Comments on: Education for Education’s Sake

By: Mandi Katz

Mandi Katz — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 23:59:38 +0000

Emma – nice article. I thought Limmud Oz was brilliant – I was abuzz for days after.I went to three text based ‘lectures’ given by Rabbi Daniel Landes of the Pardes institute – in each session, I was intellectually stretched (which may not be saying much) and moved by the wisdom of his insight. I suppose those session were more formal than the Solomon lectures but that’s the beauty of Limmud Oz – I understand that the way it works is that there is no filtering – anyone who wants to can run a session. It’s truly pluralistic in terms of process and then content and format.
A less conventional session that I heard the end of, was Amichai Lau Lavi introducing the idea of Storahtelling (which I had seen in practice on the previous shabbat) which is the idea of interspersing the reading of the parsha with a slightly dramatised interpretation of the text in English (or French or whatever- the vernacular) -the Limmud OZ sessions was very interactive and different to most Jewish educational experiences most present would have had.
Akiva I would also be interested to understand your comment better. I don’t see a downside to stimulating people’s appetite for Jewish content – even if it is necessarily less rigorous than formal education.

By: Ittay

Ittay — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 13:51:42 +0000

akiva,
for my interest, can you please define what you mean by “rigour” and give an example of propaganda in the context of jewish eduaction.

By: not from caulfield

not from caulfield — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 09:51:07 +0000

Thanks Emma

Yes, I too come from a secular family, and while I went to a Jewish day school for many years, I think it would raise serious concerns among family members if I showed any voluntary interest in Judaism. Funny!

I missed Limmud Oz, but thanks to sites like this I am informed about these events and would consider attending another year.

By: ariel

ariel — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 23:01:52 +0000

David Solomon is the man!
We need him to educate the dayschool educators!

By: David Werdiger

David Werdiger — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 22:25:47 +0000

Bring it on! The Jewish world needs more David Solomons, and more opportunities for Jews to engage with our rich history and light the fire of enthusiasm for Jewish learning of all types.

There’s an old Chassidic story about a man who goes to his Rebbe with a question: “I’m a busy man, and only have one spare hour a week to study Torah: what should I learn: Talmud (which would be considered the ‘bread and butter’ of Torah study) or Chassidut (exploration of mystical aspects of the Torah)?”

His Rebbe responded that he should spend the hour learning Chassidut, because in doing so, he would come to realize that he could indeed find a further hour for Talmud study as well in his busy week.

By: Akiva

Akiva — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:44:39 +0000

Jewish education without rigour has about as much integrity as propaganda, in my opinion.