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<strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Lookstein</strong> <strong>Center</strong> <strong>for</strong> <strong>Jewish</strong> <strong>Education</strong><br />
School of <strong>Education</strong>, Bar Ilan University<br />
חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007<br />
Focus on:<br />
<strong>The</strong> Search <strong>for</strong><br />
in <strong>Jewish</strong> <strong>Education</strong><br />
| חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
Volume 5 (2) Winter 2007<br />
חורף | 5767<br />
<strong>Jewish</strong> <strong>Education</strong>al Leadership<br />
A publication of<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Lookstein</strong> <strong>Center</strong> <strong>for</strong> <strong>Jewish</strong> <strong>Education</strong> in the Diaspora<br />
School of <strong>Education</strong><br />
Bar-Ilan University<br />
THE RABBI DR. JOSEPH H. LOOKSTEIN CENTER<br />
FOR JEWISH EDUCATION IN THE DIASPORA<br />
Journal Staff<br />
Beverly Buncher, Editor<br />
Zvi Grumet, Associate Editor<br />
Elana Maryles Sztokman, Managing Editor<br />
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Sharon Zimmerman<br />
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Lookstein</strong> <strong>Center</strong><br />
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PEJE<br />
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Azrieli Graduate School, Yeshiva University<br />
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Yeshivah of Flatbush<br />
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<strong>Jewish</strong> <strong>Education</strong>al Leadership is distributed to members of <strong>The</strong> <strong>Lookstein</strong> <strong>Center</strong>.<br />
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All rights reserved. Winter 2007.<br />
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| חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
Letter from the<br />
Editor-in-Chief<br />
Beverly A. Buncher<br />
<strong>The</strong> idea that we as individuals have three<br />
relationships to develop in this world in<br />
order to be good Jews (person to God,<br />
person to person, and person to self) is a<br />
powerful one. Zelig Pliskin’s book Gateway<br />
to Happiness, paraphrases a passage from<br />
the Alai Shur that mentions the three<br />
relationships in a way that has become a<br />
spiritual compass <strong>for</strong> me over the years. “A<br />
person who has mastered peace of mind has<br />
gained everything. To obtain peace of mind<br />
you need to be at peace with the people in<br />
your environment. You need to be at peace<br />
with yourself – your emotions and desires.<br />
Furthermore, you need to be at peace with<br />
your Creator.”<br />
During a particularly stressful stretch in my<br />
professional career, I was accepted to the<br />
Institute <strong>for</strong> <strong>Jewish</strong> Spirituality’s Educators<br />
Program which offered Educators of <strong>Jewish</strong><br />
Teens an opportunity to renew themselves<br />
through a two year cohort that included<br />
instruction in <strong>Jewish</strong> meditation, Torah<br />
Yoga, Hasidic text study and work with<br />
Rachael Kessler, founder of the PassageWays<br />
Program and author of <strong>The</strong> Soul of Educattion<br />
(ASCD). At the end of the two years,<br />
we would take a project back to our schools<br />
<strong>for</strong> our students. I saw this program as an<br />
opportunity <strong>for</strong> me to reinvigorate my work<br />
on the three relationships.<br />
<strong>The</strong> program had a tremendous impact on<br />
my inner and outer life as an educator, helpiing<br />
me bring the three relationships back<br />
into balance in my life. It also inspired me<br />
to begin writing again, to get my body back<br />
in shape, to be more in touch with my own<br />
spirituality, and to implement the PassageW-<br />
Ways program (see below) in my own school<br />
(my take-home project).<br />
<strong>The</strong> most important lesson I learned from<br />
the experience is the importance of taking<br />
care of my own relationships, my own inner<br />
and outer lives, in order to truly help others<br />
| <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership<br />
grow in a trans<strong>for</strong>mational way. With the<br />
importance of nurturing the principal,<br />
teacher, and student in mind, this issue is<br />
filled with articles designed to be renewing<br />
to you on both the personal and professionaal<br />
levels. <strong>Here</strong> are just some of the articles<br />
awaiting you within:<br />
• Inviting Soul into the Classroom by Rachael<br />
Kessler shares the PassageWays program as<br />
a means to help students open up to their<br />
own spiritual development, along with a<br />
focus on helping teachers develop their<br />
‘Teaching Presence’ in order to facilitate<br />
student growth most effectively.<br />
• Arlene Fishbein’s Feeling at Home in their<br />
Own Skins and with Each Other shares her<br />
own experience implementing the PasssageWays<br />
program with her students. After<br />
spending a few days studying with Rachael<br />
Kessler, Arlene brought the PassageWays<br />
program back to her classroom and has<br />
watched her students grow in their abilities<br />
to relate to themselves and each other<br />
throughout the year.<br />
• Alan Brill sees spirituality as a ‘catchpphrase’<br />
<strong>for</strong> what he calls ‘at least four very<br />
different approaches to seeking a sense of<br />
the transcendental in life.’ He describes the<br />
characteristics of each and gives guidelines<br />
of how to approach students who operate<br />
from each of the four.<br />
• Stephen Bailey asks ‘Can Spirituality be<br />
Taught’ describing Krathwohl’s Taxonomy<br />
of Affective <strong>Education</strong> as a means to open<br />
students up to spirituality. He walks readers<br />
through the process using tefillah as one<br />
example of an area in which to do so.<br />
• Moshe Drelich focuses on the importance<br />
of role modeling to the process of engaging<br />
students in tefillah, describing his own insspiring<br />
approach to students in the process.<br />
• Jay Goldmintz shares a unique method of<br />
teaching tefillah using pictures as prompts<br />
and motivators. This replicable method is<br />
shared in an article that includes pictures<br />
as well as text to walk readers through the<br />
process.<br />
• Aryeh Ben David offers an approach to<br />
spiritual education that encompasses the inttellectual,<br />
emotional, physical and spiritual<br />
realms in order to engage students’ souls,<br />
explaining why all must be utilized in order<br />
to bring about trans<strong>for</strong>mation.<br />
• Nancy Siegel’s Silence <strong>for</strong> Renewal: <strong>The</strong><br />
Power of Silence in the Classroom provides<br />
ideas and exercises to help one get in touch<br />
with one’s ‘inner world’ in order to experieence<br />
an inner renewal and awakening <strong>for</strong><br />
both teachers and students.<br />
• Lillian Yaffe writes about how being kidnnapped<br />
by Colombian guerillas trans<strong>for</strong>med<br />
her perspective on teaching and on life<br />
itself. This experience led the <strong>for</strong>mer college<br />
professor to choose a high school teaching<br />
career as a way to make a lasting difference<br />
in students’ lives.<br />
• Elana Sztokman visited the Reut school in<br />
Jerusalem and writes about the spiritual appproach<br />
of this model school and its founder<br />
Aryeh Geiger. This article is all the more<br />
poignant as it describes how Dr. Geiger is<br />
walking the school community through his<br />
own battle with cancer.<br />
In addition to these and the other inspiring<br />
articles you’ll find within these covers, you<br />
will find several article on the web at<br />
www.lookstein.org/journal.htm designed<br />
to spark further conversation on topics as<br />
diverse as the creative arts, gender,defining<br />
and finding spirituality in the community<br />
school, questions to spark spiritual discusssions,<br />
and how the synagogue experience<br />
affects preschoolers’ views of God. (See web<br />
abstract page <strong>for</strong> more in<strong>for</strong>mation.)<br />
Let me know which of the articles touched<br />
you in a way that helped you make a differeence<br />
in your life and/or that of your school.<br />
You can reach me at beverly@lookstein.org.<br />
Lehitraot!<br />
Beverly A. Buncher
<strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership<br />
Focus on: <strong>The</strong> Search <strong>for</strong> Spirituality<br />
חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007<br />
TableofContents<br />
Research / Focus<br />
4 > Inviting Soul into the Classroom | Rachael Kessler<br />
10 > Spiritualities in the Classroom | Alan Brill<br />
14 > Can Spirituality be Taught | Stephen Bailey<br />
Applications<br />
18 > Engaging the Soul: An <strong>Education</strong>al Program | Aryeh Ben David<br />
21 > <strong>The</strong> Effective Use of Holy Stories | Annette Labovitz<br />
26 > <strong>The</strong> Art of Tefillah | Jay Goldmintz<br />
31 > <strong>The</strong> Power of Silence in the Classroom | Nancy Siegel<br />
34 > Feeling at Home in their Own Skins and With Each Other | Arlene Fishbein<br />
39 > Helping Students Launch <strong>The</strong>ir Spiritual Journeys | Devorah Katz<br />
40 > Tefillah Motivation through Relationship Building and<br />
Role Modeling: One Rabbi’s Approach | Moshe Drelich<br />
Features<br />
44 > From the Classics: Seeking Spirituality outside of Torah | Levi Cooper<br />
47 > Lessons from Life: Once a Teacher, Always a Teacher | Lillian Yaffe<br />
51 > <strong>The</strong> Cutting Edge: Assessing Religious Growth | Scott Goldberg<br />
54 > School Profile: Reut | Elana Sztokman<br />
62 > Web Abstracts<br />
63 > Call <strong>for</strong> Papers<br />
64 > Perspectives: On the Search <strong>for</strong> Spirituality in <strong>Jewish</strong> <strong>Education</strong> | Saul Berman<br />
<strong>The</strong> publication of this issue of <strong>Jewish</strong> <strong>Education</strong>al Leadership was made possible through a generous grant<br />
in loving memory of Sprinze (Donner) Blum and HaRav Avraham Mordechai Blum from the family<br />
| חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
Research / Focus: Inviting Soul into the Classroom<br />
Classrooms That Welcome Soul<br />
When soul is present in education, attention<br />
shifts. We listen with great care not only to<br />
what is spoken but also to the messages bettween<br />
the words - tones, gestures, the flicker<br />
of feeling across the face. We concentrate on<br />
what has heart and meaning. <strong>The</strong> yearning,<br />
wonder, wisdom, fear, and confusion of<br />
students become central to the curriculum.<br />
Questions become as important as answers.<br />
Inviting Soul<br />
Into<br />
the Classroom<br />
Rachael Kessler<br />
Rachael Kessler, founder and director of the PassageWays Institute, facilitates and conducts<br />
professional and curriculum development <strong>for</strong> educators. She is the author of <strong>The</strong> Soul of<br />
<strong>Education</strong>: Helping Students Find Connection, Compassion, and Character at School (ASCD,<br />
2000). For further in<strong>for</strong>mation on opportunities <strong>for</strong> professional development, practical<br />
guidelines and additional articles, visit www.passageways.org.<br />
When soul enters the classroom, masks drop<br />
away. Students dare to share the joy and taleents<br />
they feared would provoke jealousy in<br />
even their best friends. <strong>The</strong>y risk exposing<br />
the pain or shame that might be judged as<br />
weakness. Seeing deeply into the perspective<br />
of others, accepting what has felt unworthy<br />
in themselves, students discover compasssion<br />
and begin to learn about <strong>for</strong>giveness.<br />
For almost 20 years, I have worked with<br />
teams of educators around the country in<br />
both private and public schools to create<br />
curriculum, methodology, and teacher<br />
development that can feed the awakening<br />
spirit of young people as part of school<br />
life. I call this approach the PassageWays<br />
Program, a set of principles and practices<br />
<strong>for</strong> working with adolescents that integrates<br />
heart, spirit, and community with strong<br />
academics. This curriculum of the heart<br />
is a response to the usually unspoken<br />
questions and concerns of teenagers.<br />
Most adolescents grapple with the proffound<br />
questions of loss, love, and letting<br />
go. Of meaning, purpose, and service. Of<br />
self-reliance and community, and of choice<br />
and surrender. How they respond to these<br />
questions – whether with love and empoweerment,<br />
denial, or even violence – can be<br />
profoundly influenced by the community<br />
of the classroom. When students work<br />
together to create an authentic community,<br />
they learn that they can meet any challenge<br />
– even wrenching conflict, prejudice, proffound<br />
gratitude, or death – with grace, love,<br />
and power. Creating authentic community<br />
is the first step in the soul of education.<br />
* * *<br />
| <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
Rachael Kessler<br />
It is the time in our Senior Passage course<br />
when we celebrate and honor childhood<br />
be<strong>for</strong>e the challenge of letting it go. We ask<br />
the students to sift and sort as they stand<br />
on the threshold to adulthood: What do you<br />
want to take with you and what do you want<br />
to leave behind because it no longer serves<br />
you<br />
Each student is invited to share something<br />
precious from their childhood that they<br />
want always to take with them. Nostalgia<br />
wafts through the room as we all scan our<br />
memories <strong>for</strong> these precious moments,<br />
people, and places from childhood. A glow<br />
like the color of twilight seems to surround<br />
us as the stories are shared:<br />
I would take with me the innocence of childhhood,<br />
when I didn’t even know that other people<br />
were different from me.<br />
I would take my friend who I shared so much of<br />
my childhood with – so many good moments,<br />
and even bad ones.<br />
I would take my village in the Sudan – my<br />
language, culture, all those things that everyone<br />
thinks I have <strong>for</strong>gotten, but I have not.<br />
I would take the moonlight, and the truth of my<br />
imagination.<br />
Each student is invited to share something precious from their<br />
childhood that they want always to take with them. Nostalgia wafts<br />
through the room as we all scan our memories <strong>for</strong> these precious<br />
moments, people, and places from childhood.<br />
I would take my dress-up box and all the times<br />
I spent trying on so many ways of being.<br />
I would take the song of the meadowlark<br />
and the smell of grass and the wet earth<br />
in the greenbelt behind my house where<br />
I spent so much of my childhood.<br />
Poised on the brink of huge decisions,<br />
departures, loss, confusion, and emerggence,<br />
these sophisticated 18 year-olds are<br />
basking now in the sweetness of childhhood<br />
that they have brought into the<br />
room. We have created together a space<br />
that is safe enough <strong>for</strong> tenderness.<br />
Minutes later, we tell them it is time<br />
to come into the present, to explore in<br />
anonymous writing what they are wonderiing<br />
about, worried about, curious and afraid<br />
of. We give them paper and pencils to write<br />
their “personal mysteries”: the thoughts<br />
they have when they lay awake at night.<br />
<strong>The</strong> moment they take hold of the pencils,<br />
the atmosphere in the room shifts. A flood<br />
has been unleashed. <strong>The</strong>y turn their chairs<br />
every which way to separate from each<br />
other and begin to pour out onto the page<br />
<strong>for</strong> 20 minutes. I rest in the silence in the<br />
room, the soft sounds of lead on paper. I<br />
feel transported to a sense of deep trust. We<br />
have created together an atmosphere that is<br />
safe enough <strong>for</strong> the soul to speak.<br />
* * *<br />
How Can Teachers Invite Soul<br />
Safety in the classroom is the essential first<br />
step in creating the conditions <strong>for</strong> spiritual<br />
<strong>for</strong>mation and in helping students make<br />
the choices that build and sustain a life of<br />
compassion and integrity. Students need to<br />
feel safe,<br />
• to feel and know what they feel<br />
• to tolerate confusion and uncertainty<br />
• to express what they feel and think<br />
• to ask questions that feel dumb or have no<br />
answers<br />
• to take risks, make mistakes, and grow and<br />
<strong>for</strong>give<br />
• to wrestle with the demons inside that lead<br />
us to harm.<br />
To achieve this safety and openness,<br />
students and teachers in a classroom work<br />
together carefully <strong>for</strong> weeks and months to<br />
build the healthy relationships that lead to<br />
authentic community. <strong>The</strong> first step is colllaboratively<br />
creating agreements – condittions<br />
that students name as essential <strong>for</strong><br />
speaking about what matters most to them.<br />
In classroom after classroom, across the<br />
country and the age span, students call <strong>for</strong><br />
essentially the same qualities of behavior:<br />
respect, honesty, caring, listening, fairness,<br />
openness, and commitment.<br />
Play helps students focus, relax, and<br />
become a team through laughter and coopeeration.<br />
In addition to strengthening comm-<br />
| חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
Research / Focus: Inviting Soul into the Classroom<br />
munity and helping students become fully<br />
present, theatre games or initiatives from<br />
experiential education and the expressive<br />
arts engage students in moving their bodies<br />
– essential <strong>for</strong> the unwinding of the nervous<br />
system which can help students deal with<br />
overstimulation and stress. Play and the<br />
arts provide opportunities <strong>for</strong> young people<br />
to express the creative drive that is one<br />
essential avenue to nurturing the spirit of<br />
students.<br />
At the beginning of class, silence can help<br />
students to settle; to digest what they have<br />
been learning; to honor <strong>for</strong> a moment what<br />
is distracting them; to rest, daydream,<br />
or pray so that they come refreshed and<br />
fully present to this new subject. Students<br />
learn to make friends with silence. Eighthgrade<br />
English teacher Colleen Conrad, who<br />
has integrated practices <strong>for</strong> community<br />
building and increasing focusing abilities,<br />
calls this five- to ten-minute period a “solo<br />
time.” Her students have responded with<br />
immense gratitude. “Why are your students<br />
so much more focused than mine” asked<br />
a colleague in her department. A new<br />
math teacher reported that in the middle<br />
of a very difficult class in which students<br />
were frustrated and stumped, one student<br />
raised his hand and said, “What we need<br />
to solve this problem is a solo time.”<br />
Teachers who integrate the PassageWays<br />
model spend weeks providing practice<br />
in the art of deep listening and aut<br />
thentic speaking, first in pairs and<br />
then in the larger circle. Students learn<br />
to let go of their own agendas and simply<br />
bear witness to what the other is sayiing.<br />
When speaking, they learn to look<br />
to themselves <strong>for</strong> what they want to say<br />
and not depend on cues from others.<br />
Using Symbols<br />
Symbols that students create or bring<br />
into class allow teenagers to speak inddirectly<br />
about feelings and thoughts<br />
that are awkward to address head on.<br />
I talked with my students about life being like a journey. As little as<br />
they were, they seemed to understand. <strong>The</strong>y drew pictures about their<br />
journey. We talked about their journeys. <strong>The</strong>n I asked them to look <strong>for</strong> an<br />
object in nature that reminded them of themselves and of their journey.<br />
Symbols are a powerful way to help students<br />
move quickly and deeply into their feelings.<br />
“Take some time this week to think about<br />
what is really important to you in your life<br />
right now,” we ask high school seniors in<br />
a course designed to be a rite of passage<br />
from adolescence to adulthood. “<strong>The</strong>n<br />
find an object which can symbolize what<br />
you realize is so important to you now.”<br />
This raggedy old doll belonged to my mother. I<br />
have been cut off from my mother during most<br />
of high school. We just couldn’t get along. But<br />
now that we know I’m going to leave soon, we<br />
have suddenly discovered each other again.<br />
I love her so much. My relationship to my<br />
mother is what is really important to me now.<br />
A principal in Canada shared a story from<br />
her days of teaching a first- and secondgrade<br />
class where she also worked with<br />
symbols:<br />
“I talked with my students about life being<br />
like a journey. As little as they were, they<br />
seemed to understand. <strong>The</strong>y drew pictures<br />
about their journey. We talked about their<br />
journeys. <strong>The</strong>n I asked them to look <strong>for</strong><br />
an object in nature that reminded them<br />
of themselves and of their journey.”<br />
A second-grade boy brought in two jars filled<br />
with shells. “I call these brain shells”, he said<br />
pointing to the first jar. “<strong>The</strong>y remind me of<br />
me because I’m very smart.” <strong>The</strong>n he held up<br />
the jar in which the same shells were crushed.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>se crushed shells remind me of me too.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y remind me of how hard I am on myself<br />
when I don’t do things just right.”<br />
While symbols are particularly important<br />
<strong>for</strong> adolescents because they allow an<br />
indirectness of expression at a time when<br />
young people need to create a separate<br />
sense of self, we can see that even <strong>for</strong> young<br />
children symbols lead to profound selfawareness.<br />
Self-awareness – what Daniel<br />
Goleman considers the foundation skill of<br />
emotional intelligence – is essential to deep<br />
connection to the self and to meaningful<br />
communication that allows deep connection<br />
with others.<br />
Symbols can also be used as a private<br />
exercise in self-awareness. “Draw or sculpt<br />
a symbol of what you are feeling right now.<br />
You don’t need to show it to anyone else.<br />
It’s just <strong>for</strong> you.” Or, “Write a metaphor<br />
about what friendship means to you. You<br />
can share it with the group or keep it <strong>for</strong><br />
yourself, putting it in your folder to look at<br />
when the semester ends.”<br />
Asking Questions<br />
Questions of wonder or mysteries<br />
questions are another tool <strong>for</strong> encouraging<br />
students to discover what is in their hearts.<br />
Once trust and respect is established in the<br />
classroom, we give students the opportunity<br />
to write anonymously the questions they<br />
think about when they can’t sleep at night<br />
or when they’re alone or daydreaming in<br />
class.<br />
Why am I here Does my life have a purpose<br />
How do I find it<br />
I have been hurt so many times, I wonder if<br />
there is God.<br />
How does one trust oneself or believe in oneself<br />
How can I not be cynical<br />
Why this emptiness in this world, in my<br />
heart How does this emptiness get there,<br />
go away, and then come back again<br />
Why am I so alone Why do I feel like the<br />
burden of the world is on my shoulders<br />
| <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
Rachael Kessler<br />
<strong>The</strong>se are some of<br />
thousands of questions<br />
I have gathered from<br />
teenagers over the<br />
past 20 years. When<br />
students hear the collecttive<br />
mysteries of their<br />
classroom community<br />
read back to them in<br />
an honoring voice by<br />
their teachers, there is<br />
always one student who<br />
says, “I can’t believe I’m<br />
not alone anymore.”<br />
And then another will<br />
say, “I can’t believe you<br />
people wrote those<br />
questions.” “That lesson<br />
was awesome!” said<br />
one honors student to<br />
her advisory teacher in<br />
a large diverse public<br />
high school after heariing<br />
pages of personal<br />
“mysteries questions”<br />
written anonymously by her classmates. “I do not think of myself<br />
as a judgmental person, but I would never have believed that those<br />
other students had the same questions that I do.” Sharing their<br />
deep concerns, their curiosity, wonder and wisdom, students begin<br />
to discover a deep interest in their peers – even the ones they have<br />
always judged to be unworthy of their attention and respect. <strong>The</strong><br />
capacity <strong>for</strong> empathy has been stirred. And the search <strong>for</strong> meaning,<br />
so essential to spiritual <strong>for</strong>mation, is validated and stimulated.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Council Process<br />
Into this profound interest in their peers we introduce the practice<br />
of Council, the core of the PassageWays Model and of several other<br />
programs as well (see Jack Zimmerman and Virginia Coyle’s <strong>The</strong> Way<br />
of Council, Bramble Books). With everyone sitting in a circle where<br />
all can see and be seen, the Council allows each person to speak<br />
without interruption or immediate response. Students learn to listen<br />
deeply and discover how it feels to be truly heard. As students reflect<br />
on the same theme or tell stories from their lives that illustrate<br />
how they currently think or feel about the theme, those who listen<br />
deeply find themselves “walking in another person’s shoes.” This<br />
structured practice <strong>for</strong> multiple perspective-taking provides a skill<br />
and an experience that leads to critical and creative thinking and<br />
also to the development of empathy and compassion. In Council,<br />
students also experience stillness and silent reflection practiced<br />
in the company of others. Silence becomes a com<strong>for</strong>table ally as<br />
| חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
Research / Focus: Inviting Soul into the Classroom<br />
we pause to digest one story and wait <strong>for</strong><br />
another to <strong>for</strong>m or when teachers call <strong>for</strong><br />
moments of reflection or when the room<br />
fills with feeling at the end of a class.<br />
I remember you guys, and I bet you remember<br />
me, said Richard, his voice quavering as he<br />
said his good-byes to the students in his<br />
Senior Passage course:<br />
I was the guy you threw food at in the lunchrroom.<br />
I was the kid you hurled insults at – like<br />
geek and dork. Well, you know what I’m still<br />
a geek. I know that and so do you. But I also<br />
know something else. In the weeks and months<br />
of listening to your stories, and you listening<br />
to mine, I’ve seen that even the most beautiful<br />
girls in this class – the most beautiful girls in<br />
the world – have suffered with how they look<br />
or how others see them. I’ve shared your pain<br />
and you’ve shared mine. You guys have really<br />
taken me in. You’ve accepted me and respected<br />
me. I love you guys, and I know you love me.<br />
“Apprehending the other’s reality, feeling<br />
what he feels as nearly as possible,” says Nel<br />
Noddings in Caring: A Feminine Approach to<br />
Ethics & Moral <strong>Education</strong>, “is the essential<br />
part of caring from the view of the one<br />
caring. For if I take on the other’s reality as<br />
possibility and begin to feel its reality, I feel<br />
also that I must act accordingly.” (1984 p.<br />
16) In Richard’s story, we can see clearly the<br />
possibilities <strong>for</strong> compassion and caring that<br />
arise when students have the opportunity<br />
to meet as a group in ways that go beyond<br />
civility, beyond cooperation, to discover a<br />
genuine communing heart to heart, soul<br />
to soul. Even students who are estranged<br />
or alienated or who see themselves as<br />
enemies experience the joy of transcendiing<br />
mistrust, stereotypes, and prejudice<br />
that once felt like permanent barriers.<br />
Gateways to the Souls of Students<br />
Listening to the stories of students over<br />
the years, reading thousands of “mysteries<br />
questions,” I began to see a pattern of what<br />
nourishes the inner life of young people.<br />
This map, the Seven Gateways to the Soul<br />
of Students, comes not from any religious<br />
or philosophical tradition, but from the<br />
voices of the students themselves. As we<br />
seek ways to foster spiritual development<br />
in our students, these “gateways” provide<br />
clues to the opportunities we can create or<br />
invite students to share in the classroom.<br />
1. <strong>The</strong> search <strong>for</strong> meaning and purpose<br />
concerns the exploration of existential<br />
questions that burst <strong>for</strong>th in adolescence.<br />
Why am I here<br />
Does my life have a purpose<br />
How do I find out what it is<br />
What does my future hold<br />
Is there life after death<br />
Is there a God<br />
2. <strong>The</strong> longing <strong>for</strong> silence and solitude<br />
can lead to identity <strong>for</strong>mation and goal<br />
setting, to learning readiness and inner<br />
peace. For adolescents, this domain is often<br />
ambivalent – fraught with both fear and<br />
urgent need. As a respite from the tyranny<br />
of busyness and noise that afflicts even our<br />
young children, silence may be a realm of<br />
reflection, calm, or fertile chaos – an avenue<br />
of stillness and rest <strong>for</strong> some, prayer or<br />
contemplation <strong>for</strong> others. A student wrote:<br />
I like to take time to go within myself somettimes.<br />
And when I do that, I try to take an empttiness<br />
inside there. I think that everyone strugggles<br />
to find their own way with their spirit and<br />
it’s in the struggle that our spirit comes <strong>for</strong>th.<br />
3. <strong>The</strong> urge <strong>for</strong> transcendence describes<br />
the desire of young people to go beyond<br />
their perceived limits. “How far can I be<br />
stretched, how much adversity can I stand”<br />
writes one student. “Is there a greater <strong>for</strong>ce<br />
at work Can humans tap into that <strong>for</strong>ce,<br />
and bring it into their daily lives” writes<br />
another. Transcendence includes not only<br />
the mystical realm, but also extraordinary<br />
experiences in the arts, athletics, academics,<br />
or human relations. By naming this human<br />
need that spans all cultures, educators<br />
can help students constructively channnel<br />
this urge and challenge themselves in<br />
ways that reach <strong>for</strong> this peak experience.<br />
4. <strong>The</strong> hunger <strong>for</strong> joy and delight can<br />
be satisfied through experiences of great<br />
simplicity, such as play, celebration, or<br />
gratitude. “I want to move many and take<br />
joy in every person, every little thing.”<br />
writes one student. Another asks: “Do all<br />
people have the same capacity to feel joy<br />
and sorrow” Educators can help students<br />
express the exaltation they feel when<br />
encountering beauty, power, grace, brillliance,<br />
love, or the sheer joy of being alive.<br />
5. <strong>The</strong> creative drive is perhaps the<br />
most familiar domain <strong>for</strong> nourishing the<br />
spirit of students. In opportunities <strong>for</strong><br />
acts of creation, people often encounter<br />
their participation in a process infused<br />
with depth, meaning, and mystery.<br />
6. <strong>The</strong> call <strong>for</strong> initiation refers to a<br />
hunger the ancients met through rites of<br />
passage <strong>for</strong> their young. As educators, we<br />
can create programs that guide adolescents<br />
to become conscious of the irrevocable<br />
transition from childhood to adulthood,<br />
give them tools <strong>for</strong> making transitions and<br />
separations, challenge them to discover<br />
the capacities <strong>for</strong> their next step and creaate<br />
ceremonies with parents and other<br />
faculty that acknowledge and welcome<br />
them into the community of adults.<br />
Students who have had the opportunity to<br />
experience the support of a school program<br />
designed to be a rite of passage learn that<br />
they can move on to their next step with<br />
strength and grace. “A senior in high school<br />
must make colossal decisions whether he or<br />
she is ready or not,” writes Carlos, describiing<br />
the impact of the program on his life.<br />
“This class allows me to clear my head,<br />
slow down, and make healthy choices.”<br />
7. Deep connection is the common<br />
thread. As my students tell stories about<br />
each of these domains, I hear a commmon<br />
thread: the experience of deep<br />
connection. This seventh domain desscribes<br />
a quality of relationship that is<br />
profoundly caring, resounds with meaniing,<br />
and involves feelings of belonging<br />
and of being truly seen or known.<br />
| <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
Rachael Kessler<br />
We can have the best curricula and train teachers in technique and<br />
theory, but our students will be unsafe and our programs hollow if we<br />
do not provide opportunities <strong>for</strong> teachers to cultivate their own spirittual<br />
<strong>for</strong>mation and their own emotional intelligence. Students are relluctant<br />
to open their hearts unless they feel their teachers are on the<br />
journey themselves – working on personal, as well as curriculum integgration.<br />
<strong>Here</strong> I will briefly summarize “the willingness to care” – one<br />
dimension of what, in PassageWays, we call “<strong>The</strong> Teaching Presence.”<br />
www.passageways.org<br />
Through deep connection to the self, students encounter a<br />
strength and richness within that is the basis <strong>for</strong> developing the<br />
autonomy central to the adolescent journey, to discovering purppose<br />
and unlocking creativity. Teachers can nourish this <strong>for</strong>m of<br />
deep connection by giving students time <strong>for</strong> solitary reflection.<br />
Connecting deeply to another person or to a meaningful<br />
group, they discover the balm of belonging that soothes the proffound<br />
alienation that fractures the identity of our youth and prevents<br />
them from contributing to our communities. Students feel a sense of<br />
belonging when they are part of an authentic community in the classrroom<br />
– a community in which students feel seen and heard <strong>for</strong> who<br />
they really are. Many teachers create this opportunity through morniing<br />
meetings, advisory groups, weekly councils, or sharing circles<br />
offered in a context of ground rules that make it safe to be vulnerable.<br />
<strong>The</strong> capacity of the teacher to care deeply <strong>for</strong> students is the<br />
foundation of all of the classroom practices described above. When<br />
students don’t trust adults – a common phenomenon in today’s<br />
society – they are not motivated to learn from us. And they will<br />
certainly not embrace our values or ethical beliefs. “<strong>The</strong> bonds that<br />
transmit basic human values from elders to the young are unraveliing,”<br />
write Brendtro, Van Bockern & Clementson (“Adult-wary and<br />
Angry: Restoring Social Bonds,” Holistic <strong>Education</strong> Review, March,<br />
1995) as they describe why so many youth are wary of adults. “If<br />
