The current crisis in Israel has educational ramifications for Jewish educators everywhere. We encourage you to explore some of the big issues with your students and constituents, from a Peoplehood perspective.
Here are some topic ideas, based on some reflections in our recent blog posts:
1. Big Questions. Read Shlomi Ravid’s recent blog post about the core Peoplehood questions that are arising from the current situation in Israel. Choose one to explore more fully with your students. For example, if you want to consider the questions of universal versus particular values, take a look at our resources on this topic in the Peoplehood Education Toolkit and the edition of the Peoplehood Papers dedicated to this subject.
2. Notions of Solidarity. Read Elan Ezrachi’s recent blog post and the original post from 2012. Consider some of these questions with your students/congregants/work colleagues:
- Where and how do you see Jewish solidarity at this time?
- Do you agree with Elan Ezrachi that the current form of Jewish solidarity that we are seeing is undesirable?
- What do you think are the roots of solidarity between different types of Jews? What would you like it to look like?
3. Family Feelings. Read Clare Goldwater’s recent blog post about Jewish Peoplehood as family ties. Watch the videos on this topic by Avraham Infeld.
- Think more deeply about the family metaphor. What does it imply about our relationships with each other? How do your students feel about this metaphor? Does it help them feel more or less connected to other Jews?
- Ask your students if they have ever had a “family” experience with other Jews they didn’t know.
- Think about Avraham Infeld’s distinction between “uniform” and “unified”. As he asks – Is it possible for us to be unified without being uniform? On what basis?
We’d love to hear more ideas, and feedback from you about how you have raised some of these issues with your learners.
Rashi’s commentary on B’reshit, ccrneoning the very first pasuk. He cites Rabbi Yitzhak as follows: It was not necessary to begin the Torah, [whose main objective is to teach commandments and mitzvot, with this verse] but from This month shall be unto you the [beginning of months] [Sh’mot 12:2], since this is the first mitzva that Israel was commanded. And what is the reason that this begins with B’reshit? Because of [the verse] The power of His works He hath declared to His people in giving them the heritage of the nations [Tehillim 111:6]. For if the nations of the world should say to Israel: ‘You are robbers, because you have seized by force the lands of the seven nations’ they [Israel] could say to them, ‘The entire world belongs to the Holy One, Blessed Be He, He created it and gave it to whomever it was right in His eyes. Of His own will He took it from them and gave it to us.’ [Yalkut, Sh’mot 12:2]Finally, a section of Tanakh — Tehillim 105:44-45 states: And He gave them the lands of the nations and the labor of the people did they inherit. That they might keep His statutes and observe His laws.If indeed these are the facts, if Jewish thought rests upon the validity of the Torah being true, then the halakhic decisions derived must conform to these truths. Why cannot a Jewish polity be formed in Lithuania or Brooklyn?Simply put, G-d gave the Jewish people a place and that place is the Land of Israel. The question of why the Land of Israel is thus answered. If a Jew is to accept one tenant of the Torah, he must, in order to be logically consistent, accept the whole of Torah. Likewise, if a person is to accept that he is Jewish then he must define this concept upon viable and authentic Jewish sources and render precise his own actions accordingly. Any other alternative to this is something other than Judaism. That is, a person may, given free-will, live according to what is right in his own eyes, however, he must be rationally forced to understand that it is of his own devise and should be so called as such.