education. One hundred Jewish parents from different backgrounds and communities may produce one hundred different definitions.

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It is gratifying that my collection of essays, entitled Increasing Peace Through Balanced Torah Study, will appear in January as Conversations issue 27. Thanks to several generous co-sponsors, we look forward to distributing this issue throughout the country as I speak and promote the values of the Institute. We hope that the volume contributes to disseminating our work in a tangible way to the thousands of people we reach each year.

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""...and by thy seed shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves" (Bereishith 26:4).

In this week's Torah portion, God assures Yitzhak that the nations of the earth will find blessing in his descendants. God had made a similar statement to Yitzhak's father, Abraham; and later makes this statement to Yitzhak's son, Yaacov. The children of Abraham, Yitzhak and Yaacov--the people of Israel--have a special destiny. They live not only for themselves and their immediate families; rather, they live for the benefit of all humankind.

(This opinion piece was published by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, November 21, 2016)

Let us begin with the facts: Converts whose conversions were conducted according to halachah, or Jewish law, are 100 percent Jewish.

In the eyes of God and Torah, they are full Jews, just as Jewish as any born Jews. Their Jewishness is not contingent on the Israeli Chief Rabbinate or anyone else. Halachic converts are Jewish, their children are Jewish, they are obligated to fulfill the mitzvot like all other Jews.

Writing in the 5761 (2001) issue of the journal Techumin, Rabbi Yehuda Zoldan addressed a question that confronted the increasing number of Orthodox Jews who had entered the Israeli Foreign Service: Were there any ways in which some of the halakhic strictures normally imposed on those having contacts with non-Jews could be mitigated in the interests of service to the State?

Jews and non-Jews have recognized the practical wisdom of many of the sayings in Pirkei Avot, “The Ethics of the Fathers,” and many can quote its teachings from memory. The "Neuwirth Edition" of the Pirkei Avot, published by Koren, includes the English translation of Rabbi Dr. Lord Jonathan Sacks, and the commentary of Rabbi Dr. Marc D. Angel.

(Rabbi Johnny Solomon teaches Tanakh, Halakha, and Jewish Thought at Machon Ma’ayan and is a freelance Jewish Education Consultant. Prior to his move to Israel, he held a number of senior positions in Jewish educational institutions, and most recently, he was the Head of Judaic Studies at Hasmonean Girls’ School (London). He studied at Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavne, University College London, and at the Montefiore Kollel in London.)

PART I: AN EXAMPLE OF MISUNDERSTANDING AND MISAPPLICATION

Abraham must have been a very unpopular man in the society and family in which he was raised. He wouldn't likely have been elected to lead the citizenry of Ur Kasdim. He rejected their worldview, smashed their idols, repudiated their (un)ethical system. Who would vote for Abraham? He was a starry-eyed mystic and philosopher, not interested in pandering to the values and interests of his fellow citizens.

            To read Talmud is to experience it in translation. Too often, we prevent ourselves from considering what “Oral Torah” really means. We know that the sages considered it forbidden to write their own teachings down, and that all their material was recorded in human memory rather than on parchment. But a recitation and a reading are not merely presenting the same information in different media; a book is read by a reader, while a sage speaks with a listener.