the social bond between adult and child is absent, conscience fails<br />
to develop and the transmission of values is distorted or aborted.”<br />
In a pluralistic society, educators can provide a <strong>for</strong>um that honoors<br />
the ways individual students nourish their spirits. We can<br />
offer activities that allow them to experience deep connection.<br />
In the search itself, in loving the questions, in the deep yearniing<br />
they let themselves feel, young people will discover what is<br />
sacred in life, what is sacred in their own lives, and what allows<br />
them to bring their most sacred gifts to nourish the world.<br />
Some students connect deeply to nature: “When I get depressed,”<br />
revealed Keisha to her group in a school in Manhattan, “I go to<br />
this park near my house where there is an absolutely enormous<br />
tree. I go and sit down with it because it feels so strong to me.”<br />
And some students discover solace in their relationship to God<br />
or to a religious practice. When students know there is a time in<br />
school life where they may give voice to the great com<strong>for</strong>t and joy<br />
they find in their relationship to God or to nature, this freedom of<br />
expression itself nourishes their spirits. Students who feel deeply<br />
connected don’t need danger to feel fully alive. <strong>The</strong>y don’t need<br />
guns to feel powerful. <strong>The</strong>y don’t want to hurt others or themsselves.<br />
Out of connection grows compassion and passion – passsion<br />
<strong>for</strong> people, <strong>for</strong> students’ goals and dreams, <strong>for</strong> life itself.<br />
Teachers Who Welcome Soul<br />
Since “we teach who we are,” teachers who invite heart and soul<br />
into the classroom also find it essential to nurture their own<br />
spiritual development. This may mean personal practices to cultivvate<br />
awareness, serenity, and compassion, as well as collaborative<br />
ef<strong>for</strong>ts with other teachers to give and receive support <strong>for</strong> the<br />
challenges and joys of entering this terrain with their students.<br />
| חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
Research / Focus: Spiritualities in the Classroom<br />
Spirituality<br />
Spiritualities in the<br />
Classroom Alan Brill<br />
“Spirituality” is a catchall that includes at least four<br />
different approaches to working with adolescents seeking<br />
transcendence in religious life.<br />
Spiritual may not be the first word that<br />
comes to mind in describing the typical<br />
teenager, but those who have both the<br />
privilege and challenge of working with<br />
young people would consider that an unfair<br />
generalization. Interest in adolescent<br />
spirituality and spiritual development<br />
has risen sharply in recent years among<br />
educators, but the studies have not kept<br />
pace with the actual spiritual diversity of<br />
teenage practice. Several major reviews<br />
of youth development view spirituality<br />
as a developmental resource that lessens<br />
risk behavior and enhances positive<br />
outcomes (Bridges and Moore, 2002;<br />
Donahue and Benson, 1995). Yet, these<br />
studies sometimes <strong>for</strong>get that adolescents<br />
do not want abstract talks about the<br />
existence of spirituality. <strong>The</strong>y need to see<br />
spirituality in action, through role models<br />
and concrete examples that relate to their<br />
lives. Adolescents have a hard time putting<br />
into words their beliefs about spirituality<br />
and related “transcendent” ideas (Elias and<br />
Kress, 1999). <strong>The</strong> goal of teachers, there<strong>for</strong>e,<br />
is to offer themselves as a role model, even<br />
in their own grappling with these themes,<br />
and to offer language and concrete examples<br />
to provide the student with the ability<br />
to discuss these topics. Many teachers,<br />
however, themselves have a hard time<br />
discussing spirituality. This paper will offer<br />
some beginning directions by pointing out<br />
that spirituality is a broad catchphrase <strong>for</strong><br />
at least four very different approaches to<br />
seeking a sense of the transcendental in life.<br />
Rabbi Dr. Alan Brill is the Founder of Kavvanah: <strong>Center</strong> <strong>for</strong> <strong>Jewish</strong> Thought. He is the author of<br />
Thinking God: <strong>The</strong> Mysticism of R. Zadok of Lublin and is completing a book on Judaism and<br />
other religions.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re have been major changes in American<br />
religion that change the terms used in<br />
discussing theology, including the very<br />
rise of the topic of spirituality. Robert<br />
Wuthnow's After Heaven: Spirituality in<br />
America Since the 1950’s differentiates<br />
the religion of the 1950’s from that of the<br />
1980’s and 1990’s, calling the religion of<br />
the <strong>for</strong>mer “the religion of dwelling” and<br />
the religion of the latter “the religion of<br />
seeking.” <strong>The</strong> religion of dwelling was<br />
about building congregations within a<br />
specific denomination, while the religion<br />
of seeking focuses on answering individual<br />
needs. In the religion of dwelling, the<br />
goal was to create a sense of belonging,<br />
to show that we are all alike, and that the<br />
institution is greater than our personal<br />
observance – big lectures in an auditorium<br />
successfully conveyed collective identity.<br />
In contrast, in the last decades there has<br />
been a turn to religious seeking, in which<br />
people seek meaning, go on individual<br />
journeys, search out small groups of people<br />
with similar personal issues, diversity, and<br />
greater personal observance. To capture<br />
this audience, clergy are most successful<br />
when they create support groups, tehillim<br />
groups, haburas and hevrutas, healing<br />
circles, retreats, artist workshops, and<br />
discussions of meaning and purpose in life.<br />
But contemporary America does not<br />
stay stable <strong>for</strong> long. Even among seekers,<br />
recent studies have shown further<br />
changes. Members of Generation X have<br />
reintroduced an eclectic and widespread<br />
acceptance of mysticism, magic, and a<br />
renewed appreciation <strong>for</strong> externals (after<br />
the prior existential emphasis on internal<br />
states). Many members of this group are not<br />
looking <strong>for</strong> coherence; contradictions suit<br />
them fine. While Generation Y/ Millennials<br />
have integrated the world of media, with<br />
its emphasis on the visual, the interactive,<br />
and the sound bite, they also seek greater<br />
transparency in process. Although these<br />
broad trends may not be found in every<br />
classroom or individual student, they are<br />
nonetheless important to note as the social<br />
background to contemporary spirituality.<br />
10 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
Alan Brill<br />
Most of those who started to teach<br />
spirituality were originally seekers first<br />
drawn to meditation, Kabbalah or Hasidism.<br />
But now that spirituality has entered the<br />
mainstream, all teachers need to know<br />
something about spirituality. This presents<br />
a significant challenge, as most teachers are<br />
not prepared to engage the new material.<br />
“Since the 1990’s, considerable interest<br />
has been generated in spirituality, and<br />
many of us who attended seminary<br />
be<strong>for</strong>e or during this era felt poorly<br />
prepared regarding the rich traditions of<br />
spirituality and our own spiritual journey.<br />
More recently interest in spirituality has<br />
converged with interests in congregational<br />
development…” (Vennard, 2005)<br />
<strong>The</strong> new emergent model brings spirituality<br />
into common life, school, and community,<br />
in which everyone now journeys together<br />
as a group, through the study of spiritual<br />
texts and the discussion of how to integrate<br />
the inspirational words into one’s life<br />
(Ackerman, 2001). Whereas the spiritual<br />
seeker replaces the religion of dwelling<br />
with a religion of seeking, the integration<br />
of spirituality into the mainstream tries<br />
to combine both dwelling and seeking.<br />
Naturally, some students will remain<br />
seekers looking to lead individual paths,<br />
while others will remain oblivious to<br />
spirituality looking only <strong>for</strong> a place to dwell.<br />
Four Types of Spirituality<br />
In the emergent approach that tries to<br />
include the entire community, we have to<br />
discuss multiple <strong>for</strong>ms of spirituality, just<br />
as we discuss multiple intelligences. Current<br />
literature discusses four broad models of<br />
spirituality – thinking, feeling, being, and<br />
doing (all of which further subdivide). It<br />
is critical that we understand that when<br />
a student asks <strong>for</strong> spirituality, we must<br />
learn to listen <strong>for</strong> which type of spirituality<br />
he or she is asking <strong>for</strong> – one size does not<br />
fit most. I will briefly outline the various<br />
meanings to the word spirituality and<br />
give examples of where each type can fit<br />
into a <strong>Jewish</strong> high school curriculum.<br />
Four Types of Spirituality<br />
Thinking: Study; having a sense of a higher<br />
purpose or order<br />
Feeling: Song and celebration; stories;<br />
togetherness<br />
Being: Meditation; silence; ritual<br />
Doing: Self-perfection of character;<br />
moments of dedication; submission<br />
<strong>The</strong> first category, thinking, seeks meaning<br />
in life. Those who have a thinking approach<br />
want to know, gain understanding, to see<br />
that their actions have a purpose and that<br />
there are answers to the big questions in life.<br />
Discussion of the meaning of life can include<br />
study of <strong>Jewish</strong> thought or the liturgy, the<br />
fixed worldview of R. Hayyim of Volozhin’s<br />
Nefesh Ha-Hayyim, or the application of the<br />
writings of Rav Soloveitchik to one’s life,<br />
drawing out the moral and value lessons.<br />
This approach can be complemented even<br />
in the day school setting with elucidations<br />
from general religious authors on religious<br />
meaning, such as M. Scott Peck, C. S.<br />
Lewis, or even Augustine. One should<br />
make sure not to turn the study into<br />
a philosophy class, rather focus on the<br />
meaning and moral order taught in the text.<br />
<strong>The</strong> thinking approach also incorporates<br />
those looking <strong>for</strong> an order to the world,<br />
where everything can fit into the religious<br />
order. <strong>The</strong>se students want to see a bigger<br />
picture and know that there are answers<br />
greater than themselves. <strong>The</strong>se students<br />
are attracted to the complete order of<br />
the universe offered by the writings of R.<br />
Moshe Hayyim Luzzato, or the writings<br />
of Aryeh Kaplan, or the seminars offered<br />
by Discovery/Aish Hatorah. <strong>The</strong>y want a<br />
meaning in life that transcends the self in<br />
a meaningful order. God has hidden the<br />
true meanings and there<strong>for</strong>e the answer is<br />
to trust in the order of the Torah that can<br />
make sense of the complexity of their lives.<br />
In choosing texts, even <strong>for</strong> this approach,<br />
it is important to make note of cultural<br />
changes. For example, at one time the<br />
existential writings of Viktor Frankl were<br />
satisfying to those adolescents looking <strong>for</strong><br />
meaning, while now Akiva Tatz’s appeal to a<br />
higher Divine purpose, based on R. Moshe<br />
Hayyim Luzzato, resonates instead. And<br />
<strong>for</strong> many, the paradoxes and dialectics of<br />
existentialism do not speak to them while<br />
the magic and media of <strong>The</strong> Kabbalah<br />
<strong>Center</strong> does answer their sense <strong>for</strong> order.<br />
<strong>The</strong> second broad category is that of feeling,<br />
displayed through song, enthusiasm, and<br />
the study of Hasidism. This includes the<br />
spirituality of Carlebach minyanim, the<br />
renewal movement, and Neo-Hasidism.<br />
<strong>The</strong> goal is to reach feelings of warmth,<br />
connection, and emotion that transcend<br />
the rational everyday world. <strong>The</strong> language<br />
emphasizes oneness, deepness, monism,<br />
It is critical that we understand that when a student asks <strong>for</strong> spirituality,<br />
we must learn to listen <strong>for</strong> which type of spirituality he or she is asking<br />
<strong>for</strong> – one size does not fit most.<br />
and transcending our fallen world of<br />
division, rationality, and moralizing. One<br />
needs to go beyond the self and reach a<br />
point of spontaneity. Needless to say, this<br />
offers a very different approach than those<br />
seeking to know a moral order. <strong>Here</strong>, God is<br />
portrayed as a warm, caring parent waiting<br />
<strong>for</strong> us to return, or who looks down with<br />
love on singing. One should take care not to<br />
use this approach as entertainment or solely<br />
as ruah; Hasidic music should not merely be<br />
another <strong>for</strong>m of high school pep rally. <strong>The</strong><br />
feeling approach works when we remember<br />
that the goal of the feelings is to reach the<br />
transcendent, and that God wants one to<br />
sing or show love as a path to monism.<br />
This approach also has a sub-division that<br />
includes those seeking happiness through<br />
overcoming everyday emotional struggles,<br />
or personalizing one’s study, or imagining<br />
that God walks with the student. For these<br />
seekers, the writings of R. Kalonomous<br />
| 11 חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
Research / Focus: Spiritualities in the Classroom<br />
A selected bibliography <strong>for</strong> exploring the four types of spiritualities<br />
Thinking:<br />
M. Scott Peck – <strong>The</strong> Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love,<br />
Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth<br />
C. S. Lewis – Surprised by Joy<br />
R. Moses Hayyim Luzzato – Derekh Hashem; Daat Tevunot<br />
Aryeh Kaplan – Handbook of <strong>Jewish</strong> Thought; Inner Space; Aryeh Kaplan Anthology<br />
Viktor Frankl – Man's Search <strong>for</strong> Meaning<br />
Akiva Tatz – Anatomy of a Search; <strong>The</strong> Thinking Teenager’s Guide to Life<br />
Feeling:<br />
R. Kalonomous Kalman Shapira – Hovat Hatalmidim; Bnei Mahshavah Tova;<br />
Hakhsharat HaAvreikhim<br />
Zelig Pliskin – Happiness; Kindness; Courage<br />
Dalai Lama – <strong>The</strong> Art of Happiness: A Handbook <strong>for</strong> Living<br />
Being:<br />
Abraham Joshua Heschel – Quest <strong>for</strong> God; <strong>The</strong> Sabbath; Heavenly Torah<br />
Mircea Eliade – <strong>The</strong> Sacred and the Profane<br />
David Cooper – <strong>The</strong> Heart of Stillness: <strong>The</strong> Elements of Spiritual Practice<br />
Moses Cordovero – Palm Tree of Deborah (Tomar Devorah)<br />
Your Word is Fire: <strong>The</strong> Hasidic Masters on Contemplative Prayer, edited by Arthur Green & Barry<br />
Holtz<br />
Doing:<br />
R. Menachem Mendel Schneerson – On the Essence of Chassidus<br />
Simchah Jacobson – Toward a Meaningful Life<br />
Abraham Twerski – Twerski on Spirituality<br />
Kalman Shapira of Piaseczna or Zelig<br />
Pliskin are appropriate. Every verse of<br />
the Bible is taught by asking: How can I<br />
apply this to my life to come closer to God<br />
Can I see myself as the Biblical figures<br />
What would I have done, religiously,<br />
were I in their place This approach<br />
currently has a broad following in America<br />
through the personality and writings of<br />
the Dalai Lama, who teaches happiness<br />
more than meaning or meditation.<br />
<strong>The</strong> third approach, being, focuses on<br />
contemplation, mysticism, and mystery.<br />
Being also includes looking <strong>for</strong> deeper<br />
meanings known through mysticism or<br />
theosophical knowledge personally attained.<br />
Being looks <strong>for</strong> the hidden reality about<br />
the soul, ritual, and the natural order<br />
taught by medieval Kabbalah, especially<br />
the Zohar. <strong>The</strong>re is a significant tradition<br />
of <strong>Jewish</strong> meditation techniques, prayer<br />
kavvanot, and visualizations that are not<br />
presently available to the broader public.<br />
This approach is the hardest to properly<br />
teach <strong>for</strong> those not trained in spirituality.<br />
(Interestingly, this approach was the first<br />
stop of almost all teachers of spirituality,<br />
even if they themselves have moved to<br />
another model in their current practice.)<br />
To teach this, one must examine the<br />
esoteric parts of Nahmanides, the<br />
mystical midrashim such as Tanhuma or<br />
Pirkei deRebbi Eliezer, and the<br />
discussions of God language<br />
in the Aggadic portions of the<br />
Talmud. Students in this group<br />
respond well to the books<br />
of A. J. Heschel, while single<br />
pages of the writings of Mircea<br />
Eliade and other scholars to<br />
help make a point in class<br />
from this perspective. <strong>The</strong> goal<br />
here is not to be academic or<br />
discuss the academic chart of<br />
the sefirot, rather introduce<br />
the Rabbinic view of mystically<br />
relating to God through mitzvot<br />
and contemplative prayer.<br />
<strong>The</strong> final category, doing<br />
is probably the broadest,<br />
encompassing ethical work,<br />
community self-sacrifice, and<br />
commitment. Doers want to<br />
overcome their faults; they feel a<br />
sense of their continuous failing<br />
and do not want to hear how<br />
they will be made perfect once<br />
they understand the theological<br />
meaning of an essay. <strong>The</strong>y either<br />
want the behaviorist method<br />
<strong>for</strong> instilling order taught by the<br />
Mussar movement or they want<br />
the more humanistic psychology<br />
and 12-step approach of R.<br />
Avraham Twerski, in which one’s<br />
spirituality consists of making<br />
oneself into a better person. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
want a checklist in which every day, little by<br />
little, one works on the self. <strong>The</strong>y also need<br />
encouragement not to get frustrated or to<br />
be overwhelmed by the human condition.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se approaches look <strong>for</strong> ways to teach<br />
one to better one’s character traits and<br />
more importantly <strong>for</strong> the seeker, to fight<br />
one’s vices. This requires honesty about<br />
the human condition and how we all fail.<br />
For some, the doing approach requires actual<br />
activity, through serious hesed projects.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y want to work with the disadvantaged,<br />
build homes, work in soup kitchen or visit<br />
nursing homes. For others, doing demands<br />
moments of dedication of the self, the way<br />
12 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
Alan Brill<br />
Habad teaches that the morning recitation<br />
of modeh ani allows a daily volitional<br />
reaffirmation of acting God-like in one’s life.<br />
Process<br />
<strong>The</strong> emergent approach of bringing<br />
spirituality into the mainstream is a process<br />
<strong>for</strong> both the teacher and the students,<br />
and the teacher's personal spirituality<br />
may not fit some of the students. It is<br />
vital that teachers respect the individual<br />
spiritual preferences of their students,<br />
as most students are attracted to two<br />
of the four approaches and are probably<br />
repelled by one of them. Educators need<br />
to learn to integrate elements of all four<br />
types of spirituality. Further, adolescents<br />
in the same room can be at different<br />
stages of spiritual development.<br />
of spirituality and then tell the students that<br />
only practical halakhah counts. One must be<br />
sincerely concerned with spiritual growth.<br />
Assessing spiritual growth is important, but<br />
presents its own challenges. <strong>The</strong> traditional<br />
ladder of growth used by Ramhal proceeds<br />
from the first steps of carefulness to the<br />
peak of prophecy, while current educational<br />
approaches assess the acquisition of the<br />
components of spiritual life. For example,<br />
does the spiritual curriculum or program<br />
lead to a sense of the transcendent, the<br />
conviction of the existence of the Divine,<br />
the search <strong>for</strong> meaning and purpose,<br />
appreciation of interconnectedness of<br />
life, positive action, integrated sense of<br />
the self of body, mind, and soul and the<br />
sense of sacred time without the chatter<br />
from media, from peers, from ourselves.<br />
community. Even the Kabbalah has<br />
proponents in all four types of spirituality.<br />
One must remember to distinguish the<br />
traditional and best spiritual practices<br />
from the abuses of any approach. And,<br />
more importantly, one needs to distinguish<br />
between historical study, academic works<br />
on Kabbalah, and practical spirituality.<br />
Conclusion<br />
Rav Kook taught, “Each person must know<br />
that he/she is called on to serve on the<br />
basis of his own distinctive conception<br />
and feeling.” Dividing spirituality into<br />
four paths allows the teacher to offer<br />
the student a language to discuss their<br />
own distinctive searches <strong>for</strong> meaning,<br />
moral order, and inwardness.<br />
References<br />
In the emergent approach that tries to include the entire community,<br />
we have to discuss multiple <strong>for</strong>ms of spirituality, just as we discuss<br />
multiple intelligences. Current literature discusses four broad models<br />
of spirituality – thinking, feeling, being, and doing (all of which further<br />
subdivide).<br />
I have met educators who tell me that they<br />
are introducing spirituality in their schools<br />
through holding a singing 3 and they think<br />
that this is sufficient. Yet, singing and<br />
dancing without the concurrently valuating<br />
of feelings, spontaneity, and monism within<br />
the curriculum does not offer a role model<br />
to the student or validate their inwardness<br />
and spirituality. Spirituality is not a bandaid<br />
applied as an extra-curricular activity.<br />
Adolescents can see through such false<br />
displays and, as noted at the start, they<br />
seek guidance and role models. Even <strong>for</strong><br />
the more intellectual approach of offering<br />
theological meaning, the reflections need<br />
to be validated in the classroom as a source<br />
<strong>for</strong> moral reflection and character building.<br />
One cannot collectively read the writings of<br />
Rabbis Hirsch or Soloveitchik on the human<br />
condition and moral development as a <strong>for</strong>m<br />
Most educators are not automatically<br />
connected to spirituality by training or<br />
temperament. We dare not call spirituality<br />
whatever we are already proficient at<br />
teaching, and need to avoid insincere<br />
talks with titles such as “the spirituality<br />
of the laws of damages.” Rather one<br />
should use the class exploration of<br />
spirituality as an opportunity to work<br />
on one’s own spirituality. <strong>The</strong>re are<br />
many books and websites that offer<br />
resources in determining one’s own path<br />
among the four broad approaches.<br />
<strong>Jewish</strong> caricatures, such as identifying<br />
oneself as a litvak or yekke, and there<strong>for</strong>e<br />
exempt from spirituality, are not helpful.<br />
Neither are simplistic charts comparing<br />
different movements such as Hasidut or<br />
Mitnagdut, because all four approaches<br />
are found in any successful religious<br />
Ackerman, J., Listening to God: Spiritual<br />
Formation in Congregations (Herndon,<br />
VA: <strong>The</strong> Alban Institute, 2001)<br />
Bridges, L. & Moore, K. (2002).<br />
Religion and Spirituality in<br />
Childhood and Adolescence.<br />
Washington, DC: Child Trends.<br />
Donahue, M., & Benson, P. (1995).<br />
“Religion and the well-being of adolescents”<br />
Journal of Social Issues, 51, 145-160.<br />
Elias, Maurice J. & Kress, Jeffrey S., “<strong>The</strong><br />
Emergence of Spirituality in Adolescence”<br />
<strong>The</strong> United Synagogue Review (Fall 1999).<br />
Vennard, J., A Praying Congregation, <strong>The</strong><br />
Art of Teaching Spiritual Practice (Herndon,<br />
VA: <strong>The</strong> Alban Institute, 2005). xi<br />
| 13 חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
Research / Focus: Can Sprituality be Taught<br />
Can<br />
Spirituality<br />
be Taught<br />
Stephen Bailey<br />
I believe that the answer to the question in<br />
the title is: No. I don’t believe we can teach<br />
spirituality – at least, not directly. But the<br />
good news is: While spirituality cannot<br />
be taught directly, I think students can be<br />
taught to experience meaning and positive<br />
affect within religious ideas and practices,<br />
which will facilitate their personal spiritual<br />
quest within Judaism.<br />
Be<strong>for</strong>e elaborating, I need to define the<br />
abstract term, “spiritual experience,” to<br />
move it from an “airy-fairy” notion of<br />
communing with the universe to a more<br />
definable concept that we can work with as<br />
teachers, in the context of <strong>Jewish</strong> education.<br />
Foremost, spirituality is a personal<br />
experience. I propose that when “spiritual”<br />
refers to a <strong>Jewish</strong> religious experience in an<br />
Affective learning provides a useful<br />
taxonomy <strong>for</strong> facilitating children’s<br />
spiritual development.<br />
educational context, it connotes a student’s<br />
experience of a personal connection with<br />
God through ideas, prayer or practice. This<br />
connection is personal and in contrast<br />
to the general religious relationship<br />
with God shared by all identified Jews.<br />
As such, although a teacher can directly<br />
address students’ <strong>Jewish</strong> identity (the<br />
<strong>Jewish</strong> people’s shared relationship with<br />
God) through teaching and activities (<strong>for</strong><br />
example, Israel, community service and<br />
general social mitzvot), a teacher cannot<br />
legislate or impose on his or her students, a<br />
personal connection with God.<br />
To further refine the concept of spirituality,<br />
be<strong>for</strong>e we address facilitating its<br />
development in our students, we turn to<br />
a study by Martsolf and Mickley (1998),<br />
Stephen Bailey is Associate Professor in the Faculty of <strong>Education</strong> at York University, Toronto, Canada,<br />
specializing in <strong>Jewish</strong> Teacher <strong>Education</strong>.<br />
which addressed the issue of nurses’<br />
attempts to assess the spiritual needs<br />
of patients as part of a holistic approach<br />
to treatment. Noting that the concept<br />
of spirituality means different things to<br />
different people, the researchers listed five<br />
key concepts that arose when people were<br />
asked to describe what spirituality means<br />
to them:<br />
• Making sense of situations; deriving<br />
meaning and purpose<br />
• Cherishing values, beliefs, standards and<br />
ethics<br />
• Awareness, and appreciation of a<br />
“transcendent dimension” to life beyond self<br />
• Connecting with self, others, God, and<br />
nature<br />
• Awareness of a sense of who one is,<br />
through reflection and experience<br />
Although these reflect nurses’ belief’s<br />
about spirituality, all of their characteristics<br />
relate to spirituality as I am defining it <strong>for</strong><br />
education. Our question, there<strong>for</strong>e, focuses<br />
on how teachers can facilitate a personal<br />
connection with God through learning,<br />
prayer and mitzvot, which incorporates<br />
the diverse definitions of spirituality as<br />
described above. In other words, how can we<br />
facilitate that which conveys meaning and<br />
cherished values, an increase in awareness<br />
14 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
Stephen Bailey<br />
of going beyond the self and a connection<br />
with God through self-reflection and<br />
personal experience<br />
David Krathwohl’s Affective Taxonomy<br />
A useful model <strong>for</strong> educators wanting to<br />
facilitate spirituality (as we’ve defined<br />
it), comes from the educational field of<br />
“affective learning” – specifically, from<br />
the affective domain taxonomy of David<br />
Krathwohl (1964). Krathwohl developed<br />
an affective taxonomy similar to Bloom’s<br />
cognitive taxonomy, in which a sequential<br />
structure of activities reflects the developing<br />
personal relationship and value systems of<br />
the student. <strong>The</strong> focus and purpose of the<br />
model, as he has developed it, is to move the<br />
student towards a meaningful and purposeful<br />
internalization of values and beliefs through<br />
sequential levels of activities. Both values<br />
and beliefs have an affective component<br />
to them – they are personally satisfying<br />
and valued as “good” or “right” – and thus,<br />
adopted into the developing personality of<br />
the student.<br />
I believe Krathwohl’s affective learning goal<br />
– the internalization of values and beliefs<br />
– is the means by which <strong>Jewish</strong> educators<br />
can facilitate the experience of personal<br />
“<strong>Jewish</strong> spirituality” in their students. In<br />
effect, I wish to blend Krathwohl’s taxonomy<br />
with our goal of inspiring our students<br />
– that is say that since we cannot directly<br />
teach spirituality, we can use the model<br />
to build up a positive, learned affective<br />
association with the ideas, experiences or<br />
practices, which then may be internalized<br />
and trans<strong>for</strong>m into the characteristics of a<br />
spiritual experience in those students who<br />
are receptive.<br />
Krathwohl’s taxonomy has five levels,<br />
which I’ll briefly describe and then use<br />
illustratively. <strong>The</strong> first level requires the<br />
teacher to get her students to willingly<br />
attend to the particular value or practice<br />
being taught. In other words, it needs to<br />
be personally relevant to the student. <strong>The</strong><br />
second level focuses on a positive, proactive<br />
response from the student, associating<br />
the value or practice with positive affect.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n, moving towards internalization of<br />
the value, the student begins to accept,<br />
commit to and prefer the value as personally<br />
meaningful. Next, in level four, comes<br />
the conceptualization of the value in<br />
terms of ordering it and integrating it as<br />
a meaningful component of a personal<br />
“philosophy of life.” Finally, at the last level,<br />
the value is internalized and integrated into<br />
the complex of the student’s character and<br />
personal motivation. It is at these last two<br />
stages that students experience a sense of<br />
personal meaning and positive value and<br />
make the belief or practice their own. In<br />
my view, if the value being taught reflects<br />
personal relationship with God, such as<br />
prayer, Torah-learning or meaningful<br />
mitzvot – internalization of that value is<br />
likely to inspire personal spiritual experience,<br />
as we’ve defined it.<br />
An Illustrative Example: Tefillah<br />
I’ve presented abstract theoretical<br />
constructs, so let’s take a look at a concrete<br />
illustration. How might this model be<br />
applied as a strategy to address the<br />
ubiquitous <strong>Jewish</strong> educational problem<br />
of facilitating the spiritual experience of<br />
tefillah in <strong>Jewish</strong> schools <strong>The</strong> problem,<br />
to which most educators can attest, is a<br />
sense of meaninglessness, rote-behavior,<br />
boredom or indifference to the school (and<br />
synagogue) group prayer experience, as<br />
reported by most students. Educators want<br />
prayer to be personally meaningful, a source<br />
of inspiration – a sense of communication<br />
with God. How do we facilitate these goals<br />
I am going to use a middle-school class<br />
(say, grade 7) of a community day school<br />
<strong>for</strong> my illustration. My assumption is that<br />
the community day school population<br />
is generally pluralistic and represents a<br />
wide range of “spiritual-connectivity”<br />
among the student body. I am also going<br />
to take some liberties with explicating and<br />
applying Krathwohl’s model, describing<br />
it as developed in my practicum course<br />
<strong>for</strong> my teacher candidates – often using<br />
extant creative methodology – so that<br />
In my view, if the value being taught reflects personal relationship<br />
with God, such as prayer, Torah-learning or meaningful mitzvot<br />
– internalization of that value is likely to inspire personal spiritual<br />
experience, as we’ve defined it.<br />
the illustration is more "user-friendly" <strong>for</strong><br />
<strong>Jewish</strong> education.<br />
Be<strong>for</strong>e reading the illustration, please note<br />
four points.<br />
1) <strong>The</strong> focus of the model in the initial<br />
stages is on the experiential-affective,<br />
rather than on the cognitive, and I use the<br />
method of teacher’s self-disclosure to focus<br />
the student on the affective experience. <strong>The</strong><br />
cognitive component is added later.<br />
2) Most activity involves each student<br />
participating by writing down reflections<br />
or journal entries, so that every student is<br />
involved personally rather than vicariously.<br />
3) Although I give illustrative statements<br />
by the teacher, this is a guided model to<br />
be integrated into a particular educator’s<br />
teaching style and classroom methodology,<br />
not a script.<br />
4) Finally, as you think about Krathwohl’s<br />
levels, bear in mind that his is a stage theory<br />
that requires each level to be achieved be<strong>for</strong>e<br />
going on to the next – and that one cannot<br />
skip levels. According to Krathwohl’s model,<br />
we often make the mistake of focusing on<br />
the cognitive be<strong>for</strong>e the affective, which<br />
violates the order of the levels. Remember<br />
that each level may take several classes<br />
and various activities; it is not meant as a<br />
simple, one-shot approach.<br />
Level 1. Getting their attention<br />
<strong>The</strong> goal of the initial level is to encourage<br />
the student to attend to the specific value<br />
or practice, making it personally relevant. A<br />
| 15 חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
Research / Focus: Can Sprituality be Taught<br />
teacher might focus attention by personal<br />
disclosure and by asking <strong>for</strong> personal<br />
responses from students. Given that<br />
teachers are models (like it or not), a teacher<br />
may say:<br />
When I go to synagogue, it’s important <strong>for</strong> me<br />
that it is a meaningful, personal experience<br />
between me and God. I see it as an opportunity<br />
to communicate with God – what is the<br />
experience like <strong>for</strong> you<br />
From this self-disclosing and studentfocused<br />
statement, students hear that the<br />
prayer experience is an important value/<br />
practice <strong>for</strong> you, their teacher (whom they<br />
respect) and that encourages a few students<br />
to share their personal experiences. Such<br />
initial discussion captures the attention of<br />
the class on the subject and focuses them<br />
on the positive affect, not the behavior or<br />
cognitive components.<br />
Level 2. Encouraging a positive<br />
response<br />
Level Two focuses on the students’<br />
responding to the value or practice in some<br />
positive way. At this level students seek<br />
activities through which they can discover<br />
satisfaction. This directs us to not dwell on<br />
the negativity and complaints which are<br />
sure to dominate students’ current reactions<br />
to their school prayer experience, but rather<br />
to intentionally move the responses in a<br />
positive direction. <strong>The</strong> teacher might say:<br />
I know we often find prayers boring and rote,<br />
like you’ve said, but I want to hear some<br />
positive experiences. I know that every once<br />
in a while, when I concentrate on my chance<br />
to ‘talk with God’, I think about things I want<br />
<strong>for</strong> my family and <strong>for</strong> myself and find myself<br />
asking God <strong>for</strong> help. I am sure that many of<br />
you have had that experience. Who has<br />
<strong>The</strong> teacher intentionally moves away<br />
from the negative and directs the<br />
students to think positively. Rather than<br />
class discussion, often dominated by a<br />
few articulate students, this stage (and<br />
subsequent levels) requires personal<br />
involvement of all students. Thus, the<br />
teacher may present a brief assignment to<br />
personalize a response from each student.<br />
For example, she may ask all students to<br />
record one or two positive moments during<br />
the next prayer session and share what they<br />
were thinking with the class. Note that the<br />
explicit goal is to associate positive affect<br />
with the experience.<br />
Level 3. Developing Commitment to<br />
the value/practice<br />
At the next Krathwohl level, students begin<br />
the internalization process. This requires<br />
a developing commitment to the value as<br />
demonstrated by both an acceptance of it<br />
as worthy and preference <strong>for</strong> it in relation<br />
to other behaviors. To be of worth to<br />
the student, the experience needs to be<br />
personally relevant and valued. A teacher<br />
might discuss the following:<br />
Although we’ve learned that some of prayer<br />
is praise of God, we also learned that most of<br />
prayer is about us asking <strong>for</strong> important things<br />
that we cannot get <strong>for</strong> ourselves as well as<br />
expressing gratitude to God <strong>for</strong> what we have.<br />
Over the next week, I’d like you to keep a little<br />
journal of things you ask <strong>for</strong> during prayer<br />
and also the things that you, personally, are<br />
grateful <strong>for</strong> – I’ll do the same and then we’ll<br />
discuss some of these in class.<br />
This assignment focuses on making the<br />
experience personally relevant and worthy<br />
in the student’s life. <strong>The</strong> idea of journalwriting<br />
encourages the active reflection<br />
on the practice of “asking-thanking”<br />
during prayer, which helps to develop each<br />
student’s commitment to the personal<br />
experience of communicating with God<br />
during the regular tefillah time. At this<br />
stage, students get committed to the task<br />
and often encourage others to take it<br />
seriously.<br />
To address the issue of preference, the<br />
teacher might discuss the following:<br />
When I pray, I often find my mind wandering.<br />
I think about my lesson plan, the papers I<br />
have to grade, the reports I have to write<br />
– and not about talking with God. But then I<br />
think: I’ll have time to deal with those things<br />
in half an hour, now it’s more important <strong>for</strong><br />
me to relax, concentrate and think about me<br />
and God. How do you get back to focusing<br />
on tefillah when you get distracted by other<br />
things you have to do<br />
Once again, the focus is on the positive and<br />
the teacher uses self-disclosure to direct the<br />
student’s attention to preferring – or valuing<br />
– the tefillah experience over inevitable<br />
distractions. Both these techniques<br />
encourage the beginnings of internalization<br />
of the acceptance of and preference <strong>for</strong> the<br />
tefillah experience as a positive value.<br />
Level 4. Integrating tefillah experience<br />
into one’s “philosophy of life”<br />
This penultimate stage represents the actual<br />
integration of the value into one’s ‘self’<br />
– specifically into one’s <strong>Jewish</strong> identity.<br />
Having experienced the positive values<br />
associated with prayer in the affective<br />
domain, the time is ripe <strong>for</strong> enhancing the<br />
meaningfulness of the experience through<br />
cognitive means. Specifically, through<br />
more philosophical discussion (obviously<br />
at an age-appropriate level) of how tefillah<br />
integrates with one’s <strong>Jewish</strong> life. <strong>Here</strong> the<br />
teacher can do some text-based learning<br />
from the siddur and connect it to the<br />
Although we’ve learned that some of prayer is praise of God, we also<br />
learned that most of prayer is about us asking <strong>for</strong> important things that<br />
we cannot get <strong>for</strong> ourselves as well as expressing gratitude to God <strong>for</strong><br />
what we have.<br />
affective experience already developed. It<br />
might sound something like this:<br />
We’ve been talking about our experiences of<br />
asking and thanking God, so as to not take<br />
our everyday life <strong>for</strong> granted. Let’s take a<br />
look at the list of brakhot we say as we begin<br />
tefillah each day. <strong>The</strong>se were designed by our<br />
Rabbis to express our thanks to God each<br />
morning, especially <strong>for</strong> things we may take <strong>for</strong><br />
granted. Look <strong>for</strong> the brakhot that you see as<br />
16 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
Stephen Bailey<br />
personal and re-write them in language that<br />
is personally meaningful <strong>for</strong> you. For example,<br />
thanking God <strong>for</strong> ‘clothing the naked’ could be<br />
re-written: "Thank you, God, <strong>for</strong> providing my<br />
family with the income to buy me the clothes<br />
I need <strong>for</strong> school each day, <strong>for</strong> sports, <strong>for</strong><br />
dressing up <strong>for</strong> parties and <strong>for</strong> just hanging<br />
out with my friends. I know many kids my<br />
age don’t have these things; I feel grateful <strong>for</strong><br />
everything in my closet!"<br />
<strong>The</strong> teacher is connecting tefillah with text<br />
in a personally meaningful way that can be<br />
incorporated into the positive experience of<br />
“talking with God” already developed. <strong>The</strong><br />
items discussed are relevant to the student’s<br />
everyday life and encourages a “philosophy<br />
of life” that incorporates the ongoing <strong>Jewish</strong><br />
value of gratitude.<br />
<strong>The</strong> teacher may also discuss the experience<br />
of tefillah at unstructured times (not<br />
during communal prayers) so as to further<br />
imbed the experience into the individual’s<br />
personal life. Depending on the age of<br />
students, the teacher may address more<br />
philosophical beliefs, including the personal<br />
responsibilities of a Jew reflected in<br />
structured prayer, as well as the ideas behind<br />
the concept of praising God. Whatever your<br />
specific curricular goals, the point at this<br />
level, is to build on the affective domain,<br />
through enhancing the cognitive aspects of<br />
the prayer experience, while encouraging the<br />
experience of tefillah (<strong>for</strong>mal/in<strong>for</strong>mal) as<br />
part of one’s everyday life.<br />
Level 5. Prayer as a character trait<br />
This is the final level of Krathwohl’s model<br />
to which the educator has been aspiring. It<br />
describes the incorporation or internalization<br />
(in Krathwohl’s language) of the value<br />
being taught into one’s character, so that<br />
the valued practice becomes a trait of the<br />
student. In our case, achieving this final<br />
level would mean the internalization of, and<br />
a commitment to, the prayer experience<br />
of communicating with God in a positive,<br />
personally meaningful way, reflecting what<br />
we’ve called a “spiritual” experience. This<br />
means that the student is more likely to<br />
willingly participate in prayer (become a<br />
leader or reader/singer), encourage others<br />
to participate and even seek out prayer<br />
experiences outside of the school (like<br />
increased frequency of voluntary synagogue<br />
attendance).<br />
<strong>The</strong> model as a guide<br />
I have presented this model as a guide<br />
to facilitating the potential <strong>for</strong> spiritual<br />
experience in our students, using prayer<br />
in middle school as an illustrative<br />
example. Krathwohl’s model (at least<br />
my interpretation) can be used <strong>for</strong> other<br />
potentially spiritual experiences and with<br />
older students. As I mentioned above,<br />
one has to be aware of the developmentalstage<br />
aspect of the model. Although the<br />
model can be used <strong>for</strong> all ages – with ageappropriate<br />
modifications – the cognitive<br />
element necessarily requires appropriate<br />
cognitive-stage readiness. My example of<br />
tefillah, <strong>for</strong> instance, can be used <strong>for</strong> second<br />
grade as well as high school, since it involves<br />
issues of gratitude and personal needs, but<br />
the actual methodology would need to be<br />
adjusted <strong>for</strong> age related cognitive skills, as<br />
reflected in a spiral curriculum.<br />
Let me briefly comment on another<br />
ubiquitous “spiritual” problem-area that has<br />
potential application <strong>for</strong> Krathwohl’s model<br />
as a gateway to spiritual experience. We are<br />
often frustrated by adolescents who show<br />
a sense of indifference or low-value to the<br />
serious study and analyses of <strong>Jewish</strong> texts,<br />
whether biblical or Talmudic. Students are<br />
often bored, fail to see the connection of<br />
the traditional texts to their life and remain<br />
unmotivated to expend the necessary<br />
energy <strong>for</strong> thoughtful class discussions. A<br />
class in Tanakh often becomes a matter of<br />
taking teacher-dictated notes or studying<br />
translations and memorizing commentaries.<br />
An excerpt of Mishnah or Talmud is often<br />
experienced as irrelevant to a student’s real<br />
life and no different from having to study<br />
calculus, simply as a cognitive challenge. In<br />
contrast, many of us, as teachers, experience<br />
the deep study of texts as a spiritual experieence,<br />
connecting us to God’s “thoughts”<br />
(biblical) or to profound Rabbinic wisdom,<br />
and we wish our students could share the<br />
enjoyment and intense satisfaction. Can<br />
Torah learning become a spiritual experieence<br />
<strong>for</strong> students<br />
According to this model – yes. But a currricular<br />
plan would have to go through the<br />
affective-learning model’s five levels, stepby-step,<br />
in order to develop the personally<br />
meaningful connection with the text as a<br />
positively valued “beyond-the-self” spiritual<br />
experience. Remember, also, that genuine<br />
appreciation of the spiritual dimension of<br />
text learning (or the spiritual dimension of<br />
Shabbat) would likely have to wait until high<br />
school or adult education, since students'<br />
life experiences play an important factor<br />
in their sense of personal meaningfulness<br />
and relevance. I’d encourage some of my<br />
creative colleagues to attack this challenge<br />
– with developmental sensitivity – guided<br />
by Krathwohl’s five levels, and share their<br />
results.<br />
To sum up: Since we can’t impose spirittuality,<br />
the best we can do is encourage<br />
our students’ quest <strong>for</strong> positive, deeply<br />
meaningful experiences, which transcend<br />
the self and provide purpose to their <strong>Jewish</strong><br />
lives. Doing that provides us educators with<br />
a spiritual experience of our own! I believe<br />
that Krathwohl’s method of internalizing<br />
values on the affective domain is as close to<br />
this goal as we can get.<br />
References<br />
Krathwohl, David R., Bloom, Benjamin S.,<br />
and Masia, Bertram B. (1964). Taxonomy of<br />
educational objectives: <strong>The</strong> classification of<br />
educational goals. Handbook II: Affective<br />
domain. New York: David McKay Co., Inc.<br />
Martsolf, D.S and Mickley, J.R. (1998). <strong>The</strong><br />
concept of spirituality in nursing theories:<br />
Differing world-views and extent of focus.<br />
Journal of Advanced Nursing, 27, 294-303.<br />
| 17 חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
Applications: Engaging the Soul - An <strong>Education</strong>al Program<br />
Engaging the Soul:<br />
An <strong>Education</strong>al Program<br />
Aryeh Ben David<br />
A unique program <strong>for</strong> “engaging the soul” combines<br />
intellectual, physical, and emotional components to build<br />
a safe environment <strong>for</strong> students to grow spiritually.<br />
For many years I taught <strong>Jewish</strong> Studies<br />
– Torah, Mishnah, Talmud, <strong>Jewish</strong> Thought,<br />
Prayer, Ethics, etc. – to adults ranging in<br />
age from 18 to 75. While the students<br />
certainly absorbed a tremendous amount<br />
of in<strong>for</strong>mation, and seemed to enjoy<br />
their learning, I felt that the learning had<br />
not penetrated into the students’ inner<br />
lives. <strong>The</strong>ir newfound knowledge had<br />
not translated itself into a meaningful<br />
trans<strong>for</strong>mation in their being or behavior.<br />
<strong>The</strong> in<strong>for</strong>mation had remained just that,<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation, and had failed to enter<br />
their lives, hearts and souls. It was not<br />
trans<strong>for</strong>mative.<br />
To enable an educational experience<br />
that would be trans<strong>for</strong>mative would<br />
require engaging more than the cognitive,<br />
intellectual – it would have to engage the<br />
spiritual. In the words of Parker Palmer:<br />
“To chart the inner landscape fully,<br />
three important paths must be taken<br />
– intellectual, emotional, and spiritual – and<br />
none can be ignored.”<br />
This approach was advocated by the Hasidic<br />
masters, Rav Kook, Abraham Joshua<br />
Heschel, and others, and is similar to one<br />
based on Kabbalastic teachings that there<br />
are three primary voices of the soul – the<br />
nefesh, the ruah and the neshamah. <strong>The</strong>se<br />
voices are expressed through the powers of<br />
the mind (neshamah), the heart (ruah), and<br />
the body (nefesh). In order <strong>for</strong> education<br />
to be truly effective, it must access and<br />
harmonize these three voices of the soul.<br />
Key program elements<br />
Aryeh Ben David (aryehbd@netvision.net.il) is the Founder and Director of Ayeka: <strong>Center</strong> <strong>for</strong><br />
<strong>Jewish</strong> Spiritual <strong>Education</strong>. He currently serves as Rabbinical <strong>Education</strong>al Consultant <strong>for</strong> Hillel<br />
International and is on the faculty at the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem, where he is the Director of<br />
Spiritual <strong>Education</strong>. Aryeh received Rabbinical Ordination from the Israeli Rabbinate.<br />
Designing a program to engage the soul,<br />
in all its various components, required reimagining<br />
every aspect of the educational<br />
experience. A few basic principles <strong>for</strong>med<br />
the core of the program<br />
1. A safe and supportive environment,<br />
free of cynicism, sarcasm, judgment, or<br />
attack, must be created. Only in a safe<br />
environment will the student be open<br />
and willing to open themselves up and<br />
personally engage with the learning.<br />
2. Students need to be taught how to<br />
develop their listening skills. This includes<br />
the ability to “deeply listen” and how to ask<br />
open-ended, reflective questions. <strong>The</strong>y are<br />
not to give advice or admonish their partner.<br />
3. In that safe space, students discuss with<br />
study-partners (or a “personal hevruta”) how<br />
they relate to the material studied. What<br />
resonates with them, what was difficult <strong>for</strong><br />
them <strong>The</strong>y need to bring their own voice<br />
into their relationship with the material.<br />
4. <strong>The</strong> com<strong>for</strong>t of sharing grows with<br />
the ability to listen deeply and nonjudgmentally.<br />
<strong>The</strong> deep-listening practices<br />
develop and encourage each participant to<br />
actively listen to him or herself as well as to<br />
others.<br />
5. An experiential workshop engaging the<br />
body enables the student to take this mind<br />
and heart experience and express it through<br />
various media – art, creative writing, drama<br />
18 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
Aryeh Ben David<br />
or movement. <strong>The</strong> goal here is not the<br />
per<strong>for</strong>mance, but to bring concrete, physical<br />
expression of what has hereto<strong>for</strong>e been<br />
abstract.<br />
6. <strong>The</strong> pace of learning is deliberate and<br />
unhurried. Unlike the mind, the heart<br />
works very slowly; whereas the mind can<br />
be engaged independent of the rest of the<br />
self, engaging the heart and soul challenge<br />
the essence of one's personhood. Doing so<br />
must be done with care and deliberation,<br />
and both take time and patience. In the<br />
language of the Mishnah (Berakhot 5:1), the<br />
heart simply needs “to be” with the idea <strong>for</strong><br />
a period of time.<br />
Program content<br />
<strong>The</strong> program is built on a model of ten<br />
sessions, with a week between sessions.<br />
As mentioned earlier, each session has<br />
components addressing the basic elements<br />
of the soul – nefesh (physical), ruah<br />
(emotional), and neshamah (intellectual).<br />
<strong>The</strong> first session focuses on creating trust<br />
and developing listening skills with the<br />
members of the group. Trust and listening<br />
are essential to fostering the group’s<br />
dynamic. It is in this session that the<br />
foundations <strong>for</strong> the “safe space” are laid,<br />
enabling students to wrestle with new ideas<br />
and to personalize a new way of engaging<br />
with the world.<br />
Next, the program introduces the search<br />
<strong>for</strong> self, God and spirituality. A study of<br />
the story of the Garden of Eden is central,<br />
touching on ideas including God’s distancing<br />
Himself from Adam, Adam hiding behind<br />
the tree, and God's call of Ayyekka (where<br />
are you). <strong>The</strong>se become underlying themes<br />
<strong>for</strong> the whole program – the human coping<br />
mechanism of hiding (with particular<br />
emphasis on the idea of hiding from self and<br />
God) and the need to come out from that<br />
hiding in our search <strong>for</strong> God – as it were, our<br />
own cry of Ayyekka to God paralleling God's<br />
search <strong>for</strong> Man.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se building blocks, the environment<br />
and the goal, help facilitate the core of the<br />
program, which is based on the structure of<br />
the Mishnah. <strong>The</strong> Mishnah is organized into<br />
six basic units, which can be said to reflect<br />
its understanding of the spheres of human<br />
interaction with the world:<br />
1. Zera-im: the physical world<br />
2. Moed: the temporal world<br />
3. Nashim: family life<br />
4. Nezikin: community life<br />
5. Kodashim: holy things<br />
6. Tahorot: holy states of being<br />
Each of the next six sessions focuses on one<br />
of the broad areas outlined by the Mishnah,<br />
so that the students get the opportunity<br />
to reflect deeply on every facet of their<br />
interaction with the world.<br />
<strong>The</strong> final two sessions bring the focus<br />
back to the students, as they present their<br />
personal statements to the group.<br />
Each session concludes with an assignment<br />
– to look at the world with “wonder<br />
eyes”, trying to find moments of God’s<br />
fingerprints in the world around them.<br />
During the week between sessions,<br />
participants keep a journal as they reenter<br />
their lives with the new perspective they<br />
explored in the previous session. <strong>The</strong><br />
following session begins with a sharing of<br />
these observations. <strong>The</strong>ir logs of the search<br />
<strong>for</strong> self, coming out of “hiding”, and the<br />
search <strong>for</strong> God in the mundane become<br />
personal “soul-diaries”.<br />
Sample session<br />
<strong>The</strong> first of the six sessions on the subjects<br />
of the Mishnah focuses on revealing the<br />
hiddenness of God in the physical world. A<br />
typical session could look like this:<br />
Intellectual – neshamah (45 minutes)<br />
Study Abraham Joshua Heschel’s ideas<br />
of wonder, awe, and radical amazement.<br />
Heschel often quoted the Ba’al Shem Tov’s<br />
observation that God’s miraculous world can<br />
be hidden just by putting a small hand over<br />
one’s eyes. God is not only hidden far away,<br />
but sometimes hidden very close to us.<br />
Physical – nefesh (30 minutes)<br />
Ask the students to cover their eyes. When<br />
they uncover their eyes, have them look<br />
around the room with eyes of wonder and<br />
radical amazement. Ask them to notice<br />
five things in the room (that they had not<br />
previously noticed) which in their opinion<br />
could instill in them a sense of awe, a sense<br />
of “God’s fingerprints” in this room. <strong>The</strong><br />
students then share the five observations<br />
that they chose. This part concludes with a<br />
brief writing exercise involving one of the<br />
items they chose, followed by sharing in<br />
small groups of what they wrote.<br />
Emotional – ruah (30 minutes)<br />
To help the students personalize these ideas,<br />
we do a “personal hevruta” with trigger<br />
questions. <strong>The</strong> guidelines <strong>for</strong> this activity<br />
To enable an educational experience that would be trans<strong>for</strong>mative would<br />
require engaging more than the cognitive, intellectual – it would have to<br />
engage the spiritual.<br />
are fully explained be<strong>for</strong>ehand, including<br />
rules of confidentiality, deep listening skills,<br />
no attacking or judging each other, and<br />
no giving advice or trying to fix the other<br />
person.<br />
<strong>The</strong> questions are:<br />
a. Describe what it felt like to find wonder<br />
and God in the physical world.<br />
b. How would your life be different if you<br />
had a greater sensitivity to sensing wonder<br />
and radical amazement in the world<br />
c. What is holding you back<br />
d. Describe a moment when you especially<br />
felt God’s presence in the natural world.<br />
<strong>The</strong> final 15 minutes are an open discussion<br />
aimed at processing the ideas of the session.<br />
| 19 חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
Applications: Engaging the Soul - An <strong>Education</strong>al Program<br />
Reactions<br />
For a number of years I have been<br />
conducting programs like these with<br />
adults and teens. With the ever growing<br />
impulse <strong>for</strong> immediacy in their daily<br />
lives (microwaves, high-speed Internet,<br />
instant access to an almost variety of<br />
electronic entertainment options), many<br />
are uncom<strong>for</strong>table with the need to slow<br />
down the pace. <strong>The</strong>re is a drive impelling us<br />
to move ahead, to see new material, read<br />
another book, and go to a new class, and we<br />
get an intellectual rush every time we have a<br />
flash of inspiration or grasp a new concept.<br />
<strong>The</strong> need <strong>for</strong> time to process, so that the<br />
new learning can begin to penetrate the<br />
soul, is a challenge.<br />
For many, the very notion of exploring their<br />
inner selves is initially frightening, as is the<br />
notion of expressing themselves through a<br />
variety of media. I, myself, found the notion<br />
of artistic expression a daunting challenge.<br />
Despite the initial hesitations and<br />
challenges, as participants worked their<br />
way through the program they continually<br />
discovered new things about themselves and<br />
the subject studied. And it is that discovery<br />
of self which becomes the powerful<br />
motivation to continue the process.<br />
One of the most powerful effects of this<br />
process is the group-building through the<br />
personal sharing. Students rarely talk<br />
with each other about personal things,<br />
including talk about God and spirituality.<br />
<strong>The</strong> program, through its supportive and<br />
affirming environment, trans<strong>for</strong>med the<br />
students from lonely souls wondering<br />
how to move ahead to kindred spirits on a<br />
search. <strong>The</strong> sense of bonding which emerged<br />
helped trans<strong>for</strong>m their understanding of<br />
friendship by introducing a bonding based<br />
on common values and the mutual support<br />
which could propel each individual in the<br />
group. In the process of becoming more<br />
attuned to their own souls, they also found<br />
soul-mates.<br />
This program has been conducted both<br />
as an ongoing program, adaptable to the<br />
school setting, and as a seminar, or spiritual<br />
retreat. <strong>The</strong> following reactions are from<br />
participants who had a chance to reflect on<br />
the program weeks or months later:<br />
You helped me open something. <strong>The</strong> key is<br />
I'm starting to feel… I think about what I eat<br />
outside the house, I think about "where am I"<br />
while sitting in synagogue.<br />
Now, am I closer to G-d That's hard to tell. But,<br />
at least I've taken the first major step . . . I'm<br />
closer to me! Thanks <strong>for</strong> helping to awaken me<br />
spiritually!<br />
<strong>The</strong> retreat was one of the most trans<strong>for</strong>mative<br />
experiences that I have had in my life. It’s truly<br />
indescribable how I've felt since my return from<br />
Israel and there are so many lessons I will take<br />
with me <strong>for</strong> the rest of my life.<br />
For myself, as I've mentioned, I'm on a<br />
path, and I see the retreat having been an<br />
important step on that path. It helped<br />
clarify the meaning and mode of prayer<br />
to me, and has contributed to my daily<br />
practice. And it made me think about some<br />
important questions that I won't soon<br />
<strong>for</strong>get, even though the answers may change<br />
over time.<br />
20 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
<strong>The</strong> Effective Use<br />
of Holy Stories<br />
to Integrate the<br />
Totality of <strong>Jewish</strong><br />
Life with Neshamah,<br />
Spirituality, Faith, and<br />
<strong>Jewish</strong> Continuity<br />
Annette Labovitz<br />
A unique approach to spiritual education uses<br />
storytelling as a trigger <strong>for</strong> students’ growth.<br />
Annette Labovitz<br />
I have always believed that if we could<br />
integrate every discipline in limudei kodesh<br />
meaningfully, we could achieve the goal<br />
of describing living Judaism, so that our<br />
students would understand that they are the<br />
link binding our glorious past with the futture<br />
of the <strong>Jewish</strong> people. I believe that this<br />
would allow educators to more effectively<br />
explore with their students that we are commmanded<br />
to live a certain way because of the<br />
Biblical command “You shall be holy, <strong>for</strong> I,<br />
your God, am holy” (Vayikra 19:2). As I have<br />
thought of these possibilities, I have develooped<br />
one possible methodology to achieve<br />
the above: the effective use of holy stories.<br />
<strong>The</strong> major goal of storytelling within <strong>Jewish</strong><br />
tradition is to elevate faith, to inspire people<br />
to improve their actions, to teach them moraal<br />
lessons. Using appropriate stories would<br />
make abstract in<strong>for</strong>mation concrete and<br />
relevant, and would role model <strong>for</strong> students<br />
the way a Jew acts and responds to specific<br />
conditions, ethical dilemmas, religious situaations,<br />
and other problems which have been<br />
so much a part of the exile experience. From<br />
time immemorial, within <strong>Jewish</strong> tradition,<br />
stories have been a powerful, motivational,<br />
inspirational, educational tool to tell the<br />
“happenings” of the <strong>Jewish</strong> people.<br />
Stories have been used to describe our ethics<br />
and to be an effective instrument to mold<br />
and strengthen character, to influence social<br />
relationships and draw a portrait of a world<br />
to which educators and rabbis want the<br />
learner to relate. Stories not only open the<br />
neshamah of the listener, but are one of the<br />
most successful and powerful methods we<br />
have of transmitting our heritage and our<br />
Dr. Annette Labovitz has recognized the power of storytelling <strong>for</strong> decades. Her curriculum, based<br />
upon her books titled A Sacred Trust: Stories of Our Heritage and History, guides the educator to<br />
using stories <strong>for</strong> maximum effect in the classroom. She can be reached at drannette@gmail.com.<br />
traditions from generation to generation. So<br />
why not use this most effective educational<br />
tool<br />
Let me briefly condense my version of the<br />
well known story of “<strong>The</strong> Righteous Proseelyte,”<br />
(see sidebar) in order to demonstrate<br />
two goals: first, the methodology that can<br />
be applied to integrating learning within the<br />
classroom setting, and second, the focus on<br />
<strong>Jewish</strong> continuity and faith (which is one of<br />
the bases <strong>for</strong> spirituality).<br />
<strong>The</strong> ending of this story is tragic. It touches<br />
the neshamah of every reader and listener. It<br />
is a poignant and powerful way to focus on<br />
aspects of spirituality, namely specific mitzvvot<br />
bein adam lahavero, between man and<br />
man, mitzvot of social caring, lashon hara,<br />
ahavat habriyot, and bein adam lamakom,<br />
between man and God, mitzvot of Shabbat,<br />
tefillah, and tikkun olam. We must emphassize<br />
that without faith, without sensitivity<br />
that we live according to the Will of God<br />
everything that we observe and everything<br />
| 21 חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
Applications: <strong>The</strong> Effective Use of Holy Stories<br />
from which we refrain doing is meaningless.<br />
Spirituality, mitzvot of awareness, <strong>for</strong>m the<br />
ladder upon which we may ascend to the<br />
Divine.<br />
Let me return to the two goals set <strong>for</strong>th in<br />
the introduction to the story, integration<br />
of classroom disciplines and focusing on<br />
continuity and faith.<br />
In order to achieve these goals, a <strong>Jewish</strong><br />
story must encompass place (history /<br />
geography), time (Shabbat, hagim, mitzvot),<br />
character (an inspirational role model), and<br />
message (classic sacred text), all of which<br />
will be described below. We must explore<br />
these foci of a <strong>Jewish</strong> story and apply them<br />
to integrating humash, gemara, halakhah,<br />
mussar and <strong>Jewish</strong> history within the<br />
parameters of that story. Stories with these<br />
characteristics provide the educator and the<br />
students with the opportunity to pursue the<br />
issues of spirituality that are described and<br />
can be transferred to our immediate daily<br />
living experiences.<br />
How does the educator achieve these two<br />
goals of curricular integration and faith<br />
development How do we apply the messsage<br />
of the story Using the concepts of<br />
place, time, character and message as our<br />
outline, the following questions may build<br />
the educator’s discussion on integration of<br />
disciplines. Discussion questions concenttrating<br />
on our relationship to God will focus<br />
students’ attention on spirituality.<br />
involve the learner. Explore how the story<br />
establishes a “living <strong>Jewish</strong>” framework;<br />
how we flash back <strong>for</strong> our learners on our<br />
glorious <strong>Jewish</strong> past, and make it relevant to<br />
<strong>Jewish</strong> living today.<br />
Look at the condition of <strong>Jewish</strong> life was<br />
during the middle 1700's in eastern Eurrope.<br />
Why was Vilna, Lithuania called the<br />
“Yerushalayim of Europe” What was the<br />
relationship of the <strong>Jewish</strong> people to their<br />
non-<strong>Jewish</strong> neighbors Why did the Potocki<br />
family and the police threaten the <strong>Jewish</strong><br />
community and condemned the righteous<br />
To explore <strong>Jewish</strong> place with your students, ask them how we have<br />
lived in that time and in that place. For almost every age learner,<br />
their relationship to the <strong>Jewish</strong> past must be concrete, not abstract.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re<strong>for</strong>e, a story presents the proper “hook” with which to involve the<br />
learner.<br />
proselyte to death Would the fact that in<br />
the United States of America minorities are<br />
guaranteed freedom of religion under the<br />
bill of rights separating church and state<br />
make the outcome different if this story had<br />
occurred 250 years later in America<br />
Other questions to explore include what the<br />
lessons of <strong>Jewish</strong> life during the eighteenth<br />
century are so that we may learn from<br />
this story and be inspired by it, and how<br />
we can imbue our students with the same<br />
“You shall be holy” <strong>for</strong> which the righteous<br />
proselyte yearned.<br />
Exploring <strong>Jewish</strong> Time<br />
To explore <strong>Jewish</strong> time with your students,<br />
look at how we have lived and per<strong>for</strong>med<br />
mitzvot in specific situations. <strong>Jewish</strong> time<br />
in this particular story is the celebration<br />
of Shabbat and Shavuot. In teaching the<br />
story, the educator couId point out the<br />
different aspects of Shabbat and Shavuot<br />
in the Torah. For example, in observance<br />
of Shabbat, the teacher could explore the<br />
difference between the Shabbat of creation,<br />
the Shabbat of the Exodus, and the Shabbat<br />
of commandments.<br />
She can also explore what it was about<br />
the <strong>Jewish</strong> family’s observance of Shabbat<br />
that inspired the young Count to consider<br />
conversion to Judaism, what the variations<br />
described <strong>for</strong> the observance of Shavuot are<br />
in the cited sources in the Torah. Compare<br />
the counting of the omer with the giving<br />
of the Torah in honor of Shavuot and ask<br />
why it is significant that we know that the<br />
yahrzeit of the righteous proselyte falls on<br />
Shavuot.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Zohar describes the relationship bettween<br />
God and the <strong>Jewish</strong> people. Both partties<br />
to the eternal covenant remember: God<br />
remembers “the kindness of your youth, the<br />
love of your nuptials, your following Me into<br />
the wilderness” (Jeremiah 2:2) and we remmember<br />
the suffering of exile – “remember<br />
O God what has befallen us.” (Eikhah 5:1)<br />
We are living in the longest and most bitter<br />
of exiles, and we oftentimes feel so far away<br />
from God, so far removed from spirituality.<br />
Yet, “how happy we should be to merit even<br />
a limited respite, the opportunity to create<br />
a haven in which to attach ourselves to the<br />
Dievine Presence. And when can we create<br />
such an environment On Shabbat, on Yom<br />
Tov, and on Rosh Hodesh.”<br />
Exploring <strong>Jewish</strong> Place<br />
To explore <strong>Jewish</strong> place with your students,<br />
ask them how we have lived in that time and<br />
in that place. For almost every age learner,<br />
their relationship to the <strong>Jewish</strong> past must<br />
be concrete, not abstract. <strong>The</strong>re<strong>for</strong>e, a story<br />
presents the proper “hook” with which to<br />
22 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
Annette Labovitz<br />
Finally, how about asking why, when we say<br />
the blessing after the meal we add: “May the<br />
Compassionate One cause us to inherit the<br />
day which will be completely Shabbat, and<br />
rest <strong>for</strong> eternal life” Doesn’t that addition<br />
mean that even as we live in exile, we rejoice<br />
that we set aside time to experience the<br />
Divine Presence in our midst<br />
Exploring <strong>Jewish</strong> Character<br />
In order to help your students explore Jewiish<br />
character, you can discuss what character<br />
traits Jews should aspire to. Other points<br />
of discussion could include an exploration<br />
of what mitzvah was desecrated when the<br />
worshiper pointed out that the man who<br />
was leading the davening was a convert, how<br />
we are commanded to treat converts and<br />
why, and what are the traditional halakhic<br />
requirements <strong>for</strong> conversion.<br />
What he had to learn and to observe, along<br />
with the laws of lashon hara and/or embarrrassing<br />
another person and/or reminding<br />
a convert of his/her origins could also help<br />
students to get a better understanding of<br />
the role character plays in life.<br />
Understanding who our leaders were, and<br />
what ethical will they left us by which to<br />
remember their impact upon the perpetuaation<br />
of <strong>Jewish</strong> life is also an important<br />
discussion to have with students. <strong>The</strong> Jewiish<br />
character will vary from one time frame<br />
to another and expose our learners to 5,000<br />
years of <strong>Jewish</strong> learning and writing.<br />
We as educators need to think about what<br />
we want our learners to know about the<br />
inspirational role model, and in this case<br />
in particular, that we hope our learners<br />
will attempt to emulate the Gaon of Vilna,<br />
Rabbi Elyahu ben Shlomo Zalman. Though<br />
he is mentioned in this story as a minor<br />
character, the Vilna Gaon was a major figure<br />
in the development of <strong>Jewish</strong> life.<br />
What interesting ideas may we add to the<br />
development of his character, beyond the<br />
fact that he was the founder of the Mitnagddic<br />
movement, through discussions of why<br />
there was such a schism during the 1700's<br />
between Hasidim and Mitnagdim, how it<br />
<strong>The</strong> Righteous Proselyte<br />
of Vilna<br />
<strong>The</strong> setting of the story is Vilna, Lithuania,<br />
and the chronological time frame parallels<br />
the life time of the Vilna Gaon, the eightteenth<br />
century.<br />
<strong>The</strong> maturing scion of the very wealthy<br />
Count Potocki family, whose <strong>for</strong>tune was<br />
earned in the distillation of liquor, was<br />
searching <strong>for</strong> meaning to his life. While<br />
riding his horse aimlessly around the city<br />
and the countryside toward dusk one Friday,<br />
he strayed into the <strong>Jewish</strong> section of town.<br />
He noticed, in one house after another, the<br />
reflection of the soft flicker of candlelight<br />
glowing through the windows. He dismmounted,<br />
tied his horse to a tree and began<br />
walking toward the sound of an enchanting<br />
melody emanating from the farthest house<br />
at the edge of the <strong>for</strong>est. Stealthily, he peered<br />
inside the window. He saw a <strong>Jewish</strong> family<br />
celebrating Shabbat.<br />
He compared what he experienced with his<br />
own personal family life. In this house, life<br />
was so different. In his house, everyone ate<br />
separately; in this house, the entire family<br />
ate together. In his house, everyone ate the<br />
most expensive cuts of meat; in this house,<br />
it seemed that dinner would consist of a<br />
twisted loaf of white bread and a herring. In<br />
his house, everyone was always shouting; in<br />
this house, the family was singing together.<br />
He stood by the window, enchanted by what<br />
he saw, until the candles burned out and the<br />
<strong>Jewish</strong> family retired <strong>for</strong> the night.<br />
Determined to explore further, he returned<br />
<strong>for</strong> many weeks until he had enough courage<br />
to knock on the door. He was invited to<br />
experience Shabbat with the family, first<br />
Friday night, then the entire Shabbat day.<br />
Ultimately, he decided that he had to become<br />
like the members of this family, that he had<br />
to convert, <strong>for</strong> he experienced with them the<br />
Divine Presence each week. <strong>The</strong> family was<br />
not surprised, <strong>for</strong> they had seen him change<br />
as his yearning to study Torah intensified, to<br />
find out what it means to be a Jew.<br />
Because the gentile world condemned people<br />
converting to Judaism, he had to find a<br />
way to covertly execute his intentions. In<br />
consultation with the leaders of the <strong>Jewish</strong><br />
community, and with the encouragement of<br />
the family who had sheltered him, he traveeled<br />
to Amsterdam, where Jews lived in relattive<br />
security at that time. He converted and<br />
took the name of Avraham ben Avraham.<br />
He immersed himself in study. Soon people<br />
referred to him as “the learned Jew.”<br />
After five years, he decided to return “home,”<br />
hoping that he could marry one of the<br />
daughters of the family that had sheltered<br />
him. <strong>The</strong> newlyweds lived near her parents<br />
and they davened in the same shul. <strong>The</strong><br />
“learned Jew” loved to lead the davening.<br />
Disturbed with the worshiper’s talking, he<br />
gently chided one. <strong>The</strong> worshiper angrily<br />
shouted: “how dare a convert reprimand me!”<br />
Those few words ignited a conflagration. <strong>The</strong><br />
police arrested Avraham ben Avraham. His<br />
<strong>for</strong>mer family was alerted that their long<br />
lost son had been found, and the church and<br />
the government being one, demanded that<br />
he renounce Judaism. He refused and was<br />
condemned to death by fire.<br />
He asked to speak be<strong>for</strong>e his execution. He<br />
said: “I know that I am accused of heresy beccause<br />
I converted to Judaism. I want you to<br />
know that I believe you will only be burning<br />
flesh and bone. As <strong>for</strong> the man who revealed<br />
my identity, please tell him that I <strong>for</strong>give him<br />
because he gave me the opportunity to die<br />
<strong>for</strong> the sanctification of God’s glorious and<br />
Holy Name.”<br />
At that moment, a messenger from the<br />
Gaon of Vilna told him that it would be posssible<br />
to save his life with kabbalistic secrets.<br />
He refused to consider it, preferring to die<br />
a martyr’s death. When his flesh could no<br />
longer withstand the pain of the scorching<br />
flames, he cried out: “Blessed be You, O Lord<br />
our God, mekadesh et shimkha barabim, who<br />
sanctifies His Name be<strong>for</strong>e the multitudes.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> yahrzeit of Avraham, the learned Jew,<br />
is observed on the second day of Shavuout.<br />
<strong>The</strong> year was 5509 (1749). According to<br />
our tradition, the Vilna Gaon requested that<br />
when his time came, he was to be buried<br />
next to Avraham ben Avraham.<br />
| 23 חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
Applications: <strong>The</strong> Effective Use of Holy Stories<br />
was solved, and whether there is a big differeence<br />
between the two movements today<br />
<strong>The</strong> story provides the perfect background<br />
<strong>for</strong> delving further into the writings of the<br />
Vilna Gaon, his Talmudic thoughts, his<br />
mussar thoughts, and so much more. Our<br />
learners need to understand his outlook on<br />
mussar and be exposed to his ethical will.<br />
Exploring <strong>Jewish</strong> Message<br />
Exploring <strong>Jewish</strong> message: <strong>Jewish</strong> message<br />
is found in our classic, sacred texts and in<br />
our tefillot. For example, the blessing of<br />
mekadesh et shimkha barabim appears in the<br />
daily prayers. Discovering with our students<br />
how many years have passed since the <strong>for</strong>mmulation<br />
of this blessing, why our sages saw<br />
fit to incorporate it into our daily prayers,<br />
and how the other morning brakhot teach<br />
us to express gratitude to God, are all topics<br />
that can arise from the study of a story.<br />
When students ask: how do I know this<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation It is imperative <strong>for</strong> the educattor<br />
to open up the volume in question and<br />
point out where it is written (or to assign a<br />
class research project, or to admit that the<br />
answer needs to be investigated.). Students<br />
will learn that they and we are dwarfs standiing<br />
on the shoulders of giants, that we have<br />
continued our tradition from generation to<br />
generation, by transmitting that which is<br />
sacred and holy.<br />
Integrating these four components – place,<br />
time, character and message – makes the tottality<br />
of <strong>Jewish</strong> living relevant. It points out<br />
that each generation is a continuum of the<br />
previous generation, and it helps our learneers<br />
understand how holy their neshamot are<br />
and how precious it is to have been born a<br />
Jew. <strong>The</strong> educator can focus on those topics<br />
in the story regarding tikkun olam (that is,<br />
that we are God’s partners in improving this<br />
world <strong>for</strong> the betterment of mankind. This<br />
can be done by guiding students to per<strong>for</strong>m<br />
mitzvot of social caring, inspiring students<br />
to pay attention to the wonder and mystery<br />
of the world, and helping them to recognize<br />
God’s presence through tefillah and the<br />
recitation of brakhot.<br />
This pattern of discussion/questioning can<br />
be adapted to stories that fit the definition<br />
of a “<strong>Jewish</strong> story.” I have shown how time,<br />
place, character and message merge beautiffully<br />
within an appropriate story to integrate<br />
disciplines and to enhance spirituality.<br />
I have yet to meet any person who does<br />
not love stories. <strong>The</strong> goal of educators is to<br />
use a story <strong>for</strong> maximum effect. I dream<br />
not only of enhancing our classrooms with<br />
an exciting new method to integrate every<br />
discipline in the limudei kodesh curriculum,<br />
but through the effective use of appropriaate<br />
stories, to provide the inspirational<br />
role models that we hope our students will<br />
emulate. In addition, what more effective<br />
way do we have with which to enhance our<br />
Shabbat and Yom Tov tables than with the<br />
words of a holy story<br />
24 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
| 25 חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
Application: <strong>The</strong> Art of Tefillah<br />
<strong>The</strong> Art<br />
of Tefillah<br />
Jay Goldmintz<br />
A colleague recently reported a conversattion<br />
with a high school senior who had been<br />
asked why she did not take davening serioously.<br />
“When I was in elementary school,”<br />
she said, “we were offered stickers <strong>for</strong> good<br />
behavior in minyan and there was sometthing<br />
exciting and encouraging about it. But<br />
as I got older, it simply became routinized<br />
and ritualistic and there was no longer<br />
anything engaging or compelling. I’ve simply<br />
stopped finding any meaning.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> challenge to create meaning or, more<br />
correctly stated, to help students create their<br />
I began to use with a group of tenth grade<br />
students, makes use of synagogue art dispplayed<br />
in the ruins of a synagogue in Poland.<br />
For tefillah education to be most effective it<br />
must take place during tefillah itself rather<br />
than as a class at some other time in the day.<br />
<strong>The</strong> associations that students make must<br />
be related to the act and the place of prayer,<br />
at which point it can be properly internaliized.<br />
<strong>The</strong> following presentation was initially<br />
designed to be used during the final minutes<br />
of shaharit, but over the course of time<br />
could last one minute or five, all depending<br />
upon the time available and the mood of<br />
the tzibbur. Mood, openness, sensitivities<br />
are everything – and I refer to those of the<br />
teacher as much as those of the students.<br />
Polish synagogue art is largely untapped<br />
resource <strong>for</strong> teaching about tefillah. While<br />
the use of the visual arts to teach about<br />
spirituality is somewhat unorthodox – the<br />
prohibition against images in the Torah is<br />
quite dramatic – the Orthodox shuls and<br />
shtibels of earlier generations suggests a<br />
<strong>The</strong> challenge to create meaning or, more correctly stated, to help students create their own meaning, is a<br />
daunting one. <strong>The</strong> challenge is particularly great in light of the fact that our structured tefillah is so wordoriented<br />
while the essence of tefillah relates to matters of the heart.<br />
own meaning, is a daunting one. <strong>The</strong> challlenge<br />
is particularly great in light of the fact<br />
that our structured tefillah is so word-orieented<br />
while the essence of tefillah relates to<br />
matters of the heart. It occurred to me that<br />
visual aids may thus provide a useful bridge<br />
between the two worlds. What follows is<br />
one such example designed to challenge<br />
students to create their own cues <strong>for</strong> more<br />
meaningful tefillah. <strong>The</strong> presentation, which<br />
the discussions moved to various points<br />
throughout tefillah.<br />
<strong>The</strong> chart below reflects aspects of the<br />
presentation and their rationale. <strong>The</strong> stages<br />
of the presentation do not necessarily reflect<br />
the actual number of sessions. A slide could<br />
be left on the screen <strong>for</strong> a few minutes or a<br />
few days without any comment; a discussion<br />
more open approach to the use of visual<br />
stimuli in the context of prayer. As Rav<br />
Kook (Olat Re-Iyah, introduction to Shir<br />
Hashirim) writes:<br />
Literature, painting and sculpture stand ready<br />
to bring to realization all the spiritual concepts<br />
imprinted within the depth of the human soul.<br />
And as long as one line well hidden in the soul’s<br />
depth has not been realized, there is still an<br />
obligation on the service of art to bring it <strong>for</strong>th.<br />
Jay Goldmintz is Headmaster of Ramaz Upper School in New York City where he initiated and<br />
conducts the annual Senior Experience to Poland and Israel. He has written extensively on issues<br />
related to <strong>for</strong>mal and in<strong>for</strong>mal curriculum and, most recently, on religious development in adolescence.<br />
26 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
Jay Goldmintz<br />
Presentation<br />
Rationale<br />
At the end of tefillah or at the beginning,<br />
this slide is shown of the ruins of the shul in<br />
Rymanów (pronounced Ri-ma-nov), Poland.<br />
<strong>The</strong> synagogue dates from the turn of the<br />
17 th or 18 th century.<br />
Students must be helped to find meaning<br />
in tefillah while they are engaging in tefilllah,<br />
and not in some separate class about<br />
tefillah. Associations made in tefillah are<br />
much more likely to be recalled and drawn<br />
upon when the person is in the synagogue<br />
the next time.<br />
As you look into the doorway of the structture,<br />
you can make out the remnants of<br />
paintings and words on the walls. Think <strong>for</strong><br />
a moment about the decorations on your<br />
synagogue’s walls. What do they look like<br />
Why are they there Think about it <strong>for</strong> a<br />
minute.<br />
When introducing additional elements to<br />
tefillah, it is important not to overdo it. A<br />
“lesson” of a minute or two can be far more<br />
powerful than a daily five minute speech,<br />
which some see as simply another routine.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y will likely be more attentive when<br />
they feel that their time and attention<br />
span are being respected. Indeed, somet<br />
times speaking less allows more room <strong>for</strong><br />
the heart to engage.<br />
This is a painting on one of the walls. It<br />
clearly depicts the Kotel. Why do you think<br />
someone would paint this on the wall of a<br />
synagogue<br />
Why do some people feel that tefillah is<br />
“easier” at the Kotel What does that mean<br />
Students need to be encouraged to come<br />
up with their own interpretations and<br />
meanings, and every ef<strong>for</strong>t should be made<br />
to validate these. To the extent that tefillah<br />
is “service of the heart” then every heart<br />
must find its own meaning. I was amazed<br />
by the variety and sensitivity of the studt<br />
dents' associations with the photo.<br />
<strong>The</strong> following slides highlight how central,<br />
and universal, an image can become to<br />
tefillah.<br />
| 27 חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
Application: <strong>The</strong> Art of Tefillah<br />
Presentation<br />
Rationale<br />
(A different view of the picture is projected<br />
onto the wall and remains there throughout<br />
tefillah.) I wonder if anyone came up with<br />
any reasons we have not mentioned yet<br />
Does the different lighting or perspective of<br />
this picture evoke different feelings <strong>for</strong> you<br />
When I stand near a wall in the synagogue<br />
I will sometimes put my hand upon it and<br />
imagine that I am touching the cool smooth<br />
surface of the Kotel stones. I can feel<br />
transported there, and my tefillah is affected<br />
accordingly. Maybe that’s something you can<br />
try another time.<br />
Projecting the picture at the beginning<br />
of tefillah means that it is now no longer<br />
“just” a picture but a picture that has pot<br />
tential meaning <strong>for</strong> tefillah and is worthy<br />
of attention during tefillah.<br />
It is valuable to get students to recall<br />
places where they have had meaningful<br />
tefillah. By doing so, we can help them tap<br />
into their associations with that place or<br />
moment and draw upon those recollect<br />
tions of feelings <strong>for</strong> use in the everyday<br />
setting of tefillah.<br />
Teachers need to share their own internal relligious<br />
and spiritual lives. It is unreasonable<br />
to expect students to pick up the vocabulary<br />
and spirit of religiosity without modeling.<br />
Let’s assume <strong>for</strong> a moment that the painting<br />
was done on the synagogue wall in order to<br />
enhance people’s kavannah (intent). Why<br />
would such a thing be necessary After all,<br />
aren’t people coming to the synagogue to<br />
pray<br />
<strong>Here</strong> we come to one of the key goals of<br />
the exercise – to highlight that kavannah<br />
during tefillah is, and always was, a challt<br />
lenge. For our students to hear that adults<br />
struggle with it can be liberating.<br />
Praying with kavannah is not always easy<br />
and we sometimes need help or inspiration.<br />
Why do you think that is<br />
28 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
Jay Goldmintz<br />
Presentation<br />
<strong>The</strong> people who prayed in Polish synagogues<br />
in the 19 th and early 20 th century, as well<br />
as the artists who painted these pictures,<br />
had probably never been to Palestine. How<br />
might this change the meaning of the<br />
painting <strong>for</strong> the people who prayed in that<br />
synagogue<br />
Many shuls have pictures of the kotel. Do<br />
you think that the different depictions<br />
represent different ideas<br />
Rationale<br />
Associations with tefillah need not emerge<br />
from of our own experience, but can also<br />
emanate from abstract ideas with which<br />
we identify or from part of our collective<br />
consciousness.<br />
Grappling with issues of tefillah through<br />
the prism of a centuries-old synagogue<br />
potentially binds the student to a past that<br />
struggled with many of the same issues.<br />
In addition to the painting of the Kotel,<br />
there are other paintings on the walls of the<br />
synagogue. <strong>The</strong>se are part of a series that<br />
go together. <strong>The</strong>se paintings represent the<br />
mishnah from Avot 5:20.<br />
Yehudah ben Teimah says: ‘Be bold as a leopard,<br />
light as an eagle, swift as a deer, and strong as a<br />
lion to the will of your Father in heaven.’<br />
This was a common motif in many Polish<br />
synagogues. Why do you think that these<br />
images were placed on the walls What<br />
purpose did they serve<br />
Each aspect of the mishnah can be analyzed.<br />
Again, the students can interpret <strong>for</strong> themsselves<br />
why these particular animals and why<br />
these particular attributes were chosen, so<br />
that each student can come up with his or<br />
her own personal association. And, again,<br />
the analysis can be done piecemeal, covering<br />
but one or two aspects a day or even once a<br />
week.<br />
<strong>The</strong> teacher or the class as a whole may deccide<br />
which image to leave up on the screen<br />
during subsequent days.<br />
You may have noticed from one of the previoous<br />
photos that there is yet a third series of<br />
paintings on the walls consisting entirely of<br />
writing rather than pictures.<br />
If you had to guess, what do you think they<br />
might say<br />
<strong>Here</strong> we begin to get students to project<br />
their own sense of what they think might<br />
be appropriate. One can thereby gain<br />
insight into what they are thinking about<br />
tefillah or about their own perceived needs<br />
<strong>for</strong> inspiration.<br />
| חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007<br />
29
Application: <strong>The</strong> Art of Tefillah<br />
Presentation<br />
Rationale<br />
<strong>The</strong>se consist entirely of quotations from<br />
the Talmud or the Zohar on issues related<br />
to tefillah. We’ll look at only one or two of<br />
them.<br />
As you look at them, consider:<br />
Why were these particular sayings chosen by<br />
the artist What needs or emotions was he<br />
trying to address Have you ever felt these<br />
same feelings<br />
Were they intended to be read be<strong>for</strong>e tefillah<br />
began During tefillah Can you imagine<br />
that they might have been a distraction<br />
rather than an inspiration<br />
Talmud Bavli Brakhot 6a<br />
It was taught: Abba Binyamin said: A person’s<br />
prayer is not heard except in a synagogue as it<br />
says (Melakhim I 8:28) ‘to hearken to the song and<br />
to the prayer;’ <strong>The</strong> prayer is to be recited where<br />
there is song.<br />
Rabin bar Rav Adda said in the name of R.<br />
Yitzchak: ‘How do you know that the Holy One,<br />
blessed be He, is to be found in the synagogue<br />
For it is said: (Tehillim 82:1) ‘G-d stands in the<br />
congregation of G-d.’ And how do you know that<br />
if ten people pray together, the Divine Presence<br />
is with them For it is said: (ibid.) ‘In the midst<br />
of the judges, He judges.”<br />
Talmud Bavli Brakhot 8a<br />
R. Levi said: Whoever has a synagogue in his<br />
town and does not go there in order to pray,<br />
is called an evil neighbor. As it says: (Yirmiyahu<br />
12:14) ‘Thus says the Lord: as <strong>for</strong> all My evil<br />
neighbors who touch the inheritance which I<br />
have caused My people Israel to inherit.’ And<br />
more than that, he brings exile upon himself<br />
and his children, as it says (ibid.) ‘Behold, I will<br />
pluck them up from off their land and will pluck<br />
up the house of Yehudah from among them.”<br />
<strong>Here</strong> we make a transition from pictures<br />
to words, but those words themselves<br />
are painted on the walls and thus <strong>for</strong>m a<br />
religious-aesthetic function as well. (Indeed,<br />
the earliest <strong>for</strong>ms of synagogue art in Eurrope<br />
seem to have been calligraphied prayers<br />
and sayings more than pictures or symbols.)<br />
Just as with the pictures, students may<br />
explore what these sayings of Hazal were<br />
intended to convey to the worshiper trying<br />
to pray.<br />
<strong>The</strong> pictures may be left on the screen<br />
every day throughout tefillah so that studt<br />
dents may begin to reflect upon them and<br />
perhaps even to internalize their messages.<br />
Alternatively, they may all be reproduced<br />
and distributed in a size that fits into the<br />
student’s siddur, or posted on the walls<br />
around the synagogue prayer room.<br />
From here it is but a short step to asking<br />
students to supply their own photographs<br />
or sayings that may be posted on the walls<br />
or projected onto the screen. Different indivviduals<br />
may be invited to submit personal<br />
contributions, and after public display <strong>for</strong><br />
a day or two (giving the other students the<br />
opportunity to contemplate it), the student<br />
may explain why it is so meaningful to<br />
them.<br />
One could imagine a class/school project<br />
in which students undertake to paint the<br />
walls with their own pictures or sayings<br />
that are designed to enhance the tefillah<br />
of the community. Such a project could<br />
involve meaningful deliberation about<br />
tefillah and kavannah, and could involve a<br />
variety of students with different interests<br />
and talents, thereby engaging the entire<br />
community. In the end, the students<br />
themselves will have constructed their own<br />
place of worship, a place where they themst<br />
selves have created meaning and will have<br />
thus come one step closer to appreciating<br />
the art of tefillah.<br />
30 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
Silence For Renewal:<br />
<strong>The</strong> Power of<br />
Silence<br />
In the Classroom<br />
Nancy Siegel<br />
Yoga and breathing exercises<br />
can be used to bring about<br />
an awareness of <strong>Jewish</strong><br />
spirituality.<br />
in a world that is so fast paced that when<br />
we slow down, we almost metaphorically<br />
topple over. What a true sign of imbalance!<br />
What would it be like if our lives weren’t so<br />
frenetic and we took time out of our busy<br />
days to just slow down What would the<br />
classroom look like with periods of silence<br />
Sometimes, we just need to stop be<strong>for</strong>e we<br />
can continue. Stop and listen to the silence.<br />
At first, the silence can be deafening. But,<br />
if we continue to take the ‘passive’ action, if<br />
you will, of sitting quietly, the chatter in our<br />
brain can slow down, and if we do it long<br />
enough we might even be able to watch it<br />
go away.<br />
It is only with the heart that one sees rightly.<br />
That which is essential is invisible to the eye.<br />
-Antoine de St. Exupery<br />
What does silence in the classroom look<br />
like What are the benefits Can teachers<br />
use silence to increase spirituality in the<br />
classroom How can silence be used <strong>for</strong><br />
renewal And most importantly why<br />
This paper will address these very rich and<br />
intriguing questions. Through a philosophiccal<br />
examination of silence as well as through<br />
self-reflective exercises, it is hoped that this<br />
will speak directly to the reader’s heart and<br />
spirit. However, questions can sometimes be<br />
more profound than any proposed answers.<br />
How can a topic that needs to be experieenced<br />
be discussed in words How can you<br />
give verbal expression to a non-verbal experrience<br />
What follows is a humble approach<br />
to address the power of silence, in general,<br />
and in the classroom in particular.<br />
<strong>The</strong> gifts of silence touch the cognitive,<br />
psychological, physiological and spiritual dimmensions<br />
of our lives. But, silence and stillnness<br />
are very <strong>for</strong>eign to our culture. We live<br />
If you look at a muddy pond, and you stare<br />
long enough, the mud will settle on the botttom<br />
of the pond and the water will appear<br />
clear. It is the same with our thoughts. If<br />
we can find the courage to sit quietly with<br />
gently closed eyes, giving ourselves the<br />
permission to leave the outer world and<br />
enter our inner one, our thoughts will settle<br />
and our minds will become clear. It is in<br />
this stillness and solitude that the potential<br />
harmony of the heart and mind reside.<br />
Why is it that we have to give ourselves<br />
permission to be silent It is as if our cultture<br />
tells us that if we aren’t making noise,<br />
verbally or otherwise, we are not being<br />
productive, the yardstick <strong>for</strong> success. It is<br />
through listening to the silence that resides<br />
deep within the heart that we can hear and<br />
find our own voice, our true essence.<br />
Nancy Siegel is the Director of the Nesheemah Yoga <strong>Center</strong>. A <strong>for</strong>mer early childhood educator, she<br />
currently trains <strong>Jewish</strong> day school educators to develop their teaching presence, helping them reignite<br />
the joy of learning in themselves as well as in their students.<br />
| 31 חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
Application: <strong>The</strong> Power of Silence in the Classroom<br />
In my yoga-inspired work with children,<br />
it has become very clear to me that we are<br />
born with the desire deep in our hearts to be<br />
heard. In order <strong>for</strong> that to occur, we need to<br />
first find our inner voice, our true essence.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n we need to know that our voice will be<br />
listened to with complete and honest openhearted<br />
respect.<br />
In Tanakh, there are many references to<br />
the heart. <strong>The</strong> one that holds a special<br />
significance <strong>for</strong> me is in Bereshit 24:45,<br />
when Eliezer, Avraham’s faithful servant,<br />
is recounting his first meeting with Rivkah,<br />
Yitzhak’s future bride. He says that he had<br />
not yet finished meditating (translation<br />
from <strong>The</strong> Stone Chumash) when he saw her.<br />
In Hebrew the wording is ledabar el libi literaally<br />
translated as, “to speak to my heart”. It<br />
doesn’t say he was speaking to himself, but<br />
to his heart. Speaking, or more appropriaately,<br />
listening to what our heart is telling<br />
us, is crucial in our daily lives. Because, if<br />
we can truly sit quietly and listen, there is so<br />
much to hear.<br />
<strong>The</strong> ancient art and science of yoga offers us<br />
a system of using the breath, neshimah, in<br />
Hebrew, to help us find stillness and silence.<br />
<strong>The</strong> breath is the vehicle into the inner<br />
world. It is the bridge between the body<br />
and the mind, the gateway to the soul. It is<br />
through the breath that we enter our inner<br />
world, and in turn have the opportunity to<br />
quiet our thoughts so we can listen to our<br />
heart.<br />
In Hebrew neshimah, (breath), and<br />
neshamah, (soul), have the same shoresh,<br />
(root). It says in Bereshit 2:7, “And Hashem<br />
God <strong>for</strong>med the man of dust from the<br />
ground, and He blew into his nostrils the<br />
soul (neshamah) of life, and man became<br />
a living being.” Rabbi Abraham Twerski,<br />
MD, in his book Twerski on Spirituality says,<br />
“Judaism teaches that spiritual drives are an<br />
expression of the neshamah (soul)... and the<br />
Zohar points out that when one exhales, he<br />
exhales something from within himself.<br />
Thus, God breathing a breath of life into<br />
man means that He put something of<br />
Himself into man, and the human spirit is<br />
there<strong>for</strong>e a ‘part’, as it were, of God Himsself.”<br />
So this means that our soul is the<br />
breath of Hashem. What does that mean<br />
about our own breath An example of a<br />
question being more profound than any<br />
proposed answer.<br />
(Editor’s Note: Throughout this article, four<br />
exercises will be suggested to help the reader<br />
experience the silence more deeply, and/or to<br />
share this experience with faculty and studdents.<br />
<strong>The</strong> exercises themselves can be found<br />
on our website at www.lookstein.org/journnal.htm<br />
along with guidelines <strong>for</strong> implementtation.<br />
Following each exercise title within the<br />
article below are deeper explanations of that<br />
particular exercise along with Torah and other<br />
sources on the value of developing silence <strong>for</strong><br />
both teachers and students. )<br />
Exercise 1: <strong>The</strong> Journey Inward<br />
What happens when we first sit in stillness<br />
<strong>The</strong> “monkey chatter” begins in the brain.<br />
As my 6 year old friend Matan says, “It is<br />
hard <strong>for</strong> me. First, I get one thought, then<br />
another thought, then another thought and<br />
then another thought and I just don’t know<br />
which one to listen to.” We are all so busy<br />
rushing about doing the next thing that<br />
when we try to stop <strong>for</strong> a moment and sit in<br />
stillness, our thoughts continue to race. We<br />
find it very difficult to find this inner sense<br />
of quiet. We want to be anywhere but here,<br />
right where we are. All of a sudden, we <strong>for</strong>ggot<br />
to turn off the oven, or we are overcome<br />
with the irresistible urge to mow the lawn,<br />
something we have never done be<strong>for</strong>e, or<br />
even considered doing be<strong>for</strong>e.<br />
This type of silence is more a quietness of<br />
the heart, rather than the absence of sound.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is a stillness that resides deep in the<br />
heart that <strong>The</strong> Lubavitcher Rebbe called “a<br />
Quiet Heart.” He said, “<strong>The</strong> human heart is<br />
beautiful. <strong>The</strong> human heart can know seccrets<br />
deeper than any mind could know. <strong>The</strong><br />
mind cannot contain God, but deep inside<br />
the heart there is a place that can... Let the<br />
heart be quiet and hear out the mind. In<br />
that quiet listening, she will discover her<br />
true beauty and her deepest secrets will<br />
awaken.”<br />
To enter this quietness means to relax<br />
into it, no matter what the distractions are<br />
around you. In other words it means to<br />
approach it with “ef<strong>for</strong>tless ef<strong>for</strong>t”, as the<br />
world renowned yoga instructor Baron Bapttiste<br />
says. It is a journey into the quiet to<br />
find that place of solitude and balance. It is<br />
the place where it is clear that God is closer<br />
to us than our own breath.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is a trans<strong>for</strong>mative power, a renewal<br />
that occurs after periods of focused silence.<br />
As with the muddy pond, when the mud<br />
settles and the water is clear, so too, after<br />
periods of silence, the thoughts settle and<br />
the mind can become clear. Quiet reflection<br />
can be very self-nurturing and is accessible<br />
to us at any time. This might sound very<br />
New Age, but as we see with Eliezer, this<br />
practice is quite Old Age.<br />
Silence in the classroom has to start with<br />
the teacher. It is only when the teacher<br />
has had her own self-reflective experience<br />
with silence, that she can in turn facilitate<br />
experiences of silence and stillness <strong>for</strong> her<br />
students. <strong>The</strong> teacher’s role of providiing<br />
a calming presence in a safe nurturing<br />
environment can be supported by offering<br />
moments of silence in the classroom.<br />
Exercise 2: Silence at the Desk<br />
After doing this exercise with a group of 10<br />
year olds, we discussed why we place our<br />
hands on our hearts to listen in. One girl<br />
said, “Because we relax from our hearts.”<br />
What would happen in a classroom of noisy<br />
and loud students if the teacher offered<br />
the permission to be silent To relax from<br />
their hearts What would it look like if she<br />
guided her students inward Inviting them<br />
to gently close their eyes, to slowly drop<br />
inside and just listen. Listen to the sounds<br />
in the room. Listen to their own heartbeats.<br />
Listen to silence.<br />
When the teacher understands the power<br />
of silence, because of her own personal<br />
32 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
Nancy Siegel<br />
experience with it, she can create a safe<br />
environment where silence is a welcomed<br />
break from the frenetic and hectic school<br />
day. If the teacher can find her way into her<br />
own heart, she can be present to help her<br />
students do the same and help them find<br />
their own way inward. Isn’t this the essence<br />
of spirituality, finding your way into your<br />
own heart, and discovering the place inside<br />
you where God resides<br />
<strong>The</strong> Lubavitcher Rebbe, when reflecting on<br />
spirituality, said, “X is an enlightened being.<br />
He spends his life in the wilderness far from<br />
humanity, focusing his mind on the higher<br />
realms. Harriet Goldberg is a schoolteacher.<br />
She spends her life cultivating small minds,<br />
hoping to give them a sense of wonder <strong>for</strong><br />
the world they live in. Who is closer to God<br />
If the world came from God as light comes<br />
from the sun, spontaneously, but with no<br />
real interest, then X is closer. If God created<br />
a world deliberately, because that is what He<br />
desires and cares <strong>for</strong>, then Harriet is closer.”<br />
Exercise 3: Magic Carpet Ride<br />
Psychiatrist Anthony Storr, in his Solitude:<br />
A Return to the Self, found that “learning,<br />
thinking, innovation and maintaining<br />
contact with one’s own inner world are all<br />
facilitated by solitude.” Richard Mahler in<br />
his brilliant book Stillness, refers to silence<br />
and solitude as “creative allies” that we can<br />
“enlist in a personal campaign to create<br />
simpler, more balanced, less frenetic lives”.<br />
He says if we slow down, and “help the<br />
distracting exterior clamor to subside” we<br />
will be able to really see, hear and even<br />
feel what is going on inside us, within our<br />
hearts. Mahler says, “Getting away from it<br />
all helps us get close to it all. We are likely<br />
to be more at peace with ourselves when we<br />
occasionally stop to sit quietly and attenttively.”<br />
Mahler calls this, “the undefined<br />
interior space.”<br />
Exercise 4: Rainbow Journey<br />
After 9 year old Devorah went on a Rainbbow<br />
Journey she said, “ I am going to try<br />
this at night to help me fall asleep. I will<br />
take myself to the rainbow. I will look at all<br />
the colors, but I won’t have thoughts about<br />
the journey and the colors, I will just have<br />
the feelings that I get from the colors.”<br />
Devorah and I are working on her problems<br />
with anxiety during the day, and we are<br />
looking <strong>for</strong> ways to help her sleep better at<br />
night. From her comment, you can see that<br />
she understands how the silence of her rainbbow<br />
journey can give her the opportunity to<br />
tune in to her feelings and help her relax.<br />
While being silent, teachers have the ability<br />
to offer a certain presence, which can be<br />
heard very loudly and clearly if the students<br />
can only attune to it. Through silence, an<br />
awakened deeper awareness can develop.<br />
It is a place beyond words. It represents<br />
recognition of the depth in us that needs no<br />
words, the place that represents spirituality.<br />
We have seen that there are many benefits<br />
in using silence in the classroom and they all<br />
speak right to the heart. It is a simple tool,<br />
yet is very challenging. Used <strong>for</strong> self-reflecttion<br />
and awareness, silence offers an oppportunity<br />
to develop a strong understanding<br />
of self.<br />
As each self-aware student comes together<br />
with other self-aware students, a sense of<br />
community develops. This coming together<br />
of the hearts creates an experience <strong>for</strong><br />
spiritual awakening and offers an opportunnity<br />
<strong>for</strong> deep and profound renewal. When<br />
we allow ourselves to go into our own inner<br />
world, we find who we really are.<br />
Give yourself the gift of silence and listen to<br />
who you really are. But remember, it is only<br />
when the mud settles in the pond that the<br />
water is clear. Who and what we experience<br />
after the stillness and silence is the true<br />
guide.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se exercises offer a very powerful way<br />
to get in touch with your inner world. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
can take just a few minutes, not less than<br />
two, or this can be the beginning of a much<br />
deeper and longer experience in guided imaagery.<br />
Notice how you feel when you finish<br />
the exercise. You might want to write down<br />
or draw a picture of what you are experienciing.<br />
What are your thoughts What are<br />
your feelings Are you more relaxed More<br />
anxious Frustrated Do you feel exhilarateed<br />
Sad Inspired Check in with what is<br />
going on <strong>for</strong> you right now. As you honestly<br />
scan your thoughts and feelings, imagine<br />
being with others right now. Who are you<br />
to them right now If you are a teacher who<br />
is the teacher who is showing up Do you<br />
recognize that teacher Has your perspecttive<br />
changed at all Listen carefully to what<br />
comes up <strong>for</strong> you. That is the true guide!<br />
| 33 חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
Applications: Feeling at Home in their Own Skins<br />
Feeling at home<br />
in their own skins<br />
and with each other<br />
How PassageWays is<br />
working to help middle<br />
school students grow in<br />
Miami<br />
By Arlene Fishbein<br />
How is Friday different from all other days<br />
On all other days my seventh graders stroll<br />
into my room, but on Fridays, there is a<br />
headlong rush. On all other days, we begin<br />
the day with a warm up activity and move<br />
on, but on Fridays we do PassageWays.<br />
“Mrs. F., can we do the sock game first<br />
today<br />
This request is met with a chorus of ”No, we<br />
need a council meeting in a circle. We have<br />
things to talk about.”<br />
We compromise and do both activities. <strong>The</strong><br />
bag of socks comes out and we do a little<br />
warm-up. Names are called. Socks and<br />
stuffed objects are tossed. Eye contact is<br />
made as the children focus on one another.<br />
After a few minutes, we stop and the<br />
children sit in a circle. Out comes Pedro the<br />
Penguin. Pedro is our talking piece in this<br />
particular class. No one may speak unless<br />
they are holding him. Each of my classes<br />
has its own rituals, and they may vary from<br />
council to council.<br />
Arlene Fishbein has taught seventh grade English at <strong>The</strong> Samuel Scheck Hillel Community Day School<br />
in North Miami Beach, Florida <strong>for</strong> the past seven years, be<strong>for</strong>e which she taught at RASG Hebrew<br />
Academy in Miami and SAR in New York. She agreed to try PassageWays this year in order to provide<br />
students with a tool <strong>for</strong> transitioning effectively into middle school.<br />
Taking a Hershey Kiss, Myra dedicates our<br />
council to friendship and our first topic is<br />
‘What causes us stress’. This is a daily probllem<br />
in middle school, and something very<br />
much on their minds. Council helps us sort<br />
it out in our group. Holding Pedro, I share<br />
my own stressful times. I am met with nods<br />
from some of the children. Moving around<br />
the circle, some of the children pass, while<br />
others share their personal stories.<br />
Changing friendships, school, and everydday<br />
challenges are all shared. <strong>The</strong> tone is<br />
very serious, and when we finish the first<br />
round, Lee, who had passed, now wants<br />
to be heard. She shares her tale. Chloe<br />
acknowledges her bravery in expressing her<br />
thoughts, and shares a similar experience.<br />
We debrief and share a moment of sitting<br />
in silence. I take a moment to reflect on the<br />
changes in the climate of my class, thinking<br />
back on how this began <strong>for</strong> me.<br />
* * *<br />
34 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
Arlene Fishbein<br />
It is June. School is over and the lassitude<br />
of summer has descended upon me. <strong>The</strong><br />
echo of my classroom still rings in my<br />
ear and next year's lesson plans are still a<br />
distant thought. So it is with mixed emottions<br />
that I find myself in Boulder, Colorado<br />
attending a seminar. I am here with three<br />
colleagues to attend the summer session<br />
of PassageWays, a program developed by<br />
Rachael Kessler with the idea that the<br />
emotional and spiritual well being of a<br />
child are important aspects of learning.<br />
When children feel safe and com<strong>for</strong>table in<br />
their environment, academic achievement<br />
is enhanced. Kessler’s book, <strong>The</strong> Soul of<br />
<strong>Education</strong>: Helping Students Find Connection,<br />
Compassion and Character at School (ASCD<br />
2000) gives teachers tools <strong>for</strong> working safely<br />
with the inner life – that essential aspect of<br />
human nature that yearns <strong>for</strong> deep connecttion,<br />
grapples with difficult questions about<br />
meaning and seeks a sense of purpose and<br />
genuine self-expression.<br />
I must admit that a bit of skepticism acccompanies<br />
me into the room that first night.<br />
By nature, I am an outgoing person, but<br />
when confronted with sixteen strangers and<br />
three friends all embarking on a spiritual<br />
journey, I am a bit daunted. <strong>The</strong> lulling<br />
voices of our coordinators, Ron, Chuck and<br />
Batya, quickly draw me into the circle where<br />
we are asked to share our reasons <strong>for</strong> attendiing<br />
the seminar.<br />
Ron has been through the program already<br />
and wants a deeper connection with his studdents.<br />
Phyllis wants to infuse more meaning<br />
into her curriculum, whereas I want to find<br />
more tools to reach my students and help<br />
them have new learning experiences.<br />
Outside the windows, the mountains seem<br />
to touch the sky, and as the sun sets in the<br />
horizon I feel as if I am in a place that is<br />
truly touched by God. <strong>The</strong>re is no doubt<br />
that this setting opens the curtain <strong>for</strong> three<br />
enlightening, enriching days. I become an<br />
active participant in games and circles, and<br />
a new world opens <strong>for</strong> me, and thus, <strong>for</strong><br />
my students. We unmask ourselves as the<br />
days fly by, and I leave as a true "believer".<br />
As we participate in Pack Your Past, a game<br />
in which we each share our own memory<br />
and then assume ownership and capture<br />
the essence of the memories of two of<br />
the other participants, my memory of my<br />
grandparent’s yard comes alive through the<br />
voices of others. Hearing it retold, and retelliing<br />
others’ vignettes, enhances our ability to<br />
identify with and relate to each other and I<br />
soon find myself building a strong relationsship<br />
with this group of twenty people.<br />
We were strangers three days ago, and now<br />
we have a unique bond. <strong>The</strong> idea of establlishing<br />
this type of connection in my classes<br />
excites me. I almost wish that I could walk<br />
back into my class and try out some of these<br />
new ideas.<br />
PassageWays differs from other programs<br />
that I have attended in that it goes beyond<br />
the typical issues that we address in middle<br />
school. Along with fitting in, the changing<br />
bodies of teens, stress, communication,<br />
and friendship, is the added component of<br />
“the soul”. Although my school is a place<br />
where Torah values are strong, and indeed<br />
addressed daily in our curriculum, there is<br />
often a void where I wish that hearts and<br />
minds could make connections and be<br />
moved at a deeper level and. I am hopefful<br />
this course will help me fill that void.<br />
Rachael Kessler, the author of <strong>The</strong> Soul of<br />
<strong>Education</strong>, and the founder of the course,<br />
believes that “who we are and the kind of<br />
environment we create in the classroom are<br />
just as important as our technical teachiing<br />
skills.” Within each and every class is<br />
the need <strong>for</strong> presence. This means that as<br />
a teacher I have to be conscious of my own<br />
feelings and thoughts, and present an opennness<br />
that my students can model. Hopeffully,<br />
I will set an example, and the environmment<br />
of my room will change as the children<br />
become more open and sharing as well.<br />
Summer passes all too quickly, and when<br />
August rolls around I am again confronted<br />
with the daily chores of teaching. <strong>The</strong> sense<br />
of self and challenge that I took with me<br />
from Boulder now need to be translated to<br />
my classroom. Can I evoke the emotions<br />
and connections we felt as adults back here<br />
in an environment where hormones and<br />
sensitivities rise and fall like the waves in<br />
the ocean Will I be able to meet the challlenges<br />
of a vigorous curriculum and have<br />
the time to spend on PassageWays <strong>The</strong><br />
PassageWays differs from other programs that I have attended in that it<br />
goes beyond the typical issues that we address in middle school. Along<br />
with fitting in, the changing bodies of teens, stress, communication, and<br />
friendship, is the added component of “the soul”.<br />
* * *<br />
mission, I feel, is a <strong>for</strong>midable one.<br />
Thankfully, I have a curriculum to work enttering<br />
the culture of middle school and thus<br />
I am able to plan the sessions. We begin<br />
with Community Building. <strong>The</strong> Sock Game<br />
and People Bingo are our first activities.<br />
Laughter fills the air. As the games progress<br />
there is an obvious change. <strong>The</strong>re is conccentration<br />
on the part of all the children.<br />
Instead of working as separate units, we are<br />
working as one unit.<br />
Our purpose is to follow a pattern, maintain<br />
eye contact, keep the various objects moviing,<br />
and keep an eye on our surroundings.<br />
It is not an easy task. <strong>The</strong> activity is met<br />
with excitement and anticipation. <strong>The</strong><br />
children are able to keep an eye on what is<br />
going on around them, and are aware of the<br />
necessity of timing.<br />
Clearly, the skills we are developing far<br />
surpass just having fun, yet word quickly<br />
passes and I see noses pasted against my<br />
windows. By the time my next five classes<br />
enter, they are eager and ready to begin. I<br />
repeat this activity in each of my six classes.<br />
Another week finds us sitting in a circle and<br />
practicing Ah So Ku.<br />
This is a series of hand movements which<br />
requires intense concentration on one’s<br />
| 35 חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
Applications: Feeling at Home in their Own Skins<br />
self as well as on the others in the circle.<br />
When the wrong action is per<strong>for</strong>med, the<br />
child leaves the circle to become the heckler,<br />
challenging those remaining to focus with<br />
laser-like attention. <strong>The</strong> game moves quickly<br />
and finally a winner is proclaimed. Afterwwards,<br />
we debrief. Rather than tell them the<br />
purpose of the activities, I choose to elicit<br />
their ideas.<br />
Thus, PassageWays becomes part of our<br />
weekly routine. As time passes, we grew<br />
more at ease with one another and with the<br />
activities, and the focus begins to shift to a<br />
more profound and personal level.<br />
As the weeks progress, so do the activities<br />
in the curriculum. We move into dyads and<br />
circles, and the topics become deeper. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
reflect the children’s greatest hopes and<br />
This growth is also<br />
seen in month<br />
three when we<br />
come back to one of<br />
our earlier topics:<br />
describing sometthing<br />
you like about yourself and something<br />
that you dislike about yourself. When we<br />
had done this in dyads at the beginning of<br />
the program, the responses ranged from, “I<br />
really like my hair,” or “I like my best friend.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> typical response to what they disliked<br />
was homework or peanut butter.<br />
Three months later when we sit in a council,<br />
the responses are totally different. One boy<br />
“PassageWays is a way <strong>for</strong> me to connect to my classmates as well as to my own thoughts. It is a strong bond<br />
being built on a thin sliver of silver string. As the students in my class base their trust upon it, it keeps growing<br />
stronger.”<br />
- quote from a student speaking to parents about why PassageWays is an important part<br />
of school to her.<br />
Responses range from, “It was okay to mess<br />
up, and then fix it” to “ we had to really<br />
work as a team” and “this was a lot of fun.<br />
It teaches us to concentrate when there are<br />
other things going on.”<br />
Following this activity we move into a PasssageWays<br />
“deep listening” practice called<br />
“line-up” where students get to speak one<br />
on one to several different partners. <strong>The</strong><br />
students <strong>for</strong>m two lines and take turns<br />
talking. It is different from regular dialogue<br />
in that as one student speaks, the other<br />
listens. <strong>The</strong>re are no comments and no<br />
interruptions. A time limit is set, and after<br />
the time is up, the second student begins to<br />
speak. We begin with simple topics like our<br />
summer vacation, and our favorite room in<br />
our house. <strong>The</strong>re is some awkward giggling,<br />
but after a little practice I notice more eye<br />
contact, and nods and smiles. When we<br />
debrief we talk about our reactions.<br />
“It is hard to look someone in the eye,”<br />
Faith exclaims. “It makes me laugh.” While<br />
eye contact is not required <strong>for</strong> this activity,<br />
many students experiment with it while<br />
they practice deep listening.<br />
“I learned things about Andrew that I<br />
never knew, and I am his best friend,” said<br />
Shmueli.<br />
“Are we going to keep doing these things”<br />
asked Henry.<br />
fears. As we debrief, students frequently<br />
note that we all share the same things.<br />
Students talk to people that they may not<br />
usually talk to, and a level of trust has been<br />
established.<br />
<strong>The</strong> proof of change is visible after the first<br />
three months. In circles we talk about the<br />
power of our words. We follow this up by<br />
creating personal heart cut outs. Each child<br />
has to write something positive in the heart<br />
of all of his/her fellow classmates. When<br />
we regroup, the discussion arises about how<br />
much more difficult it is to say something<br />
nice. How put downs are so much easier<br />
and make us less vulnerable. This is an<br />
enormous “eye-opener”, and as a group we<br />
realize it is a large break through.<br />
Danny said, “ When I say something nice<br />
I am afraid that<br />
people will laugh.<br />
In this group I<br />
know that I can be<br />
more of myself.<br />
I am safe, and<br />
nobody makes fun<br />
of what I say.”<br />
shares that he really dislikes the fact that it<br />
is so hard <strong>for</strong> him to focus and concentrate<br />
in class. Another young man dislikes his<br />
smart alecky remarks, but says that he cannnot<br />
keep them in. One girl likes her artistic<br />
abilities, whereas another likes the fact that<br />
she can keep her friends’ secrets.<br />
I feel we have made huge progress with<br />
one another. Sharing like this shows<br />
trust in one another. <strong>The</strong>re is a chance to<br />
acknowledge one another’s remarks, and as<br />
we end the circle, one of the children turns<br />
to another and says, “You know you have<br />
always been my good friend, but I learned<br />
new things about you. I hope I can be a bettter<br />
friend now.” <strong>The</strong> bell rings and off they<br />
go. While I am careful as their teacher not<br />
to encourage them to expect or promise conffidentiality,<br />
I see my students just naturally<br />
36 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
Arlene Fishbein<br />
keep in the circle what has been said in the<br />
circle.<br />
Seven Gateways to the<br />
Soul of <strong>Education</strong><br />
1. <strong>The</strong> yearning <strong>for</strong> deep connection describes a quality of relationship that is proffoundly<br />
caring, is resonant with meaning, and involves feelings of belonging, or of<br />
being truly seen and known. Students may experience deep connection to themsselves,<br />
to others, to nature, or to a higher power.<br />
2. <strong>The</strong> longing <strong>for</strong> silence and solitude, often an ambivalent domain, is fraught with<br />
both fear and urgent need. As a respite from the tyranny of “busyness” and noise,<br />
silence may be a realm of reflection, of calm or fertile chaos, an avenue of stillness<br />
and rest <strong>for</strong> some, prayer or contemplation <strong>for</strong> others.<br />
3. <strong>The</strong> search <strong>for</strong> meaning and purpose concerns the exploration of big questions,<br />
such as “Why am I here” “Does my life have a purpose How do I find out what it<br />
is” “What is life <strong>for</strong>” “What is my destiny” “What does my future hold” and “Is<br />
there a God”<br />
4. <strong>The</strong> hunger of joy and delight can be satisfied through experiences of great<br />
simplicity, such as play, celebration, or gratitude. It also describes the exaltation<br />
students feel when encountering beauty, power, grace, brilliance, love or the sheer<br />
joy of being alive.<br />
5. <strong>The</strong> creative drive, perhaps the most familiar domain <strong>for</strong> nourishing the spirit<br />
in school, is part of all the gateways. Whether developing a new idea, a work of<br />
art, a scientific discovery, or an entirely new lens on life, students feel the awe and<br />
mystery of creating.<br />
6. <strong>The</strong> urge <strong>for</strong> transcendence describes the desire <strong>for</strong> young people to go beyond<br />
their perceived limits. It includes not only the mystical realm, but experiences of the<br />
extraordinary in the arts, athletics, academics, or human relations. By naming and<br />
honoring this universal human need, educators can help students constructively<br />
channel this powerful urge.<br />
7. <strong>The</strong> need <strong>for</strong> initiation deals with rites of passage <strong>for</strong> the young – guiding adolesccence<br />
to become more conscious about the irrevocable transition from childhood to<br />
adulthood. Adults can give young people tools <strong>for</strong> dealing with all of life's transittions<br />
and farewells. Meeting this need <strong>for</strong> initiation often involves ceremonies with<br />
parents and faculty that welcome them into the community of adults.<br />
www.passageways.org<br />
I teach Language Arts, and the program<br />
enhances my curriculum. <strong>The</strong> essential undderstanding<br />
that I want my children to have<br />
is that literature connects us to our world, to<br />
others and to ourselves. However, how can<br />
I expect children to connect to characters<br />
be<strong>for</strong>e they connect to themselves PasssageWays<br />
is yet another tool of connection.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are times when I adapt the activities<br />
to the literature we are reading. We packed<br />
three memories of Young Ju from A Step<br />
from Heaven by Anna. In dyads in one class<br />
and in a circle in another we shared the<br />
impact of those memories on her life. We<br />
created Coats of Arms with themes like<br />
where I see myself now and in the future,<br />
identity, my family and me, values, interests,<br />
<strong>for</strong> characters we read about and then<br />
compared them to our own. <strong>The</strong>se types of<br />
exercises help us see how literature imitates<br />
life. Interacting with one another helps us<br />
interact with our curriculum.<br />
As <strong>for</strong> myself, I am changing as well.<br />
Though my classroom environment has<br />
always nurtured a certain com<strong>for</strong>t <strong>for</strong><br />
students, I am now in the process of making<br />
that final leap from “teacher” to “human”<br />
or “person”. I am still the adult, the person<br />
in charge, yet I find myself connecting with<br />
more of my students than ever be<strong>for</strong>e. In<br />
past years, I would say that 20% of my<br />
students would bond with me and could be<br />
found in my room during lunch, breaks and<br />
at “problem times”. This has changed and is<br />
continuing to evolve as the year goes on and<br />
the students continue to grow closer to me<br />
and to one another.<br />
This year as I sit in the Councils with each of<br />
my classes, I too have to be “present”. I am<br />
able to see my children in a different light.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y reveal themselves to me and give me<br />
glimpses into their souls, and I allow them<br />
to look back into mine. I become more humman<br />
in their eyes, and there<strong>for</strong>e am building<br />
stronger bonds with a larger percentage of<br />
my students.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are my own frustrations though. Duriing<br />
the time that I devote to the program,<br />
we are one unit. <strong>The</strong> children are very prottective<br />
of one another, and the caring that<br />
is displayed is palpable. However, at other<br />
times, I feel it just is not translating to the<br />
times when the children are not in my class.<br />
Patience is not always my virtue, and I have<br />
to take a step back and acknowledge the<br />
fact that even if the children feel safe and<br />
accepted <strong>for</strong> one hour each week that affects<br />
their lives in a positive way. Sometimes a<br />
small touch makes a difference. As teachers<br />
we never know when the moment happens.<br />
Hopefully this program paves the way <strong>for</strong><br />
many “happening moments.” During the<br />
second semester of the program, I will be<br />
receiving coaching from the PassageWays<br />
| 37 חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
staff to help me facilitate greater carryover of lessons learned<br />
in the circle to the rest of the school day.<br />
As with any program, it is the evaluation of the children<br />
that is most meaningful. To them, PassageWays is now an<br />
important component of middle school. Brad relates, “I find<br />
PassageWays very helpful to me. After a whole stressful week<br />
of doing homework and studying, I can finally relax and disccuss<br />
my problems. I feel that as a class we can communicate<br />
and there isn’t a feeling of being embarrassed.”<br />
Bracha adds that it is a way <strong>for</strong> others to know how she feels<br />
about something. “I feel more com<strong>for</strong>table with my classmmates<br />
and I am becoming closer with my friends.”<br />
PassageWays can be very important <strong>for</strong> someone who is shy<br />
because he/she can learn to share and not feel self conscious.<br />
Sivan, who is new to the school, expresses that is fun at times<br />
and everyone can say what he/she feels. “It’s like the circle of<br />
trust,“ he says.<br />
Sheryl feels it is a time to reflect on difficulties we see<br />
everyday. She feels that it helps us watch what we say to<br />
other people because it can really affect them. “PassageWays<br />
is a time to trust people and learn to be com<strong>for</strong>table with<br />
one another,” she shares. She is concerned that some people<br />
do not take it seriously. Avigail talks about the time she<br />
had to interview her mother, and as they sat and spoke, the<br />
interview questions were put aside as the two spent the night<br />
talking about their own dreams and hopes. It brought her<br />
closer to her mom. <strong>The</strong> commonality is always trust, bonding,<br />
listening, expressing, and talking to kids that you normally<br />
would not speak to.<br />
I truly did not realize the impact of PassageWays until Open<br />
School Night, on December 5th. Student guides were herding<br />
groups of parents through our classes and when I finished<br />
discussing my curriculum, I turned to one of them and asked<br />
if there was anything that I left out. She quickly replied, “PasssageWays”<br />
and then began describing it to the parents.<br />
She expressed, “It is a way <strong>for</strong> me to connect to my classmates<br />
as well as to my own thoughts. It is a strong bond being<br />
built on a thin sliver of silver string,” she continued. “As the<br />
students in my class base their<br />
trust upon it, it keeps growing<br />
stronger.”<br />
Last Friday I knew that I was not<br />
going to be in school. One of my<br />
classes asked if they could do the<br />
program without me. <strong>The</strong>y found<br />
something that could be carried<br />
out that did not need a group<br />
leader, and upon my return they<br />
reminded me that we needed to<br />
share and debrief. Perhaps this<br />
is the best part of the program.<br />
<strong>The</strong> ownership is no longer mine.<br />
It belongs to all of us.<br />
38 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
Helping Students Launch <strong>The</strong>ir<br />
Spiritual Journeys<br />
A Practical Program <strong>for</strong> Spiritual<br />
Exploration<br />
Spirituality. Where to find it; how to attain<br />
it; how to define it Nobody can make<br />
anyone else spiritual, nor can anyone define<br />
<strong>for</strong> another what spirituality is. Perhaps<br />
because it is so personal, and so related to<br />
experiences which are individualized, any<br />
educational program to address it must<br />
place the students at the center, allowing<br />
their own innate sense of spirituality as they<br />
define it to emerge.<br />
Toward that end I propose a program<br />
designed to help students launch and<br />
navigate their own spiritual journeys. It is<br />
appropriate <strong>for</strong> day schools or supplementtary<br />
schools, and can be adapted to work<br />
with elementary or high school students.<br />
Participation in the program should help<br />
open the students to thinking about their<br />
world through a spiritual lens, without guilt<br />
and without preaching.<br />
<strong>The</strong> program is intended to be implemented<br />
over an extended period, up to a year, with a<br />
time commitment of one hour each week. In<br />
the introductory session, the class brainsstorms<br />
together on a working definition<br />
of spirituality by no means an easy task.<br />
Once some ideas have been suggested, it<br />
is up to each student to create his/her own<br />
definition of what spirituality is to them.<br />
Each student receives a journal, and the first<br />
assignment is <strong>for</strong> each student to arrive at<br />
their own definition of spirituality.<br />
After the initial class, on a fixed day of the<br />
week (perhaps at the beginning or each<br />
week or maybe as a preShabbat activity),<br />
a question is posted on the board. <strong>The</strong><br />
question focuses the spiritual quest <strong>for</strong> that<br />
week, as students are asked to consider the<br />
question and log entries in their journals<br />
of their thoughts about the question. <strong>The</strong><br />
questions posed depend very much on the<br />
student population including essential<br />
factors such as age and religious orientation<br />
of the school. At the conclusion of the week,<br />
the class meets and the students share their<br />
journals and thoughts. At the end of the<br />
discussion, teachers can choose to review<br />
the student journals.<br />
On a weekly basis, students are challlenged<br />
to look into themselves to see what<br />
moves them and affects them. As the year<br />
progresses, students learn to view their<br />
worlds using “spiritual eyes”, and their<br />
journals become records of their spiritual<br />
journeys. Unlike much of what they learn<br />
in the classrooms, these journals are highly<br />
subjective and personal, and there are no<br />
“right” or “wrong” responses as the teacher<br />
encourages independent thought, reflection<br />
and introspection.<br />
Sample questions<br />
<strong>The</strong> following is sampling of the kinds of<br />
questions that can be used as the weekly<br />
triggers. This sampling can be modified<br />
and adapted <strong>for</strong> the variety of schools and<br />
student populations.<br />
• Is there a physical activity of sport that<br />
makes you feel spiritual<br />
• Are emotions spiritual When you cry is it<br />
spiritual<br />
• Identify a mechanical device that has<br />
brought you close to spirituality.<br />
• Do you know anyone (outside of yourself)<br />
who had a lifechanging moment<br />
• Is there a place on earth where you think<br />
it would be easier to feel spiritual What is<br />
special about that place<br />
• Which tefillah affects you the most inside<br />
• Where is your ideal place to pray<br />
By Devorah Katz<br />
• Name three spiritual foods. What makes<br />
them spiritual <strong>for</strong> you<br />
• Can you only be spiritual when you are on<br />
your own<br />
• Can you only be spiritual in a group<br />
• Are you inspired by playing a musical<br />
instrument or listening to a specific piece of<br />
music<br />
• Have you been deeply moved by a passage<br />
from Tanakh<br />
• Find something on Tuesday night which<br />
makes it spiritual.<br />
• Who has the greater facility <strong>for</strong> spiritual<br />
progress man/woman, elderly/youth, teenaager/middle<br />
aged, sick/healthy<br />
• What season makes you feel most spirittual<br />
• What mitzvah causes the greatest spiritual<br />
reaction in you<br />
• What cartoon character most represents<br />
spiritual values<br />
• Where is your soul<br />
• Can you achieve religious heights without<br />
doing mitzvot<br />
• What is the most spiritually uplifting hag<br />
(<strong>Jewish</strong> holiday)<br />
• Describe a moment which changed your<br />
life.<br />
• Is tefillah a spiritual experience What<br />
would you change to make it one<br />
• Where is the most spiritual place in<br />
nature<br />
• Have you read a book or seen a movie<br />
which touched your neshamah<br />
• Which is more spiritual, daytime or nightttime<br />
• What is the most spiritually inspiring<br />
building in the world<br />
• Is there a work of art or artist who affects<br />
you spiritually<br />
• Which is more spiritual <strong>for</strong> you, a sunny<br />
day or a thunderstorm<br />
Devorah Katz received her BA from York University and her MSW from Wurzweiler. She is on faculty at Young Judaea’ s Year Course, and has written<br />
curriculum <strong>for</strong> the <strong>Lookstein</strong> <strong>Center</strong>, Camp Moshava and Babaganewz. Her four young children ensure that her house is often precariously balanced between<br />
the spiritual and the spirited.<br />
| 39 חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
Applications: Tefillah Motivation through Relationship Building<br />
Tefillah Motivation through<br />
Relationship Building and Role Modeling:<br />
One Rabbi’s Approach<br />
Moshe Drelich<br />
I was raised in an observant home. I atttended<br />
yeshiva from grade 1 through 12.<br />
Yet, I was 18 be<strong>for</strong>e I prayed every word of<br />
Shaharit <strong>for</strong> the very first time<br />
How could it be that I had to wait until I was<br />
18 and studying in Israel to experience and<br />
engage in meaningful tefillah I think my<br />
experience is not unique and is probably the<br />
rule more than the exception among many<br />
children. I offer my reflections to help frame<br />
the challenge and suggest some successful<br />
strategies to help trans<strong>for</strong>m tefillah into a<br />
positive, inspiring spiritual experience.<br />
How do we make davening meaningful to<br />
our students How can we help them take<br />
ownership of it In what manner, shape or<br />
<strong>for</strong>m do we, as role models, demonstrate<br />
“our” attitude and approach to tefillah<br />
What is tefillah and how can we give our<br />
students the ability to make it a personal<br />
time of meaningful spiritual growth and<br />
connection to God I have no doubt that<br />
teachers and administrators regularly<br />
struggle with this question, and can all share<br />
their stories of frustration.<br />
I have the responsibility of overseeing and<br />
running a 7 th grade minyan. I see my role as<br />
a conductor of a large orchestra, made up of<br />
many individual musicians with their own<br />
unique style of playing many diverse instrumments.<br />
Following the musical notes takes<br />
great coordination and discipline of focus.<br />
<strong>The</strong> job of the conductor is to get the best<br />
from his musicians and lead the orchestra in<br />
the program to create a beautiful symphony<br />
of sound and emotion. When we run a<br />
minyan, as ‘conductors’, we try to create a<br />
beautiful symphony of words.<br />
<strong>The</strong> first challenge we must face is our atttitude<br />
towards the placement of tefillah in<br />
the school day. Where does it fit in What is<br />
its function vis-à-vis our students and the<br />
school day I'd like to illustrate this point<br />
through a personal experience during a<br />
tefillah workshop I was giving <strong>for</strong> <strong>Jewish</strong> day<br />
school teachers.<br />
Partnering and mirroring with studt<br />
dents<br />
Almost all of the twenty participants in the<br />
workshop identified tefillah as their least<br />
favorite part of their school day. One teacher<br />
commented that supervising davening was<br />
as enjoyable as covering lunch duty! This<br />
Rabbi Moshe Drelich is the Associate Principal <strong>for</strong> the Junior High School at SAR Academy in<br />
Riverdale, NY. He has two decades of experience conducting tefillah services <strong>for</strong> youth, and is pursuing<br />
a doctorate in education at the Azrieli Graduate School.<br />
truthful revelation is at the root of the basic<br />
dilemma. Davening is meant to trans<strong>for</strong>m<br />
and elevate us. Davening is rich with the<br />
basic <strong>Jewish</strong> fundamentals of faith – trust<br />
in God, love of God, love of Israel, integrity,<br />
honesty, etc. <strong>The</strong>se concepts are supposed to<br />
penetrate our consciousness during tefillah.<br />
If we relate to davening time as something<br />
we need to hurry through, like lunch duty,<br />
then this is will be the message we convey to<br />
our students. If at the conclusion of daveniing<br />
the teacher did not feel “elevated,” then<br />
both teacher and students probably have<br />
missed the spiritual experience of tefillah.<br />
If a teacher perceives leading children in<br />
tefillah as a chore, it will be impossible <strong>for</strong><br />
the teacher to convey the joy and warmth<br />
of davening to his/ her students. I often<br />
speak of the “mirror effect.” If the teacher<br />
demonstrates a sincere desire to connect to<br />
God, the students may try to imitate you<br />
and channel their energies towards this goal<br />
as well.<br />
Honesty is a crucial element if teachers are<br />
to inspire and motivate their students. Once<br />
the students are settled in their seats, usuallly<br />
be<strong>for</strong>e the beginning of pesukei dezimra, I<br />
will often share my personal “inner” feelings<br />
with them, whether I am struggling with my<br />
own davening and asking God <strong>for</strong> help, or<br />
whether I am feeling energized and grateful<br />
and desire to express it during tefillah. It's<br />
important that teachers not be afraid to<br />
share their personal spiritual struggles with<br />
students. Many students welcome it and<br />
often relate it to their feelings of spiritual<br />
striving as well. Children, like adults, are<br />
spiritual beings. We have to partner with<br />
our students and introduce and acquaint<br />
them with their spiritual voice.<br />
40 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
Moshe Dreilich<br />
One useful exercise I use is to give students<br />
two minutes of quiet time to reflect about<br />
something in their life they would like to<br />
either change or improve. After that I tell<br />
them to focus on it and to ask <strong>for</strong> God's<br />
guidance and partnership. This brief spirittual<br />
reflective moment can sometimes set<br />
the correct tone <strong>for</strong> the rest of tefillah.<br />
Discipline and talking<br />
always be treated with respect. In my many<br />
years of leading tefillah I have found that<br />
punishing or berating students has never<br />
been an effective method of cultivating a<br />
love <strong>for</strong> tefillah. <strong>The</strong>re are calm and polite<br />
ways to encourage students to focus on tefilllah<br />
Sometimes all that is necessary to help a<br />
talking student focus on tefillah is placing a<br />
finger on closed lips or a fix your eyes on the<br />
student until they stop.<br />
Teachers need not be afraid to say “the only<br />
talking during tefillah should be between<br />
you and God.” I explain to students that<br />
talking to their friends during davening is<br />
a selfish act because it hinders others from<br />
synagogues, many of those very synagogues<br />
are far from the models we would want our<br />
students to emulate. <strong>The</strong>y find that tefillah<br />
meaningless, and project it to tefillah in<br />
general. I recall a letter I received at the end<br />
of the year from a student. She writes:<br />
I always have admired how you never gave up<br />
on a single 7 th grader, even when they talked.<br />
Because of this, you have helped so many people<br />
to daven on higher level.<br />
Too many teachers become frustrated when<br />
they do not see the results of their ef<strong>for</strong>ts in<br />
the tefillah groups they lead. My experience<br />
has taught me that even when I think they<br />
How do we make davening meaningful to our students How can we help them take ownership of it In what<br />
manner, shape or <strong>for</strong>m do we, as role models, demonstrate “our” attitude and approach to tefillah What is<br />
tefillah and how can we give our students the ability to make it a personal time of meaningful spiritual growth<br />
and connection to God<br />
I am often asked about control and discippline<br />
during tefillah. Again, I am a strong<br />
believer in partnering with the student.<br />
We need to balance between setting clear<br />
expectations of them as young <strong>Jewish</strong> adollescents<br />
and trying to achieve and maintain<br />
the proper decorum and atmosphere of<br />
the minyan. Outside of the school environmment,<br />
many of our students are barraged<br />
by and immersed in activities, images and<br />
experiences which often run counter to<br />
healthy <strong>Jewish</strong> values. Creating and having<br />
a welcoming and inspiring makom tefillah as<br />
a sanctuary, both literally and figuratively,<br />
from the assault on the neshamah, can<br />
serve a valuable function in this area. <strong>The</strong><br />
sanctuary is a safe place where worshipers<br />
can escape from outside distractions and<br />
concentrate on connecting with God.<br />
Talking during davening is a chronic problem<br />
<strong>for</strong> most minyanim (including adult minyannim).<br />
<strong>The</strong> key to deal with this problem is<br />
patience and persistence. When leading tefilllah,<br />
I try to remember that I am God’s repressentative.<br />
If the students are talking during<br />
tefillah, I need to ask myself why they are<br />
talking. What is distracting them Are they<br />
bored Is there something troubling them<br />
Did they have a difficult start to their morniing<br />
In order to be an effective tefillah leader<br />
one must be sensitive to the many possible,<br />
yet unknown factors. Students should<br />
<strong>for</strong>ming their relationship with God. <strong>The</strong>re<br />
are two images I regularly use to convey the<br />
negative impact talking during tefillah has<br />
on a minyan. One is the image of “second<br />
hand smoke,” harmful not only to the<br />
smoker but to everyone in their environmment.<br />
<strong>The</strong> other is ripples in a pond. Every<br />
interruption in the calm of the tefillah has a<br />
ripple effect on the rest of the group.<br />
If the student persists, in the short term I<br />
may change their seat. For a more substanttive<br />
approach, I will wait until davening is<br />
over and all the students have left the room<br />
and will then sit with the student, discuss<br />
the situation and together try to create a<br />
solution. By bringing them into the process;<br />
they then can take ownership of the issue.<br />
It empowers them to find the solution<br />
and become an active player in their own<br />
spiritual journey. By spending a little private<br />
time connecting with the student, the<br />
teacher demonstrates faith in the student<br />
and respect <strong>for</strong> him/her as a thinking and<br />
valued individual.<br />
<strong>The</strong> need <strong>for</strong> patience with the students<br />
is only heightened by their home experieences<br />
with tefillah. For those who attend<br />
are not listening, they really are. Every year<br />
I have a few difficult students who seem<br />
bent on having it their way. I will dedicate<br />
the time necessary to calmly, gently and<br />
respectfully connect with the student about<br />
the issue. <strong>The</strong> process may take an entire<br />
school year, but these students do mature<br />
and begin to take their place in the minyan<br />
and start own personal dialogue with God.<br />
<strong>The</strong> results may not be immediate, but<br />
the ultimate goal is in the long term. And<br />
teachers who stay the course to touch their<br />
students' hearts can ultimately touch their<br />
souls as well.<br />
Personal focus points<br />
To make davening meaningful to the student<br />
in the school minyan, it has to feel personal<br />
and special to them. For many students<br />
entering my tefillah program it is the first<br />
time they will hear that:<br />
God is your best friend. You can share your<br />
secrets and desires with God. God can help you<br />
with anything. God is not judgmental. God is<br />
eternally patient and slow to anger. God only<br />
wants the best <strong>for</strong> you. God created you so He<br />
| 41 חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
understands you better than anyone else… <strong>The</strong> silent amidah is a<br />
moment of intimacy with God. Imagine that you are whispering<br />
in God's ear. <strong>The</strong> conversation is only between the two of you. You<br />
have God's full attention!<br />
As part of guiding the students on their spiritual journeys<br />
through tefillah, I will intersperse brief explanations of<br />
special words, the structure and <strong>for</strong>mat of the tefillot. Over<br />
the course of the year we will discuss from birkhot haShahhar<br />
through the shir shel yom. Never overbearing, I usually<br />
introduce an average of one idea per tefillah and introduce<br />
them slowly, one by one, over the course of the year. After<br />
each concept is introduced, it will be rein<strong>for</strong>ced on a regular<br />
and consistent basis. This includes daily reminders of posittive<br />
mitzvot such as focusing on the unity of God prior to<br />
the recitation of the shema or remembering the Exodus<br />
be<strong>for</strong>e ezrat avotenu. <strong>The</strong> daily routine helps the students<br />
become familiar with the words and assists them in mastery<br />
of the sacred texts.<br />
What about the unmotivated student who just doesn’t feel<br />
or want to daven How can s/he be motivated Once again,<br />
the image of God as being their best friend is powerful. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
can speak with God in their own words or just meditate on<br />
what they can be grateful <strong>for</strong>. Friends love to share their<br />
thoughts and sometimes real friends don’t feel like talking.<br />
It is important to allow students to remain silent during<br />
tefillah, with the proviso that they not disturb other people's<br />
prayers.<br />
This image is important <strong>for</strong> responding to the question of<br />
why God does not answer the prayers. True friendships<br />
and strong relationships are built on a healthy trust that<br />
comes over time. No prayer goes unanswered, but just like<br />
a true friend will know what, how and when to respond to<br />
a request we make, so too with God. <strong>The</strong> relationships we<br />
42 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
Moshe Dreilich<br />
wish to help our students <strong>for</strong>ge with God can be modeled by<br />
<strong>for</strong>ming the same type of relationship between our students<br />
and ourselves. And once again, teacher modeling of this<br />
behavior by demonstrating their own personal trust in God<br />
is invaluable.<br />
Personal reflection<br />
Returning to my original question, why did it take me 18<br />
years to achieve a full and meaningful davening I truly<br />
believe that somewhere around the time of third grade, the<br />
technical skill of davening becomes taken <strong>for</strong> granted. In<br />
other words, once we learned the mechanical aspects, such<br />
as pronouncing the words or when to stand, sit or bow, it<br />
was assumed that we would figure the rest out on our own.<br />
We dare not rob our students of the direction to continue<br />
their exploration and learning beyond the mechanical.<br />
When I arrived in yeshiva in Israel at age 18, I met my rebbe,<br />
who taught a course on the meaning of the amidah. <strong>The</strong><br />
experience of this class was trans<strong>for</strong>mational; it was as if<br />
I was given a key to unlock a precious treasure chest. Yet<br />
beyond the wisdom and insights offered in the class, I had<br />
the opportunity to witness my rebbe’s devotion and deveikut<br />
baShem (cleaving to God) during tefillah. This touched and<br />
penetrated my heart and soul; I wanted to experience that<br />
same intensity and closeness with God as did he.<br />
When I think of tefillah I often think about the image of<br />
Yaakov wrestling. Real and lasting spiritual growth is about<br />
wrestling with our own angels. And as teachers of tefillah,<br />
both we and our students grow when we model, encourage<br />
and empower them to become wrestlers with their own<br />
angels as they embark on their own spiritual journeys.<br />
| 43 חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
Features: Classics<br />
Seeking<br />
Spirituality<br />
outside Torah<br />
Levi Cooper<br />
Many great thinkers have grappled with the relationship<br />
between spirituality and non-<strong>Jewish</strong> wisdom.<br />
<strong>Here</strong> is a sampling.<br />
authorities who were willing to turn to extternal<br />
sources when pursuing the meaning<br />
of biblical passages: <br />
Spiritual pursuits are generally understood<br />
to be activities aimed at affecting the human<br />
soul, the inner self. <strong>The</strong>y are often religious<br />
in nature and do not have a material or<br />
physical goal. Our sages saw the fulfillmment<br />
of Divine Will through the study of<br />
Torah, the per<strong>for</strong>mance of mitzvot, and<br />
through pietism as the means <strong>for</strong> attainiing<br />
spirituality. Thus they widely shunned<br />
the idea of non-Torah study as a vehicle <strong>for</strong><br />
spirituality. Indeed, a license <strong>for</strong> teaching<br />
non-Torah subjects was granted <strong>for</strong> utilitariian<br />
purposes, yet there was widely a ban on<br />
instructing the youth in Greek language or<br />
wisdom, the prevailing secular culture in<br />
talmudic times. <br />
For a fascinating discussion regarding various spiritual<br />
paths in Judaism see: Neil Gillman, “Judaism and the<br />
Search <strong>for</strong> Spirituality” Conservative Judaism 38:2 (Winter<br />
1985-86), pp. 5-18. <strong>The</strong> thrust of Gillman’s discourse is<br />
that “spirituality” in the <strong>Jewish</strong> tradition is not confined<br />
to the new-age perception of the term. Gillman discusses<br />
three models of “spirituality”: behavioral, pietistic and<br />
intellectual (though he acknowledges the possibility of<br />
other paths). Thus, <strong>for</strong> instance, an analytical scrutiny of a<br />
difficult talmudic passage concerning ritual purity can be a<br />
spiritual exercise <strong>for</strong> those so inclined.<br />
Rabbi Levi Cooper is a rabbi in Tzur Hadassah and teaches <strong>Jewish</strong> Studies at Machon Pardes and<br />
other university level programs in Jerusalem<br />
Despite the pervasive distaste in the Talmud<br />
<strong>for</strong> <strong>for</strong>eign wisdom, subsequent generations<br />
– particularly in the Judeo-Spanish milieu<br />
– openly acknowledged the merit of such<br />
sources of knowledge. Rabbi Shimon ben<br />
Tzemah Duran (Majorca, 1361 – Algiers,<br />
1444), commenting on the mishnaic directtive<br />
to know what to respond to a heretic,<br />
suggests that engaging in secular wisdom is<br />
crucial in the battle against heresy: <br />
For this reason, we have adopted the license<br />
to study those areas of wisdom so that we can<br />
respond to them (=the heretics) from their own<br />
words, telling them that they have no evidence<br />
to contradict Torah and the Prophets… And<br />
<strong>for</strong> this reason we have adopted the license to<br />
read the book of their mistakes so that we have<br />
a response that trumps them from their own<br />
words.<br />
Earlier, in a captivating passage from Rabbi<br />
Yosef Ibn Aknin (Barcelona, c. 1150 – Fez,<br />
Morocco, 1220) we hear of accepted <strong>Jewish</strong><br />
Our Sages of blessed memory said: Whoever<br />
utters wisdom – even among the nations of the<br />
world – is called wise and we must transmit<br />
[the wise utterance]. Apropos of this, (Shmuel)<br />
Hanagid (Granada, 993-1055/1056) relates in<br />
his Book of Well-Being, after citing many Christtian<br />
Bible interpretations, that R. Matzleah<br />
ben Albatzak, the Sicilian judge, told him that<br />
when he came from Baghdad with a letter that<br />
contained the life story of our master Hai Gaon<br />
(Pumbedita, 939-1038) and his acclaimed<br />
ways, and in this document it was related that<br />
one day the academy reached the biblical verse<br />
Let my head not refuse such choice oil (Psalms<br />
141:5) and those present disputed its meaniing.<br />
And our master Hai, of blessed memory,<br />
commanded R. Matzleah to go to the Patriarch<br />
of the Christians and enquire of him what he<br />
knew about the meaning of this verse. And it<br />
was wrong in [R. Matzleah’s] eyes. And when<br />
[R. Hai,] of blessed memory, saw that it was diffficult<br />
<strong>for</strong> R. Matzleah, he chastised him saying:<br />
Behold our ancestors and pious <strong>for</strong>bearers, who<br />
are a shining example <strong>for</strong> us, would ask about<br />
languages and explanations from people of<br />
varied religions, even from shepherds and cattle<br />
hands, as it is known.<br />
In these passages all we have is a recognittion<br />
that non-<strong>Jewish</strong> sources of knowledge<br />
can assist in the spiritual pursuit of Torah.<br />
Beyond that, we have solid evidence that<br />
certain scholars realized the spiritual value<br />
of secular wisdom. It is well known that <strong>for</strong><br />
Rambam, study of Aristotelian philosophy<br />
and metaphysics was a prerequisite <strong>for</strong><br />
achieving knowledge, love and awe of the<br />
For a more detailed discussion of the talmudic position<br />
on the study of Greek language and wisdom, see: Saul<br />
Lieberman, Hellenism in <strong>Jewish</strong> Palestine, New York, 1950,<br />
second improved edition 1962, pp. 100-114. More recently<br />
see: Levi Cooper, “It was Greek to me” <strong>The</strong> Jerusalem Post,<br />
Up Front Magazine, Friday 15th December, 2006, p. 37<br />
Tashbetz (Rabbi Shimon ben Tzemah Duran), Magen<br />
Avot, commenting on M. Avot 2:14.<br />
Inkishaf al-asrar wa-tuhur al-anwar (commentary on<br />
Song of Songs called “<strong>The</strong> Divulgence of Mysteries and the<br />
Appearance of Lights”), translated from the original Arabic<br />
into Hebrew by A. S. Halkin under the title: Hitgallut ha-<br />
Sodot ve-Hofa'at ha-Me'orot, 1964, p. 495.<br />
44 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
Levi Cooper<br />
Divine. Less well known is Rabbi Bahya ibn<br />
Pekuda (Spain, c. 1050), who tells us in the<br />
introduction to his work about the sources<br />
he uses: <br />
Most of my proofs I have drawn from proposittions<br />
accepted as reasonable; and these I have<br />
made clear by familiar examples about which<br />
there can be no doubt. I added Scriptural texts<br />
and maxims culled from the writings of our<br />
teachers of blessed memory. I quoted also the<br />
saints and sages of other nations whose words<br />
have come down to us, hoping that my readers'<br />
hearts would incline to them, and give heed to<br />
their wisdom. I quote <strong>for</strong> example the dicta of<br />
the philosophers, the ethical teachings of the<br />
Ascetics, and their praiseworthy customs. In<br />
this connection our Rabbis of blessed memory<br />
already remarked: “In one verse it is said, After<br />
the ordinances of the nations that are round<br />
about you, have ye done (Ezekiel 11:12); while<br />
in another it is said, After the ordinances of<br />
the nations that are round about you, ye have<br />
not done (Ezekiel 5:7) – How is this contradicttion<br />
to be reconciled As follows: <strong>The</strong>ir good<br />
ordinances ye have not copied; their evil ones ye<br />
have followed” (B. Sanhedrin 39b). <strong>The</strong> Rabbis<br />
further said, “Whoever utters a wise word, even<br />
if he belongs to the Gentiles, is called a sage” (B.<br />
Megilla 16a).<br />
Rabbi Bahya ibn Pekuda explicitly and<br />
unabashedly tells his readers that he hopes<br />
that worthy non-Torah teachings will pierce<br />
their hearts. <strong>Here</strong> we have a noted <strong>Jewish</strong><br />
scholar employing general wisdom <strong>for</strong><br />
spiritual goals.<br />
One of the most open – and perhaps even<br />
inspiring – approaches to non-Torah wisdom<br />
has lucidly been expressed by the modern<br />
thinker Rabbi Dr Norman Lamm (1927–): <br />
Torah Umadda is thus an ef<strong>for</strong>t, not at all<br />
Duties of the Heart, Feldheim ed., English translation by<br />
Moses Hyamson, Introduction, p. 43.<br />
unprecedented in the history of normative<br />
Judaism, to expand the area of religious interest<br />
to include all of creation, and to bring all of<br />
humanity’s cultural creativity and cognitive<br />
achievements within the perimeters of Torah.<br />
<strong>The</strong> intersections of Torah and Madda are not<br />
always clear; indeed, they are more often than<br />
not elusive and indeterminate.<br />
Thus at the end of his book after surveying<br />
various models of and reaction to Torah<br />
Umadda, Rabbi Lamm suggests:<br />
Because of the comprehensive scope of this<br />
definition of religious growth, it must of necesssity<br />
result in a dynamic rather than a static<br />
conception of shelemut [=perfection, wholenness]...<br />
My musical aptitudes, if they are to be<br />
fully developed as part of my religious growth,<br />
may well conflict with the commandment to<br />
study Torah whenever time is available... <strong>The</strong><br />
broader conception [of shelemut] must make<br />
judgments based on the unique personality of<br />
the questioner, the benefit of either route to the<br />
development of his full religious personality:<br />
How good a scholar will he be How serious a<br />
musician will he become Will an artistic career<br />
be used by him to enhance his spiritual gestalt<br />
Of what relative benefit will he be to Israel and<br />
to the community of believers in either case<br />
Such examples can be multiplied manifold.<br />
Perhaps the most explicit and articulate<br />
<strong>for</strong>mulation of this can be found in the writiings<br />
of Rabbi Dr. Aharon Lichtenstein. <br />
When Elisha sought prophetic inspiration,<br />
he declared (II Kings 3:15): “’But now bring<br />
me a minstrel.’ And it came to pass, when the<br />
minstrel played, that the hand of the Lord came<br />
upon him.” And the Rambam generalized: “For<br />
the spirit of prophecy does not descend upon one<br />
who is melancholy or indolent, but comes as a<br />
result of joyousness. And there<strong>for</strong>e, the Sons of<br />
Prophets had be<strong>for</strong>e them psaltery, tablet, pipe<br />
and harp, and thus sought a manifestation of<br />
the prophetic gift.” If inspiration can be drawn<br />
from pipes and harps, why not, conceivably,<br />
from poetry<br />
But should we seek first-rate poetry, we<br />
shall have to look elsewhere. Our moral and<br />
religious lights did not address themselves<br />
with equal vigor to every area of spiritual<br />
Rabbi Bahya ibn Pekuda explicitly and unabashedly tells his readers that<br />
he hopes that worthy non-Torah teachings will pierce their hearts. <strong>Here</strong><br />
we have a noted <strong>Jewish</strong> scholar employing general wisdom <strong>for</strong> spiritual<br />
goals.<br />
endeavor. Hazal engaged little in systematic<br />
theology or philosophy and their legacy<br />
includes no poetic corpus.<br />
To be sure, it would be foolish to claim that<br />
throughout the long and turbulent history<br />
of our tradition the mainstream approach<br />
endorsed the pursuit of secular wisdom and<br />
surely not spiritual enlightenment or inspirattion<br />
from outside the holy texts of the Torah. In<br />
fact, throughout the ages, many scholars argued<br />
vehemently against any positive spiritual conttent<br />
in non-Torah learning. Thus <strong>for</strong> instance,<br />
Rabbi Zvi Elimelekh Shapira of Dynow in<br />
Galicia (1785–1841), a hasidic master who<br />
had a profound influence on subsequent hasidic<br />
dynasties, was uncompromising in his rejection<br />
of <strong>for</strong>eign wisdom. <br />
For Rabbi Zvi Elimelekh, any delving into<br />
non-Torah disciplines was an effective<br />
departure from the path of <strong>Jewish</strong> spirittuality<br />
and thus needed to be condemned<br />
at all costs. 10 This attitude, however, was<br />
Norman Lamm, Torah Umadda – <strong>The</strong> Encounter of<br />
Religious Learning and Worldly Knowledge in the <strong>Jewish</strong><br />
Tradition, 1990, pp. 12, 219-220, 222.<br />
This term – literally translated as “Torah and science”<br />
– refers to the philosophical paradigm that advocates a<br />
synthesis of Torah with secular knowledge.<br />
"Torah and General Culture: Confluence and Conflict' in<br />
Judaism's Encounter with Other Cultures: Rejection or Integgration,<br />
Jacob J. Schacter, ed (NJ: Jason Aronson, 1997)<br />
Derekh Pikudekha, negative commandment 11, section 4.<br />
See also: Rabbi Moshe Yehiel Halevi Tzuriel, Beit Yehezkiel<br />
– Hilkhot Deiot, Benei Braq, 1981, pp. 275-276.<br />
10 Not all scholars who rejected secular studies saw the<br />
danger of <strong>for</strong>eign culture as potentially corrupting the<br />
| 45 חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
Features: Classics<br />
confronted by the needed to the recourse to<br />
such disciplines by <strong>Jewish</strong> thinkers of the<br />
middle ages. Particularly perplexing was the<br />
advocacy of non-Torah sources heard from<br />
some respected authorities, such as the a<strong>for</strong>emmentioned<br />
Rabbi Bahya ibn Pekuda.<br />
Responding to Rabbi Bahya ibn Pekuda and<br />
others, Rabbi Zvi Elimelekh is quick to point<br />
out that the rule should not be concluded<br />
from these authorities; engaging in the study<br />
of philosophy was an exception, an aberration<br />
that should not be repeated:<br />
Know that simply they had a necessity to respond<br />
to the heretics in their arguments that they had<br />
in days of old, and furthermore I have bundles<br />
and bundles [of material] to explain the conduct<br />
of the earlier groups, … because of the difficulties<br />
<strong>Jewish</strong> spiritual experience. Thus, <strong>for</strong> instance, the modern<br />
thinker, Rabbi Dr David Hartman suggests, inter alia:<br />
<strong>The</strong> antipathy shown by <strong>Jewish</strong> religious communities towards<br />
“alien knowledge” was due in large measure to the demeaning<br />
experience of not encountering their own culture in any way<br />
within the conceptual frameworks of the surrounding civilizations.<br />
It is extremely painful to respect an intellectual environment that<br />
treats oneself as a cultural non-entity (David Hartman, A Living<br />
Covenant, New York, London, 1985, p. 205).<br />
A full discussion of <strong>Jewish</strong> attitudes to secular studies is<br />
beyond the scope of this article. <strong>Here</strong> our primary focus is<br />
how non-Torah studies relate to the pursuit of spirituality.<br />
of the exile and the diaspora, the sages of the<br />
generation could not explain Godly matters to the<br />
masses and distance them from corporeality withoout<br />
dressing the matters in philosophical analysis.<br />
[Thus] this was necessary in order to respond in<br />
the [way of] Torah and service [of God], and this<br />
matter <strong>for</strong> them was like a time to act <strong>for</strong> the<br />
Lord [they have contravened Your Torah] (Psalms<br />
119:126)… And now you should understand that<br />
since in the fifth millenium most of the souls were<br />
from the world of tohu, there<strong>for</strong>e the greats who<br />
were then in the land in those days needed to<br />
bring the people close to Torah by means of belief<br />
in philosophical inquiry that is akin to the sight of<br />
the eye. Whereas in these times, when God, may<br />
He be blessed, has illuminated <strong>for</strong> us with the<br />
light of the seven days [of creation] since the time<br />
of the Arizal (Rabbi Yitzhak Luria, 1534-1572)<br />
[with] souls from the world of tikkun (repair), the<br />
primary focus of our faith must be through listeniing<br />
with the ear, namely the received tradition<br />
that will remain <strong>for</strong>ever.<br />
Indeed the<br />
position of<br />
so-respected<br />
authorities such<br />
as Rabbi Bahya<br />
ibn Pekuda was<br />
problematic<br />
<strong>for</strong> those who<br />
saw no <strong>Jewish</strong><br />
spiritual value in<br />
secular studies.<br />
Relegating the<br />
stance to its histtorical<br />
context<br />
was one means<br />
of dismissing<br />
its relevance,<br />
while remaining<br />
respectful to the<br />
authority who<br />
believed in the<br />
spiritual value of secular studies.<br />
<strong>The</strong> contemporary scene takes<br />
<strong>for</strong> granted that students will<br />
be engaging secular study. We<br />
do well to consider that <strong>for</strong> our<br />
students each discipline offers a<br />
stimulating – possibly life changiing<br />
– spiritual journey. Whether<br />
that journey will be enhanced or<br />
hindered by that broad currriculum<br />
is the challenge of every<br />
educator.<br />
My thanks to my friend and teacher<br />
Dr Baruch Feldstern who some time<br />
ago shared a number of the sources<br />
quoted herein and initially piqued<br />
my interest in this subject.<br />
46 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
Lilian Yaffe<br />
Lessons of Life<br />
“Once a Teacher,<br />
Always a Teacher”<br />
Lilian Yaffe<br />
Have you ever experienced a situation in<br />
which you do not know if “today” will be<br />
the last day of your life It happened to me<br />
six years ago. I was living my “perfect” life,<br />
as the mother of three beautiful children,<br />
and a successful economics teacher at ICESI<br />
University in Cali, Colombia.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n abruptly one day, I was kidnapped by<br />
the Colombian guerrillas and held captive<br />
<strong>for</strong> four months in the middle of the Colombbian<br />
<strong>for</strong>est.<br />
During each of those one hundred and<br />
sixteen nights, I did not know if I would be<br />
alive the next day, or the following. Many<br />
things could go wrong, there<strong>for</strong>e causing<br />
a tragic end to my captivity: the guerrillas<br />
could kill me if a ransom was not satisfacttorily<br />
agreed upon; the military trying to<br />
rescue me could break into the camp where<br />
I was being kept prisoner, and accidentally<br />
kill me.<br />
Living in this situation of permanent unccertainty,<br />
in which your past life, loved ones<br />
and meaningful relationships are torn from<br />
you, and your future does not longer belong<br />
to you since your life and decisions have<br />
fallen into third party hands, really <strong>for</strong>ces<br />
you to put things into perspective, and ask<br />
yourself a very powerful question: If these<br />
were the last days of my life, how would I<br />
like to spend them<br />
Lillian Yaffe teaches economics to seniors at the Samuel Scheck Hillel Community Day School and the<br />
Ben Lipson Hillel Community High School in Miami, Florida. She can be reached at yaffe@hillel-nmb.<br />
net.<br />
When, although living a nightmare, I asked<br />
myself that question, only one answer came<br />
to my mind. I never had one single doubt<br />
of the fact that I wanted to spend whatever<br />
time I had left being a good, and if possible,<br />
happy human being. Life was a too precious<br />
| 47 חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
Features: Lessons from Life<br />
gift, I realized then, and I did not want to<br />
waste it by letting anger, hatred and rancor<br />
invade me.<br />
As a result, the days of my captivity were<br />
based upon that very intimate answer, and<br />
the decision to let the teacher inside me<br />
come out, and teach the guerrillas how to<br />
read and write, was a strategy I came up<br />
with which was consistent with my desire to<br />
live my life to its full potential.<br />
I still remember the commander’s surprised<br />
eyes when I asked him if I could teach those<br />
guerrillas who were willing to learn how<br />
to read and write. I imagine that at the<br />
beginning he thought it was a lie, perhaps<br />
a carefully planned strategy that could help<br />
me escape. <strong>The</strong> truth is that the possibility<br />
of escaping never crossed my mind.<br />
I was perfectly aware of the numerous<br />
obstacles to an escape, among them the<br />
explosive mines spread by the guerrilllas<br />
around the camp, or the peasants in<br />
the region, who, upon finding me, would<br />
immediately bring me back to my captors,<br />
thus causing me to lose any slight amount<br />
of freedom that I had gained through my<br />
previous obedient behavior.<br />
No, I was smarter than to try to escape. I<br />
knew my only way out was to be patient,<br />
wait <strong>for</strong> the ransom to be paid, and during<br />
that time try to keep my mind busy and my<br />
spirit solid. Engaging in teaching lessons<br />
was part of that self-preserving strategy.<br />
I told the commander the materials that I<br />
would need in order to teach. Although our<br />
living conditions were precarious, he had his<br />
men create a writing surface by stretching<br />
an old tent and holding it tightly by the four<br />
ends. Additionally, they provided me with<br />
some wet chalk, that I presumed they used<br />
when they needed to write messages at their<br />
guerrilla meetings. Compared to the sophistticated<br />
technological equipment that I had<br />
used during my economics classes, these<br />
were very primitive tools <strong>for</strong> teaching, but<br />
they proved to be enough <strong>for</strong> what I needed.<br />
During my captivity, the sentence “once a<br />
teacher always a teacher” attained its full<br />
meaning <strong>for</strong> me. <strong>The</strong> first day of lessons<br />
something happened inside me, and, as if<br />
by magic, I <strong>for</strong>got the terrible conditions<br />
of my captivity. I <strong>for</strong>got that these were my<br />
captors and I was their prisoner, I <strong>for</strong>got the<br />
horrible moments that I had gone through,<br />
As a result, the days of my captivity were based upon that very intimate<br />
answer, and the decision to let the teacher inside me come out, and teach<br />
the guerrillas how to read and write, was a strategy I came up with which<br />
was consistent with my desire to live my life to its full potential.<br />
and I <strong>for</strong>got the uncertainty of how much<br />
more time I would have to remain captive. I<br />
<strong>for</strong>got my children, my parents and my husbband,<br />
who were probably dying of despair<br />
at this sad situation. In one second I <strong>for</strong>got<br />
everything, except that I was a teacher and<br />
my students were ready, waiting.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re were eight students in my “class”,<br />
most of them teenagers between the ages of<br />
thirteen and twenty years old. As I watched<br />
them strive to learn the mysteries of the<br />
ABC’s, (some of them had attended a few<br />
years of elementary school, and most were<br />
illiterate), I realized that the inner desire to<br />
learn can reside in any human being, regardlless<br />
of their circumstances and conditions.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se guerrillas were criminals, terrible<br />
delinquents who had turned my life up-sidedown,<br />
and nevertheless when we started our<br />
lessons under the trees, they became real<br />
students, willing to progress and to learn<br />
in our improvised classroom. During the<br />
lessons they would leave their guns aside,<br />
and I must confess that despite the fact that<br />
I hated what they had done to me and to<br />
my family, the teacher inside me was deeply<br />
touched by their desire to learn, and by their<br />
satisfied expressions at their own progress.<br />
When I start to relay the story of those days,<br />
people look at me with eyes filled with surpprise<br />
and disbelief. Sometimes, mixed with<br />
compassion, I have even perceived judgmenttal<br />
expressions. It is not easy to understand<br />
the complexity of the situation in which<br />
I was involved, maybe it is even harder to<br />
understand the means I used in order to<br />
survive and save my spiritual peace, my<br />
inner self, which was what I ultimately I<br />
wanted to preserve. To me, acting as I did<br />
was the life saver that guided me through a<br />
very painful experience. And if, God <strong>for</strong>bid, I<br />
was one day exposed to a similar situation, I<br />
would act in the same way I did. <strong>The</strong> reward<br />
of coming out of that experience with my<br />
soul unharmed was worth all the ef<strong>for</strong>ts<br />
that I had to make in order to preserve it.<br />
I live a different, free life now in America,<br />
but there has not been one single day in<br />
this new life without remembering my four<br />
months in captivity. Although my desire <strong>for</strong><br />
revenge is long gone – faded in the joy of<br />
being free again and starting over in a new<br />
country – the memories of those days will<br />
be imprinted in my soul <strong>for</strong>ever. <strong>The</strong>y are<br />
part of who I am, they modeled the person<br />
I became after the experience, and I must<br />
confess that some of the scars have had posiitive<br />
consequences. I am today a person who<br />
values every single moment, who treasures<br />
human relationships more than anything,<br />
and who is unwilling to subordinate her<br />
ideals in order to satisfy social requirements.<br />
I became a more sensitive teacher, able to<br />
connect to my students at more spiritual<br />
levels. And, most of all, after surviving four<br />
months with two shirts and two pairs of<br />
sweat-pants, I realize how pointless our life<br />
becomes when its main goal is to accumullate<br />
material belongings.<br />
A kidnapping is a brutal, condemnable and<br />
horrifying practice, which cannot, and will<br />
never be, <strong>for</strong>given by our society. Neverthelless,<br />
being exposed to such a brutal experieence<br />
can in<strong>for</strong>m a person’s soul, and make<br />
one come out of the experience even strongger.<br />
I feel triumphant over my kidnappers.<br />
48 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
Lilian Yaffe<br />
<strong>The</strong>y could not harm my spirit, I preserved<br />
it untouched, so that when the ransom was<br />
paid, and the ordeal was over, I came back<br />
home intact. I hugged my children and I felt<br />
proud of having been able to survive the<br />
experience and bring them back their mom,<br />
as they remembered her.<br />
Were those teaching lessons the key to keepiing<br />
my mind safe during my captivity Were<br />
they my therapy against despair and depresssion<br />
I believe so. <strong>The</strong>y were as important as<br />
the flowers that I collected every day, during<br />
one hundred and fifteen days, putting<br />
them in an empty oil container, inside the<br />
plastic tent where I was kept. You might ask:<br />
thinking of flowers while being kidnapped<br />
<strong>The</strong> choice of life resides within ourselves. I<br />
chose life over sadness and despair, and I am<br />
thankful <strong>for</strong> having done so.<br />
As with many other elements in my life,<br />
my teaching has also been affected by this<br />
experience. Moving to a new country and<br />
Were those teaching lessons the key to keeping my mind safe during<br />
my captivity Were they my therapy against despair and depression I<br />
believe so. <strong>The</strong>y were as important as the flowers that I collected every<br />
day, during one hundred and fifteen days, putting them in an empty oil<br />
container, inside the plastic tent where I was kept.<br />
starting my career all over was not easy,<br />
especially because even though I had been<br />
a college teacher in Colombia, and I hold a<br />
Masters degree in my subject, I was certain<br />
of the fact that I would not dare teach at the<br />
college level in America without holding a<br />
PhD. Nevertheless, I could not imagine my<br />
life without teaching! As I said be<strong>for</strong>e, once<br />
you become a teacher, you will always be<br />
one; teaching is a bug that enters your blood<br />
and never leaves you.<br />
I was <strong>for</strong>tunate enough to find someone<br />
who believed in my credentials, and gave<br />
me the opportunity to teach again, at a local<br />
high school in Miami. That was three years<br />
ago, and I am currently very happy and<br />
satisfied teaching an AP Economics class to<br />
12 th graders.<br />
<strong>The</strong> transition from being a college teacher<br />
to engaging in high school teaching was not<br />
easy. At the beginning, I imagined that 12 th<br />
graders would be very similar to my <strong>for</strong>mer<br />
college freshmen, but soon enough I had to<br />
learn the big differences between them.<br />
Although 12 th graders and first semester colllege<br />
students are kids of the same age, their<br />
attitude is completely different. 12 th graders<br />
| 49 חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
Features: Lessons from life<br />
are very frequently affected by “senioritis”, this chronic disease by<br />
which they see themselves as kings of the school, and their level of<br />
commitment and responsibility tend to decrease as they sense the<br />
proximity of graduation.<br />
As a consequence, discipline can become a problem if the teacher<br />
doesn’t clearly establish boundaries from the beginning of the semestter<br />
or school year. Fortunately, I believe the kidnapping made me a<br />
person who is more sensitive to my students’ needs, with a higher<br />
possibility of empathizing with them. <strong>The</strong>re<strong>for</strong>e, while disciplining<br />
and motivating my high school students is a daily challenge, I have<br />
not thus far found it to be a problem.<br />
While teaching at college and meeting my students three hours each<br />
week in a crowded classroom, I never had the educational possibiliity<br />
that high school has given me. Having almost daily contact with<br />
high school students allows me a higher level of communication with<br />
my students than is possible in college. I feel as if, at the beginning<br />
of each school year, I receive the opportunity to affect the lives of<br />
many young, immature and yet good-natured students, and my daily<br />
commitment to them and to myself is to do everything I can to really<br />
reach them both academically and in their development as people.<br />
In this way, my perception of education has changed. I no longer see<br />
myself as someone who has to merely transmit a specific knowledge<br />
in a subject, but as a person with the possibility (and responsibility)<br />
to make my students kind, good-hearted and sensitive human beings.<br />
It might sound an ambitious perception of education, but I believe it<br />
is the only meaningful option that we have as teachers. This realizattion<br />
is one I gained during my kidnapping, and I honestly believe it<br />
has helped me become a better educator.<br />
As I reflect on the days of my captivity, I recognize that the experieence<br />
changed me as a person, and especially as a teacher. Wherever I<br />
teach in the future, whether I stay in high school or decide to pursue<br />
my PhD and engage again as a college teacher, my approach to<br />
students has changed, and my perception of my role as an educator<br />
has been modified. <strong>The</strong> understanding that I had during my captivity<br />
about the fragility of concepts such as “life” and “tomorrow”, accomppanies<br />
me every day and reminds me of the importance of living eveery<br />
day as if it was the last one. I am glad to experience these changes,<br />
and although they are the result of an extremely painful experience, I<br />
am satisfied with the results that I feel every day in my life.<br />
Editor’s Note: Though English is not the author’s first language, every<br />
ef<strong>for</strong>t has been made to maintain the her voice throughout this article.<br />
50 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
Scott J. Goldberg<br />
Cutting Edge<br />
Assessing<br />
Student<br />
Religious Growth<br />
In a recent graduate level course on assessmment,<br />
I led a discussion on establishing<br />
learning targets as a beginning step in<br />
the assessment process. We talked about<br />
knowledge, understanding, skills, and affecttive<br />
targets. Throughout the conversation, a<br />
particular student sat troubled, wondering<br />
whether the ultimate goal of <strong>Jewish</strong> educattion<br />
resides in the affective domain. Leaving<br />
that longtime debate aside, one wonders<br />
whether <strong>Jewish</strong> educators are prepared <strong>for</strong><br />
the outcome of such a debate.<br />
If we are at all concerned that our students<br />
graduate with an appreciation of a <strong>Jewish</strong><br />
life, believing in the God introduced to them<br />
just years earlier in their beginning tefillot,<br />
valuing their fellow Jew and fellow person,<br />
let alone appreciating the role that communnity,<br />
<strong>for</strong> example, might play in their lives,<br />
we must discuss the assessment of religious<br />
goals, as well. Substitute the word academic<br />
or cognitive <strong>for</strong> religious and one would be<br />
concerned if a school did not delineate both<br />
curricular goals and methods of assessment.<br />
However, it seems that we are far less likely<br />
to find parents, educators, or community<br />
leaders demanding that such clarificattion<br />
take place in the affective domain, in<br />
particular in the area of religious goals. Yet,<br />
why should we not expect schools to teach<br />
Scott J. Goldberg<br />
toward growth in religiosity (practice and<br />
belief) on the part of students who attend<br />
<strong>Jewish</strong> schools and programs that target<br />
religious per<strong>for</strong>mance and faith If we do<br />
not see such growth, the success of the<br />
institution or program may well be called<br />
into question.<br />
Oser (1990) provides a framework of religgious<br />
development with which an educator<br />
may choose appropriate texts, but one may<br />
speculate that educators who adopt such<br />
a tool would utilize cognitive-type assessmments<br />
of the learning of the text to assess<br />
the students’ learning, all the time assuming<br />
that the religious development is merely a<br />
background process to in<strong>for</strong>m textual study.<br />
Indeed, Goldmintz (2003) points out what<br />
is obvious to most <strong>Jewish</strong> educators – it is<br />
not only that we must keep in mind the studdents’<br />
religious development when choosing<br />
and teaching texts, but we must consider<br />
how the text itself will affect the students’<br />
religious development.<br />
How might we assess the affect on student<br />
religious development in a way that is<br />
useful <strong>for</strong> educators in school settings<br />
Clearly, many methods used by researchers<br />
in religious development are impractical<br />
<strong>for</strong> school use. For example, observations,<br />
Scott J. Goldberg, PhD is Director of the Fanya Gottesfeld Heller Division of Doctoral Studies at the<br />
Azrieli Graduate School of <strong>Jewish</strong> <strong>Education</strong> and Administration, Yeshiva University. Those schools<br />
interested in participating in pilot studies should contact the author at sjgoldbe@yu.edu..<br />
while potentially comprehensive, are timeconsuming,<br />
costly, require special skills,<br />
and usually can only target a few individual<br />
participants (Gottlieb, 2006). Sociologists,<br />
such as Steven Cohen, have studied religious<br />
attitudes and behaviors through questionnnaires<br />
and surveys, but have not created<br />
scales of religious beliefs and practices<br />
subject to the scientific scrutiny of reliability<br />
and validity analyses, along with factor<br />
analyses <strong>for</strong> subscale determination. We<br />
may wish to merely ask our children if they<br />
are keeping kosher, but a more sophisticated<br />
and systematic method of assessing such<br />
behavior is warranted <strong>for</strong> <strong>Jewish</strong> schools as<br />
we set our religious targets and assess the<br />
extent to which our students have met our<br />
expectations.<br />
Alternatively, entire schools could be<br />
assessed with a scale of religious beliefs<br />
and practices, examined <strong>for</strong> appropriate<br />
psychometric properties. Each child could<br />
complete the scale in a short amount of<br />
time at the beginning, middle, and end of<br />
each school year in order to determine how<br />
students are developing (i.e., those meeting<br />
school expectations, those at-risk <strong>for</strong> not<br />
meeting expectations, and those who are<br />
falling below benchmark goals). This would<br />
provide a more efficient alternative to<br />
observations of every student in a school<br />
by reserving such <strong>for</strong>mal observations <strong>for</strong><br />
those students in the at-risk and below<br />
benchmark categories. <strong>The</strong>se observations<br />
would confirm or disconfirm the original<br />
findings and provide insight into more<br />
specific interventions, as needed.<br />
With assessment in<strong>for</strong>mation on the<br />
religious development of our children,<br />
we would be able to adjust our curricula,<br />
teaching methods, and general approach <strong>for</strong><br />
each child, as needed. Goldmintz (2003)<br />
advocates an approach to teaching <strong>Jewish</strong><br />
texts that takes the child’s general stage of<br />
religious development into account, but<br />
the method of assessment, instruction, and<br />
intervention delineated above provides a<br />
more comprehensive and individualized<br />
approach towards the same goal. Indeed, a<br />
scale of religiosity could provide in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
| 51 חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
Features: Cutting Edge<br />
on a larger sample of, if not all, participants<br />
in a program or students in a school on<br />
a regular basis to track growth. Such a<br />
scale could provide dynamic indicators of<br />
religiosity in order to in<strong>for</strong>m curricular and<br />
programmatic changes and individualized<br />
interventions.<br />
Although scales testing <strong>Jewish</strong> religiosity<br />
do exist they are flawed in certain respects.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Katz (1988) religiosity scale is not<br />
sufficiently broad. <strong>The</strong> scale consists of 20<br />
items and there<strong>for</strong>e conflates certain issues.<br />
For example, regarding Sabbath observance<br />
the scale addresses the concluding Sabbath<br />
service, but ignores other key aspects of<br />
Sabbath observance, which could differenttiate<br />
Jews on the continuum of Sabbath<br />
observance. Another scale (Ben-Meir &<br />
Kedem, 1979) has similar failings. <strong>The</strong> scale<br />
includes a mere thirteen items, each with<br />
a yes or no response. <strong>The</strong> scale is inadeequate,<br />
as it lacks the delineation of specific<br />
behaviors and thus fails to provide sufficient<br />
variance in religiosity.<br />
Due to the need <strong>for</strong> schools and programs<br />
to assess the religious development and<br />
growth of students, a more comprehensive<br />
scale of religious practices and beliefs was<br />
written. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Jewish</strong> Beliefs, Actions, and<br />
Living Evaluation (JewBALE – pronounced<br />
Jubilee) (Goldberg, 2006), is a self admministered<br />
scale consisting of 66 items<br />
concerning belief and 109 items concerning<br />
actions related to <strong>Jewish</strong> practice. It takes<br />
approximately 20 minutes to complete.<br />
Items were constructed by interviewing men<br />
and women in professional and lay leadersship<br />
positions in the <strong>Jewish</strong> community in<br />
order to obtain face validity in delineation<br />
of categories of belief and action that each<br />
represents a continuum of traditional Jewiish<br />
beliefs and activities. <strong>Jewish</strong> religious<br />
activities identified by the experts include<br />
community service, prayer, holiday and<br />
Sabbath observance, interpersonal relations<br />
(including sexual behavior, and appropriate<br />
speech), keeping kosher, study of Torah,<br />
modesty, and self-improvement. <strong>The</strong>se<br />
experts identified the following constructs<br />
as comprising religious beliefs: divine providdence,<br />
fear/love of God, rabbinic authority,<br />
relationship to Israel, and outlook on secular<br />
studies.<br />
<strong>The</strong> uniqueness of the scale is particularly<br />
seen when the individual constructs are conssidered.<br />
For example, a student’s outlook on<br />
secular studies should be of particular intereest<br />
to most <strong>Jewish</strong> educators. Students in<br />
many <strong>Jewish</strong> day schools are faced with the<br />
challenge of maintaining a balance between<br />
a commitment to <strong>Jewish</strong> tradition and the<br />
reality of living in a modern, largely secular,<br />
culture. One of the areas in which this<br />
challenge expresses itself is the fundamental<br />
tension between obedience to authority that<br />
is the hallmark of traditional Judaism and<br />
the premium placed upon autonomy and<br />
personal choice in contemporary American<br />
culture. Indeed, our students may be regullarly<br />
faced with the need<br />
to recognize and appreciaate<br />
various “authorities,”<br />
including biblical charactters<br />
such as the avot and<br />
imahot, as well as rabbinic<br />
figures such as Tana-im,<br />
Amora-im, Rishonim, and<br />
Aharonim, involved in the<br />
transmission of halakhah<br />
and other aspects of Jewiish<br />
tradition. In addition,<br />
students may be taught<br />
that Judaism requires ackknowledging<br />
the authority<br />
of modern-day figures as well, in the <strong>for</strong>m of<br />
parents, teachers, and in some communities<br />
Posekim. In contrast, the contemporary cultture<br />
in which they all live and which exerts<br />
an enormous influence on them celebrates<br />
the supreme value of individual autonomy<br />
and the right of individuals to choose their<br />
own values and to be the sole arbiter of their<br />
way of life. How do our students negotiate<br />
this challenge and conflict<br />
Un<strong>for</strong>tunately, our educational system<br />
rarely provides our students with the tools<br />
to develop a religious perspective with which<br />
to understand and live with such challenges.<br />
Without such understanding or skill, it is ineevitable<br />
that peers, the media, and personal<br />
autonomy will exert primary authority over<br />
our children and an opportunity to help<br />
shape committed and engaged Jews will<br />
have been lost. If our schools are ready to<br />
construct cognitive and affective learning<br />
targets that prepare our children <strong>for</strong> such<br />
challenges, it will be essential that schools<br />
have the ability to assess this learning in<br />
both realms, as well.<br />
<strong>The</strong> psychometric properties of the JewB-<br />
BALE scale are still under study, but initial<br />
results are promising.<br />
References<br />
Ben-Meir, J. & Kedem, P. (1979). Index of the religioosity<br />
of the <strong>Jewish</strong> population in Israel. Megamot,<br />
24, 3.<br />
Goldberg, SJ (2006) <strong>Jewish</strong> Beliefs Actions and Liviing<br />
Evaluation (JewBALE), Unpublished manuscript,<br />
Yeshiva University, Azrieli Graduate School.<br />
Goldmintz, J. (2003). Religious development in<br />
adolescence: A work in progress. Tradition, 37, 4.<br />
Gottlieb, E. (2006, June). Where home and school<br />
intersect: Everyday theological discourse among<br />
carpooling preschoolers. Presented at Reframing<br />
<strong>Jewish</strong> Day School <strong>Education</strong> Worldwide, Hebrew<br />
University, Jerusalem, Israel.<br />
Katz, Y. (1988). Student religiosity questionnaire<br />
[SRQ] in P.C. Hill & R.W. Hood (1999) (Eds.).<br />
Measures of religiosity (pp. 72-74). Birmingham, AL:<br />
Religious <strong>Education</strong> Press.<br />
Oser, F. (1990). Religious development: Foundattions,<br />
stages, and constructs. Studies in <strong>Jewish</strong><br />
<strong>Education</strong>, 5.<br />
52 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
| 53 חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
School Profile: Reut<br />
School Profile<br />
Reut:<br />
A Unique Pluralistic<br />
<strong>Jewish</strong> Community<br />
Tucked away in a recessed driveway behind a<br />
busy intersection on the edge of Jerusalem’s<br />
Old Katamon neighborhood looms a set<br />
of olive green gates that open up into a<br />
serene courtyard. Four teenagers are playing<br />
basketball and others are lounging under<br />
the broad palm tree, a girl in jeans and nosering<br />
warmly greets a girl in a wheelchair,<br />
and a tall boy with a knitted skullcap hugs a<br />
long-haired girl. <strong>The</strong>re is a gentle buzz here<br />
as kids lightly roam about, a calmness so<br />
contrasted with that of so many educational<br />
institutions, as well as with society at large,<br />
that you have to take a moment to remembber<br />
that this tranquil spot is actually a high<br />
school in Israel.<br />
This wondrous universe that is the Reut<br />
High School is a micro-society in which<br />
educational ideals – the kind that tend to<br />
peg its adherents as unrealistic dreamers<br />
– <strong>for</strong>m a very powerful, and very much alive,<br />
reality. Reut students volunteer <strong>for</strong> a myriad<br />
of causes without anyone demanding it of<br />
them, graduates spend hours of their spare<br />
time helping younger students, innovattive<br />
programs are conceived, managed and<br />
fundraised <strong>for</strong> by kids, students beg their<br />
teachers <strong>for</strong> number grades and consider<br />
class-cancellation a punishment, and more<br />
Elana Maryles Sztokman<br />
than anything, everyone talks about the<br />
principal, veteran educator Dr. Aryeh Geiger,<br />
in terms of love and near sainthood.<br />
Reut, a pluralistic <strong>Jewish</strong> community<br />
founded in 1999 by a group of renegade<br />
educators and parents, is built upon the<br />
philosophy that social activism and respect<br />
<strong>for</strong> others are equal in importance to <strong>Jewish</strong><br />
learning. Moreover, the founders believe<br />
that that this idea is equally applicable to<br />
all streams of Judaism and all segments of<br />
society. <strong>Here</strong>, classes are comprised of studdents<br />
from all denominations, from an array<br />
of ethnic-national origins, from all political<br />
movements, from heterogeneous academic<br />
records and socioeconomic backgrounds,<br />
and with varied physical abilities. Indeed, no<br />
two classes are alike.<br />
<strong>The</strong> school is brimming with new immiggrants<br />
from Ethiopia, the <strong>for</strong>mer Soviet<br />
Union, and English-speaking countries,<br />
as well as deaf students, Down syndrome<br />
students, gifted kids, and students with<br />
an array of challenges. Yet, no student is<br />
relegated to the margins; students are not<br />
separated out into groups of kids that look<br />
and sound exactly like themselves. Instead,<br />
they are mixed up, as if in a Lotto bowl in<br />
Elana Maryles Sztokman, the managing editor of <strong>Jewish</strong> <strong>Education</strong>al Leadership, is a writer, editor,<br />
and researcher living in Modi’in.<br />
which identities and ideologies randomly<br />
bounce around and encounter one another<br />
in dozens of interactions, big and small. This<br />
is a place where learning to respect differeences<br />
is as much a part of daily life as eating<br />
and breathing.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> school is about love,” explained Aryeh,<br />
as he is known throughout the school. (“If<br />
anyone called me ‘doctor’,” he insisted, “I<br />
would be very upset!”.) “<strong>The</strong> school is a commmunity<br />
of a very diverse group of people<br />
who have a very strong commitment to<br />
Judaism, to spiritual quest within Judaiism,<br />
to different <strong>for</strong>ms of <strong>Jewish</strong> practice,<br />
different <strong>for</strong>ms of relating to God, different<br />
<strong>for</strong>ms of relating to oneself, and the school<br />
is about giving all of us, adults and students,<br />
tools to carry on that search. That’s what the<br />
school is about.“<br />
Kids as Community<br />
Reut is built on the educational philosophy<br />
of Janusz Korczak, the renowned children’s<br />
advocate who created an educational<br />
philosophy, built an orphanage in Warssaw<br />
based on his theories, and eventually<br />
marched along with the children in the<br />
Warsaw Ghetto to the trains leading to<br />
Treblinka. Janusz Korczak’s ideas around<br />
the rights of children as a social class unto<br />
themselves and the development of their<br />
abilities <strong>for</strong> self-empowerment and creative<br />
expression have had a strong influence on<br />
Aryeh’s thinking, ideas which, he says, “<strong>for</strong><br />
some reason, most schools have had trouble<br />
building on”. But not at Reut. <strong>The</strong> notion of<br />
kids as constituting a true society of equal,<br />
right-holding, responsible members pulsates<br />
throughout the Reut community.<br />
David, a feisty 16-year old boy who is<br />
making a cup of coffee in the staff room as<br />
he tells me, “I love this place,” works as the<br />
coach <strong>for</strong> the school’s basketball team. “Not<br />
just an assistant coach,” pipes in one of the<br />
teachers, “but a fully accredited and officially<br />
certified coach.” At Reut, kids are not the futture<br />
– they are the present. Students take ressponsibility<br />
<strong>for</strong> many aspects of school life,<br />
from class décor and school maintenance,<br />
54 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
Elana Maryles Sztokman<br />
to major decision-making about educational<br />
policy. Issues such as dress code and testgrading<br />
policies have been discussed and<br />
decided upon in joint staff-student <strong>for</strong>ums.<br />
Perhaps the strongest example of student<br />
empowerment is the Va’adat Haginut, the<br />
“justice <strong>for</strong>um”, in<strong>for</strong>mally referred to as<br />
the school court. In this setting, which<br />
includes student and staff representatives,<br />
anyone can “sue” anyone else. When a group<br />
of older students, <strong>for</strong> example, locked the<br />
doors to the music room to keep younger<br />
students out, the younger group took the<br />
older students to court – and won. Not only<br />
were the older students banned from the<br />
music room <strong>for</strong> a few weeks, but the inciddent<br />
led to the <strong>for</strong>malizing of ground-rules<br />
around use of the music room.<br />
One group even took the principal to court.<br />
When some 12 th grade students skipped<br />
an assembly, Aryeh, in turn, cancelled their<br />
classes – and the students were so offended<br />
that they took him to court. “He was saying<br />
that it’s all part of the same package,” expplained<br />
Dina Weiner, the Bible coordinator<br />
who took me around the school. “We’re not<br />
just about classes, and that if kids want the<br />
classes, they have to participate in the values<br />
aspects. But the students were very insulted.<br />
For them, skipping class was a <strong>for</strong>m of puniishment.<br />
So they took Aryeh to court. Aryeh<br />
won, but they ended up talking it out, which<br />
was very good.”<br />
Active Pluralism<br />
In the corner of the staff room, which is<br />
brimming with graduates, para-professsionals,<br />
adults and kids, two students<br />
are quietly gesticulating in front of the<br />
computer screen. <strong>The</strong>y call over Co-Principal<br />
Avital Levy-Katz. “ ‘Father’ in sign language,”<br />
explains the girl in the wheel-chair, “is like<br />
this,” as she demonstrates a top to bottom<br />
hand motion in front of the face. “Because<br />
the father is tall and strong. But ‘mother’ is<br />
like this,” she says, demonstrating a side to<br />
side motion “because she is always smiling.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> boy, who is deaf, clicks on the Hebrew<br />
sign-language web-site on the screen as he<br />
and his classmate laugh at the gender impplications<br />
of these signs. “We really should<br />
have a course on the anthropology of sign<br />
language,” Avital says.<br />
At Reut, multiple perspectives are an<br />
integral part of daily life. . “People come here<br />
from every walk of life,” Avital explained.<br />
“We don’t ask them if they keep Shabbat<br />
or not, we don’t measure their sleeves. We<br />
only deal with the things that are importtant.”<br />
As a reflection of this pluralism, <strong>for</strong><br />
example, Japanese, Spanish, Amharic and<br />
sign language are part of the curriculum,<br />
art and music are brought into classes to<br />
enhance learning, Japanese, Spanish and<br />
sign language are part of the curriculum,<br />
and the entire school dedicated itself to the<br />
Sigd Festival, a highlight of the Ethiopian<br />
calendar. <strong>The</strong> school fills a need, Aryeh<br />
wrote, <strong>for</strong> “creating a community in which<br />
pluralism is practiced and taught not only<br />
through particular <strong>Jewish</strong> values, but also<br />
through a more universal approach… so<br />
as to give young people a recognition that<br />
other cultures, religions and ways of life<br />
exist. Our practice of including people from<br />
all socio-economic strata and with various<br />
<strong>The</strong> school is brimming with new immigrants from Ethiopia, the <strong>for</strong>mer<br />
Soviet Union, and English-speaking countries, as well as deaf students,<br />
Down syndrome students, gifted kids, and students with an array of<br />
challenges. Yet, no student is relegated to the margins; students are<br />
not separated out into groups of kids that look and sound exactly like<br />
themselves.<br />
special needs (what others call disabilities),<br />
this too is a way of doing pluralism and not<br />
just ‘wording it’.”<br />
Indeed, pluralism <strong>for</strong>ms the very fabric of<br />
the school. “We chose the word pluralism<br />
and not tolerance. It’s not that I put up with<br />
you – it’s that I have something to gain<br />
from you and from your perspective, that we<br />
need one another, and that we’re better off<br />
with each other,” explains Dina. “We have<br />
kids who are super leftists and kids who live<br />
in the territories and they have to learn how<br />
to talk about it and to love each other. We<br />
| 55 חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
School Profile: Reut<br />
are not afraid to talk about it. What matters<br />
here is love, learning to love each other.”<br />
<strong>Jewish</strong> education as fundamentally about<br />
love <strong>for</strong> fellow human beings is an idea that<br />
finds expression in a myriad of everyday<br />
encounters and exchanges in the school.<br />
Aside from all the hugging going on everywwhere,<br />
students regularly dedicate their<br />
spare time to helping others with different<br />
special needs, whether by assisting someone<br />
in a wheelchair down the stairs, or studying<br />
and reading in partnership. Graduates fill<br />
the school on Sunday mornings be<strong>for</strong>e they<br />
go off to army and university, squeezing<br />
in every moment to tutor or volunteer whereever<br />
they may be needed. <strong>The</strong> school also<br />
employs a pluralistic staff, such as a deaf<br />
teacher and an assistant librarian who is a<br />
graduate with Down Syndrome. Co-Princippal<br />
Avital Levy-Katz described the experieence<br />
of seeing a student who has difficulty<br />
with reading and writing get up and sing at a<br />
school concert. “He sings so beautifully that<br />
I get chills even describing it – <strong>for</strong> that it was<br />
worth opening this school”.<br />
“We are creating a greenhouse,” explains<br />
Dina, “in which we can all be honest about<br />
who we are and still respect each other<br />
and gain from each other.” Avital concurs<br />
that, “<strong>Here</strong>, you’re allowed to be happy or<br />
sad, you’re accepted as a person. It’s a safe<br />
Three times a week, there is a girls’ morning prayer service as well,<br />
in order to create a venue <strong>for</strong> girls who want to read from the Torah<br />
and lead services. At those services, the leading of which is one of<br />
Dina’s many responsibilities, “we do things our way, in a female way<br />
that’s com<strong>for</strong>table <strong>for</strong> us. When we have a discussion, it’s much less<br />
Lithuanian, much less linear.”<br />
place. It’s a family circle, much more than<br />
just about school. It’s a spiritual connection<br />
between people.”<br />
“You don’t see this<br />
anywhere else,” adds<br />
Tzvi, a 23-year old who<br />
worked at the school<br />
as a para-professional<br />
with a student with<br />
C.P. who needed extra<br />
help. “<strong>Here</strong>, everyone is<br />
friends with everyone,<br />
kids from completely<br />
different places and<br />
background just accept<br />
one other as they are.<br />
It’s a very special place.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> pluralism and<br />
mutual respect is also<br />
cross-age. For example,<br />
a twelfth grade student<br />
who is matriculating<br />
in dance, has a seventh<br />
grade student helping<br />
her. “It’s more than<br />
utilitarian, it’s that they<br />
have a human connecttion,”<br />
Avital explained. “It’s not about whose<br />
interest it is, it’s a real connection between<br />
a seventh grader and a twelfth grader. You<br />
don’t see things like that in most places.”<br />
One of the central venues <strong>for</strong> building<br />
pluralism and mutual understanding is in<br />
prayer. As Tchiya, who runs the Reut Instittute<br />
of Pluralist Training, explained, “Every<br />
single person is part of the community, and<br />
there<strong>for</strong>e everyone’s presence is important.<br />
Everyone is equal in prayer, there is no<br />
difference between teacher and student,<br />
strong and weak... It is a place where eveeryone<br />
is accepted as they are, without any<br />
connection to their belief system... It is a<br />
place <strong>for</strong> searching <strong>for</strong> meaning.”<br />
For several years, the school ran a “hit-habbrut”<br />
program, which means “connection”.<br />
Be<strong>for</strong>e morning services, students would<br />
choose from a smorgasbord of spiritual purssuits,<br />
including Tai Chi, meditation, jogging,<br />
Israeli dancing and nature walks. Although<br />
students eventually rejected the program<br />
as too “new-age”, the school continues to<br />
promote these practices in a less intensive<br />
way, through occasional day-long mind-body<br />
fairs. Moreover, while not everyone has to<br />
pray, everyone has to attend services, in<br />
order to respect those who want to pray.<br />
Three times a week, there is a girls’ morning<br />
prayer service as well, in order to create a<br />
venue <strong>for</strong> girls who want to read from the<br />
Torah and lead services. At those services,<br />
the leading of which is one of Dina’s many<br />
responsibilities, “we do things our way, in a<br />
female way that’s com<strong>for</strong>table <strong>for</strong> us. When<br />
we have a discussion, it’s much less Lithuannian,<br />
much less linear.”<br />
Similarly, the school uses Bible as a tool <strong>for</strong><br />
inviting pluralism. “<strong>The</strong> standard religious<br />
curriculum doesn’t speak to many students,”<br />
Dina explained. “Many kids walk out of the<br />
state religious system totally anti-Bible.<br />
By 11 th and 12 th grade, all we taught was<br />
commentaries. We never taught the text. It<br />
was never, why do we care <strong>Here</strong>, we teach<br />
the text, and we added hours, which gives<br />
us the freedom to make it more alive, to feel<br />
the characters, to feel the story. By putting<br />
56 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
Elana Maryles Sztokman<br />
our kids together, kids from all different backgrounds come here and<br />
learn together and learn how to talk to each other and how to help<br />
each other. It doesn’t matter if you’re religious or secular. It’s about<br />
saying, this matters to us, this learning is what matters to us; it’s<br />
meaningful. <strong>Here</strong> we say, we just want to be honest about who we are,<br />
about what we believe.”<br />
In other religious educational settings, such honesty and acceptance<br />
can be a dangerous pose. “I am not going to hide what I believe<br />
because I’m afraid that my boss’ boss is going to fire me if I say what I<br />
believe,” Dina added. This is particularly striking in light of the school<br />
history: the staff, students, and parents who founded the school<br />
broke off from their previous school against the backdrop of debate<br />
surrounding the 1995 assassination of then Prime Minister Yizchak<br />
Rabin. Aryeh, then principal, had attempted to bring in an openminded<br />
pluralistic approach by allowing students to criticize the role<br />
of the religious educational establishment in molding some of the<br />
ideas that guided assassin Yigal Amir – and <strong>for</strong> that, he was fired.<br />
“<strong>Here</strong>, we try to push the arguing, to say I don’t agree, or even I don’t<br />
agree with God. We encourage it, the arguing and the doubting and<br />
the questioning – it’s a big piece of being <strong>Jewish</strong>.”<br />
Indeed, Reut not only has added hours of Bible, but has created its<br />
own pluralism curriculum, and is working on a matriculation exam<br />
in Pluralism. More significantly, however, pluralism <strong>for</strong>ms the very<br />
fabric of daily life at the school. <strong>The</strong> school population is so widely<br />
diverse, and students are encouraged to engage with one another at<br />
every juncture – always with love and care.<br />
“I know it sounds rather mundane and almost ridiculous,” Aryeh said,<br />
“but you take almost any issue in the school system in Israel now<br />
– certainly violence, underachievement, lack of motivation – almost<br />
all of these have to do with the fact that students are alienated from<br />
the schools, they don’t feel compassion, they don’t feel love, they<br />
feel they are in a competitive, utilitarian society, they could care less<br />
about bagrut or any of the other exams. It could change dramatically<br />
if compassion were just back in the system.”<br />
Social responsibility<br />
This love and care is apparent in every corner of the school – from the<br />
sign on the principal’s door which says, “We love you Aryeh!” to the<br />
hundreds of amateur photos on the wall of staff and students talking,<br />
learning, and hugging, to the dozens of flyers, announcements, and<br />
certificates of appreciation from every social cause in Israel.<br />
Perhaps the strongest expression of the school’s emphasis on active<br />
love and care <strong>for</strong> fellow human beings is in <strong>The</strong> Ma’aser Program that<br />
encourages kids to volunteer <strong>for</strong> everything from the cancer society,<br />
to soup kitchens, to the environment. <strong>The</strong> Ma’aser Program is a<br />
cornerstone of the school’s educational philosophy, and of everyday<br />
school life. As one graduate, who spends her spare time in the school<br />
tutoring students, explained to me, “<strong>The</strong> school emphasizes what<br />
| 57 חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
School Profile: Reut<br />
Spirituality in Leadership:<br />
Principal Aryeh Geiger<br />
Aryeh Geiger, unlike the people around him,<br />
does not think of himself as invaluable in the<br />
Reut community. “Do we really bring anything<br />
uniquely new to the planet” he reflects. “A lot<br />
of innovative things have been attributed to<br />
me, I don’t know if they’re that innovative.”<br />
Indeed, Aryeh has been at the <strong>for</strong>efront of<br />
many pioneering educational initiatives, like<br />
his leadership at Pelech, the first religiousfeminist<br />
girls’ school in Israel; his work on<br />
peacemaking and conflict resolution in educattion;<br />
on new ways in Holocaust education; as<br />
one of the founders of Meitarim, the “third<br />
stream” of <strong>Jewish</strong>-democratic education in<br />
Israel, under whose banner Reut exists; and<br />
most recently as co-founder of Ometz Hinuchi<br />
(lit, <strong>Education</strong>al Courage), that advocates <strong>for</strong><br />
autonomy <strong>for</strong> school principals – or as Aryeh<br />
says simply, to “let the leaders lead.”<br />
But Aryeh’s outlook is that he is not an innovattor<br />
as much as a listener. “<strong>The</strong> Hasidic perspecttive<br />
of the planet is more one of horadat klipot<br />
– revealing layers – to the extent that if one<br />
can take the layers off, eventually you reach<br />
the source of the kedushah,” he explained. “I<br />
think that I have been committed not only to<br />
action but that I can listen, I’m not afraid to<br />
act upon my intuition, upon things I see… But<br />
even in all these things, there is nothing new<br />
under the sun.” Aryeh believes that the fact<br />
that others consider his work remarkable is<br />
“more as a negative reflection on the system<br />
than as a great testimony to what we’ve done.”<br />
Certainly Aryeh has reason to be critical of the<br />
educational system in Israel. His struggles to<br />
enable free-thinking in the religious system,<br />
as well as the battle to create the Reut school<br />
– which eventually came to the Supreme Court<br />
– often affected him personally. “<strong>The</strong>re have<br />
been many difficult moments,” he recalled.<br />
“When we created the school, many people<br />
within the normative Orthodox community<br />
did not hold me in high regard and that would<br />
be the diplomatic term.” Still, he had a lot of<br />
support from family and friends, including<br />
MK Rabbi Michael Melchior, as well as “role<br />
models in the past who were not exactly<br />
submissive individuals – including my own<br />
mother.”<br />
Despite these battles, Aryeh has no regrets,<br />
and is in fact educating Reut students to<br />
develop this same courage to promote social<br />
change. “I think that significant change asssumes<br />
risk taking, assumes stretching oneself.<br />
It assumes the ability to think and to act out of<br />
the box. In that regard students have to go out<br />
there and they’re out on a limb. <strong>The</strong> benefits<br />
<strong>for</strong> them far outweigh what they will pay...<br />
Graduates and people who emulate the same<br />
kind of risk taking, they pay a price in the preseent.<br />
But in terms of the timelessness of things<br />
and in terms of life, then the benefits <strong>for</strong> them<br />
far exceed whatever price they pay.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> theme of timelessness is especially potent<br />
right now as Aryeh struggles with his fourth<br />
bout of cancer. <strong>The</strong> 52-year old father of three<br />
addressed the school in late November to annnounce<br />
that he was taking a leave as principal.<br />
“He told the kids that in order to fight the<br />
cancer, he can’t be principal and battle <strong>for</strong> his<br />
life at the same time” Dina painfully recalled,<br />
“He talked about the sanctity of life as a suppreme<br />
value, and that’s what he’s going to fight<br />
<strong>for</strong>. But he also said that while he hopes that<br />
he will win his battle, that if God has decreed<br />
otherwise, then that’s okay.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> impact on the school is profound.<br />
Students and staff are sad, subdued, and<br />
according to one parent, visibly depressed.<br />
“It’s so sad, so very, very sad,” 16-year old<br />
Tamir reflected. “We’re like a family, we are his<br />
family.” Many students, and staff, have trouble<br />
even talking about it.<br />
“We are going through a very difficult time<br />
right now,” explained Co-principal Avital – who<br />
considers Aryeh her teacher as well as her<br />
children’s adoptive grandfather. “When Aryeh<br />
is here, it’s great, and when he’s not, there is<br />
a gaping hole. We try to continue the routine<br />
as much as possible, but it’s very hard.” Avital,<br />
like so many others in the Reut community,<br />
feel personally connected to Aryeh, not just as<br />
principal. “I feel like he raised me,” Avital said.<br />
“He made me who I am, professionally and<br />
personally.”<br />
Perhaps most remarkable is that Aryeh, even<br />
through his illness, considers the educational<br />
and spiritual aspects of the situation, always<br />
caring <strong>for</strong> those around him. “For Aryeh, all of<br />
life is a search <strong>for</strong> meaning,” Dina explained,<br />
“and he even uses his illness to teach kids that<br />
that’s what we do.” <strong>The</strong> way Aryeh has used<br />
his illness to teach the kids about spirituality,<br />
concurs Avital “is just huge.”<br />
Aryeh considers himself <strong>for</strong>tunate that he has<br />
had the opportunity to work with the staff and<br />
students through what he euphemistically calls<br />
his “probable departure from the community.”<br />
He says, “I was blessed with an opportunity<br />
that I knew I was ill a few years ago, and it<br />
came upon me in a way that gave me a chance<br />
to do some soul searching and look at how I<br />
wanted to do things, look at issues of continuiity<br />
and separation, talk to people, get advice,<br />
communicate about it. It came about in a way<br />
that I was blessed with the opportunity.”<br />
He describes the process that the staff has<br />
gone through with pride. “I think I’m most<br />
proud of the fact that now, when, in all probaability<br />
I have to leave the community, I know<br />
there will be continuity. I have a co-principal<br />
and an administration and a group of teacheers<br />
and a group of students that all share in<br />
the responsibility and have a pretty good<br />
understanding of what makes a school like this<br />
tick. I feel confident that it’s not centralized<br />
just around one person and that there will be<br />
continuity.”<br />
Aryeh’s characteristic minimizing of his own<br />
presence is also reflected in his description of<br />
the students. “My satisfaction in olam haba,”<br />
he said, “is going to be in what they do, what<br />
kind of families they brought up, when they<br />
get to be my age what kind of parents or<br />
grandparents they are, what have they done.<br />
That will be the reflection of any impact I’ve<br />
had on their lives… <strong>The</strong> legacy is passed down<br />
by actions, not by more words. Whatever I’ve<br />
had to say to them, I’ve done it as time goes<br />
by. I believe more in education through doing<br />
than through verbiage. All I care about is that<br />
they know that I care.”<br />
I asked Aryeh, if he had all the money and all<br />
the time in the world, what would he do, and<br />
he replied, “Probably, knowing me, I would<br />
probably go out into the <strong>for</strong>est somewhere,<br />
have a good daven and ask God what He wants<br />
me to do with it. Or She.” <strong>The</strong> rest of us, in<br />
the meantime, are praying that he gets that<br />
opportunity.<br />
58 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
Elana Maryles Sztokman<br />
“you take almost any issue in the school system in Israel now – certainly violence, underachievement, lack of<br />
motivation – almost all of these have to do with the fact that students are alienated from the schools, they don’t<br />
feel compassion, they don’t feel love, they feel they are in a competitive, utilitarian society, they could care less<br />
about bagrut or any of the other exams.”<br />
kind of person you are, what you do with<br />
your life, not just <strong>for</strong> yourself but <strong>for</strong> other<br />
people. Forcing you to volunteer kind of<br />
defeats the purpose. <strong>Here</strong> you just do it. <strong>The</strong><br />
school just brings out the best in you.”<br />
In the entranceway, 16-year old Tamir is<br />
busy cooking. <strong>The</strong> tall, striking curly-haired<br />
boy has a twinkle in his blue eyes as he<br />
hustles around the makeshift kitchen,<br />
wearing cooking mitts and scooping out<br />
rice into small containers. Tamir is the<br />
co-coordinator of the Hot Meals program,<br />
which provides 160 lunches to poor kids in<br />
the city five days a week, as part of the Reut<br />
Soup Kitchen run by students throughout<br />
the year, including feeding 300 people a<br />
hot supper three times a week. “I love the<br />
school,” he tells me as I try to keep up with<br />
his pace. “It’s a special place that teaches you<br />
how to be a person.” Tamir credits Aryeh<br />
with instilling these ideas in him. “<strong>The</strong> princcipal<br />
here is a legend <strong>for</strong> me. I love him very<br />
much. Whatever he says is holy <strong>for</strong> me.”<br />
At Reut, volunteering and social activism<br />
are part of the rhythm of everyday life. “We<br />
used to get up and talk about this all the<br />
time,” Dina explained, “but now, it just is.<br />
We don’t make anyone volunteer, because<br />
if you are <strong>for</strong>ced, then it’s not volunteering.<br />
<strong>The</strong> kids just run everything, and teachers<br />
volunteer too.”<br />
Perhaps the most legendary program that<br />
emerged from this culture is the Gidonim<br />
program <strong>for</strong> restoring and documenting<br />
Polish cemeteries. A group of twelfth grade<br />
students went on the school’s “Journey of<br />
Remembrance” in October 2003, having<br />
spent two days of the trip cleaning and<br />
starting to document a local <strong>Jewish</strong> cemeetery.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y returned to school profoundly<br />
disturbed: they were upset that they did not<br />
finish the job. So they decided to go back<br />
and spend a few weeks in Poland finishing<br />
the job of cleaning the cemetery and workiing<br />
in other towns.<br />
“We didn’t take them seriously at first,”<br />
Dina recalled. “ After all, who was going to<br />
put off the army or university And who was<br />
going to pay $1,000 <strong>for</strong> another two week<br />
trip in Poland.” But to the surprise – and<br />
enormous pride – of the communities, the<br />
students put off their future plans <strong>for</strong> a few<br />
weeks, worked to raise money, and went<br />
| 59 חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
School Profile: Reut<br />
Similarly, matriculation is neither encouraged nor discouraged. Students<br />
are free to take as many exams as they want, and teachers assist in every<br />
way possible. <strong>The</strong> staff prefers not to use number grades at all because, as<br />
Dina explains, “it is meaningless. What is that number”<br />
back to Poland <strong>for</strong> two weeks the following<br />
summer where they worked day and night<br />
clearing tombstones and recording names<br />
and dates. <strong>The</strong>y even uncovered a mass<br />
grave that had not been discovered.<br />
Since then, groups of staff, students and<br />
graduates have been returning to Poland<br />
every summer to work on the cemeteries.<br />
This program, called the Gidonim program<br />
in memory of those who worked as inside<br />
contacts <strong>for</strong> Jews wishing to immigrate to<br />
Palestine, even has its own database website<br />
– www.gidonim.com – in which people<br />
can search <strong>for</strong> names, tombstones, and<br />
cemetery maps.<br />
“This is an extraordinary act of chesed<br />
– lovingkindness,” Dina maintains, “It’s not<br />
even a humanist act. It’s something that<br />
happens within yourself. <strong>The</strong> kids say they<br />
go not only <strong>for</strong> their families and <strong>for</strong> the<br />
<strong>Jewish</strong> community. <strong>The</strong>y do it because it’s<br />
a spiritual act. This is the type of program<br />
that, <strong>for</strong> those who take part in it, changes<br />
who you are as a person.”<br />
Spirituality as Life<br />
<strong>The</strong> message that comes across perhaps<br />
most powerfully in the school is that spirituaality<br />
is not about praying once a day, but is<br />
woven into every aspect of living life. “When<br />
I see kids working at the soup kitchen, after<br />
a long day of school, staying voluntarily unttil<br />
7 or 8 PM,” Avital recalled, “it’s holiness.<br />
To feel it, to see them, to see their eyes, it’s<br />
moving, it’s spiritual. It’s just holy.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> emphasis here on spirituality as social<br />
awareness is why Reut does not call itself a<br />
school but a community. Individual achievemment<br />
is not valued here – commitment to<br />
the well-being of the whole community is. In<br />
fact, there are no academic criteria <strong>for</strong> accepttance,<br />
only that applicants have ideological<br />
agreement with the Reut community. “It’s<br />
not about how you do on math, it’s about,<br />
are you a mentsch Do you feel responsibiliity<br />
<strong>for</strong> the world around you”<br />
Similarly, matriculation is neither encouraaged<br />
nor discouraged. Students are free<br />
to take as many exams as they want, and<br />
teachers assist in every way possible. <strong>The</strong><br />
staff prefers not to use number grades at all<br />
because, as Dina explains, “it is meaningless.<br />
What is that number” But the students<br />
won that debate and so there are number<br />
grades. But even those are not significant.<br />
As Debbie, the music and Spanish teacher,<br />
said, “<strong>The</strong> place gives me freedom to create<br />
and to thrive.” It’s not about academic<br />
achievement or individual success but rather<br />
about seeing human growth in terms of care<br />
and responsibility <strong>for</strong> the other. It’s the idea<br />
of school life as part of a spiritual journey.<br />
As a sign on one of the teacher’s lockers<br />
reads, Ani betahalikh – “I am in process”.<br />
All aspects of life at the Reut community<br />
reflect this idea that spirituality is about<br />
seeing life as this journey – adults and kids<br />
alike. Spirituality is not only about praying,<br />
but is woven into every aspect of living<br />
life. “Spirituality doesn’t only have to do<br />
with prayer, but is about doing Torah,” Dina<br />
argues. “Spirituality can happen in a learniing<br />
experience, in a discussion, or in going<br />
out and feeding the poor. Spirituality means<br />
being touched, making your life meaningful,<br />
changing the world. When a kid works at<br />
the soup kitchen, it’s an act of Torah.” Kids<br />
see everything ranging from <strong>The</strong> Ma’aser<br />
Program to singing in a Polish cemetery as<br />
spiritual acts. Spirituality is in the day-today<br />
acts of human encounter.<br />
“This school is not about a job – it’s a whole<br />
ideology, a whole way of life” Dina said.<br />
“People give extra all along, they come at 7<br />
AM and don’t leave the building at night.<br />
<strong>The</strong> school attracts people who want that,<br />
who are willing and interested in growing.<br />
Teaching here is not easy – it challenges<br />
you.”<br />
According to Dina, staffers work hard on<br />
themselves and on the students, to enable<br />
the school to be a safe place <strong>for</strong> personal,<br />
spiritual, emotional processing.<br />
“I think most of our graduates are fairly well<br />
grounded in good mental health,” Aryeh<br />
believes. “I think there are many excellent<br />
schools, some of which I’ve been a part<br />
of, that stress academic excellence and<br />
pursuits and many things that the adult<br />
society expects of students in a competitive<br />
society, and leave by the side other aspects<br />
of growing up, such as being well balanced<br />
and having healthy, good mental health. At<br />
this school we’re very committed to a more<br />
holistic approach. We’re not threatened if<br />
kids act out. We would rather deal with the<br />
issues and not leave them <strong>for</strong> later when<br />
they’re in the army or building a family, etc.<br />
I think <strong>for</strong> that reason, graduates who finish<br />
here by and large are happy and healthy<br />
individuals.”<br />
But this is not easy, and it requires constant<br />
attention and work. “We are trying to create<br />
a utopian world in which everyone loves<br />
each other and cares about each other. And<br />
we had to work through how you do that,<br />
how do you teach Bible, and how do you do<br />
prayer, and how do we create a school where<br />
a religious family feels com<strong>for</strong>table and a<br />
secular family will feel com<strong>for</strong>table” Dina<br />
asked.<br />
<strong>The</strong> results of this hard work are indeed imppressive.<br />
As one recent graduate said, “<strong>The</strong><br />
school brought out the best in me, because<br />
it emphasizes what kind of person you<br />
are, what you do with your life, not just <strong>for</strong><br />
yourself but <strong>for</strong> other people. I still got good<br />
grades, it wasn’t one or the other, but it’s<br />
about what your priorities are as a person.”<br />
Another recent graduate concurred, “I left<br />
the school knowing that I have the power to<br />
change the world.”<br />
60 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
| 61 חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
Web Abstracts<br />
Web Abstracts<br />
<strong>The</strong>se web exclusive articles can be viewed at www. lookstein.org/journal<br />
<strong>The</strong> Experience of<br />
the Synagogue in the<br />
Development of Spirituality<br />
among Orthodox<br />
Preschoolers<br />
David Brody<br />
David Brody explores pre-schoolers to<br />
explore the role synagogue plays in their<br />
spiritual growth and the role it plays in their<br />
lives. Beginning with the premise that young<br />
children are spiritual beings, he interviewed<br />
20 five and six year olds chosen randomly<br />
from three governmentally affiliated<br />
religious school kindergartens. Putting the<br />
data gathered into four categories, cognitive<br />
mapping of the synagogue, making sense<br />
of the partitions, playing in a non-play<br />
environment and generating significance<br />
from pray, Brody shares the children’s<br />
comments and makes recommendations <strong>for</strong><br />
the community to improve the synagogue<br />
experience <strong>for</strong> children in this age group.<br />
Prayer Options and Prayer<br />
<strong>Education</strong> in Pluralistic<br />
<strong>Jewish</strong> High Schools:<br />
Balancing education,<br />
socialization, and spirituality<br />
Daniel N. Finkel<br />
Daniel Finkel conducts a pilot research on<br />
three pluralistic <strong>Jewish</strong> high schools to find<br />
out the challenges they face in regard to<br />
tefillah with a diverse population, how they<br />
deal with them, and how these issues relate<br />
to challenges in other areas of education in<br />
their schools. Conducting interviews with<br />
students, teachers involved in tefillah and<br />
school heads, he examined tefillah issues<br />
shared by most pluralist high schools as well<br />
as ones unique to particular institutions and<br />
their cultures.<br />
Spirituality in the<br />
Community School<br />
Gary Levine<br />
Gary Levine asks how the community<br />
school, in which not all of the students<br />
equate spirituality with God, may develop a<br />
meaningful spiritual experience/worldview<br />
<strong>for</strong> its students which is both <strong>Jewish</strong><br />
and relevant to their view of the world.<br />
Levine defines spirituality in a way which<br />
is appropriate <strong>for</strong> the community school<br />
and draws implications from the definition<br />
regarding guiding principles emerging<br />
from it. Those principle help provide a<br />
framework <strong>for</strong> the development of <strong>Jewish</strong><br />
spirituality that is truly pluralistic, with a<br />
focus on experiential programs, professional<br />
development and a unified school vision as<br />
key factors in making spirituality the central<br />
focus of life in the school.<br />
Panoptical Prayer and other<br />
Practices:<br />
Rethinking religious girls’<br />
education through tefillah<br />
Elana Maryles Sztokman<br />
In Orthodox services, males have<br />
legal ownership of communal tefillah,<br />
relegating the women to a status of passive<br />
participants. In high school settings, that<br />
passive role often leaves girls disengaged<br />
and takes on a particularly negative role<br />
as their skirt and sleeve lengths often<br />
become the object of daily teacher checks.<br />
With tefillah as mandatory, the experience<br />
does little to enhance spirituality. <strong>The</strong><br />
combination of passivity, gaze and coercion<br />
stand in the way of girls finding meaning in<br />
school tefillah. Sztokman suggests several<br />
implications <strong>for</strong> creating a school prayer<br />
service that the girls own.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Spiritual Development<br />
of Modern Orthodox High<br />
School Girls<br />
Shira Weiss<br />
Shira Weiss interviews female Orthodox<br />
high school students to find out what moves<br />
them spiritually. She identifies five areas –<br />
tragedy, Israel, music, in<strong>for</strong>mal educational<br />
experiences and music, and examines each<br />
in greater detail, with implications <strong>for</strong> day<br />
schools and their educational programming.<br />
62 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
<strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership<br />
Call <strong>for</strong> Papers<br />
<strong>Jewish</strong> <strong>Education</strong>al Leadership is seeking original articles <strong>for</strong> upcomiing<br />
issues on the following topics:<br />
At-Risk Youth in the <strong>Jewish</strong> Community – Fall 2007<br />
We still have room in this issue <strong>for</strong> articles that cover a broad specttrum<br />
of issues around at-risk <strong>Jewish</strong> youth such as:<br />
· at-risk behaviors including alcohol and substance abuse, smoking,<br />
violence, abuse, drop-out, eating disorders, self-mutilation, gambling,<br />
sexuality issues<br />
· recognizing signs that a family may be at-risk<br />
· educational applications<br />
· school roles, community networks, early intervention; successful<br />
programs and models<br />
· research on connections between at-risk behavior and learning and<br />
assessment; at-risk behavior and religious identity<br />
· the role of the family such as latchkey children, divorce, and complex<br />
family structures<br />
· research on gender and at-risk behavior<br />
· challenges specific to the <strong>Jewish</strong> community and <strong>Jewish</strong> education<br />
Deadline extended to May 15.<br />
Gender Issues in <strong>Jewish</strong> <strong>Education</strong> – Spring 2008<br />
While research on gender in education over the past two decades<br />
has produced a plethora of findings, the research has barely begun<br />
to scratch the surface of <strong>Jewish</strong> educational contexts which place a<br />
strong focus on meanings of “<strong>Jewish</strong> boy” and “<strong>Jewish</strong> girl”. In this<br />
issue, we seek papers that explore gender issues in <strong>Jewish</strong> education<br />
in the following areas:<br />
· Gender inequality in <strong>Jewish</strong> education<br />
· Gender messages in the classroom, in books and curricula, in the<br />
overall school culture<br />
· Body issues and <strong>Jewish</strong> education<br />
· <strong>The</strong> single-sex versus coeducational debate in <strong>Jewish</strong> education<br />
· Girls in math, science and technology, and sports<br />
· Boys, books, and the arts<br />
· Gender and school violence<br />
· School leadership, career advancement, and gender<br />
· Gender, culture and language<br />
· Religious practice and gender in <strong>Jewish</strong> education<br />
· Messages <strong>for</strong> life being communicated by <strong>Jewish</strong> educators<br />
Deadline: October 15.<br />
| 63 חורף תשס”ז Volume 5:2 Winter 2007
Perspectives on <strong>Jewish</strong> <strong>Education</strong><br />
Searching <strong>for</strong><br />
Spirituality in<br />
<strong>Education</strong><br />
Saul J. Berman<br />
Whether we consider the search <strong>for</strong> spirittuality<br />
in education as valuable depends<br />
almost entirely on how we understand<br />
the word “spirituality.” So, let me begin by<br />
discussing what I mean by that term. I use<br />
the term “spiritual” to refer to one or more<br />
of the following: the experience of the preseence<br />
of God, the understanding of God’s<br />
will in the world, and/or the actualization<br />
of God’s values. “Spirituality” is the state of<br />
consciousness of those elements of reality.<br />
Thus, when I say that the doing of a mitzvah<br />
is a “spiritual” experience, what I mean is<br />
that the per<strong>for</strong>mance of that religious act is<br />
a tool through which the individual either<br />
feels the presence of God in his or her life,<br />
or gains an understanding of what Divine<br />
virtue God desires to have achieved through<br />
that particular behavior, or has an experieence<br />
of the actualization of a Godly value<br />
in his or her own life. This consciousness is<br />
what some refer to as kavannah.<br />
Hazal considered it essential that such<br />
consciousness accompany the per<strong>for</strong>mance<br />
of mitzvot. While they did not require the<br />
repetition of behavioral mitzvot if one failed<br />
to have the appropriate kavannah at the<br />
moment of per<strong>for</strong>mance, that was only a<br />
bidi’avad, a post facto standard. Lekhathilah,<br />
ideally, kavannah was necessary in<br />
the per<strong>for</strong>mance of every mitzvah. In fact,<br />
the Sages did require such<br />
repetition when the lack of<br />
kavannah was in relation to<br />
a mitzvah achieved entirely<br />
through spoken words.<br />
With this, we can undersstand<br />
why the Great Asssembly<br />
under the leadership<br />
of Ezra composed berakhot<br />
prior to the per<strong>for</strong>mance of mitzvot. <strong>The</strong><br />
function of the berakhah was to assure<br />
that the person would be conscious of the<br />
presence of God or of God’s virtues and<br />
values during the mitzvah act. This may also<br />
explain why they felt no need to compose<br />
berakhot in regard to mitzvot in which the<br />
act bore its own meaning – in which the<br />
inherent value was obvious, such as in the<br />
cases of the giving of tzedakah or of visiting<br />
the sick.<br />
We live, and serve as educators, in an era<br />
in which the life of mitzvot is no longer the<br />
simple and common cultural inheritance<br />
of every Jew. Association with the <strong>Jewish</strong><br />
people, with Judaism, and with the perf<strong>for</strong>mance<br />
of mitzvot, are choices which are<br />
consciously made, not made or unmade. It is<br />
there<strong>for</strong>e the distinctive challenge of <strong>Jewish</strong><br />
educators in this era to educate persuasively<br />
– to invest the process of study with such<br />
manifest meaning as to lead the student,<br />
youth or adult, to cherish the opportunity<br />
<strong>for</strong> <strong>Jewish</strong> and religious engagement. One<br />
essential tool available to us in this endeavor<br />
is that of spirituality.<br />
Maimonides, in <strong>The</strong> Guide to the Perplexed<br />
(III: 27), offers a foundational contention<br />
– that every one of the mitzvot has some<br />
human purpose. He argues that all of the<br />
purposes fall into one or more of three<br />
basic categories. First, they teach truth and<br />
thereby enable people to avoid the belief in<br />
falsehood which is detrimental to the very<br />
Rabbi Saul J. Berman is Director of Continuing Rabbinic <strong>Education</strong> at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah.<br />
He also teaches <strong>Jewish</strong> Law at Stern College and Columbia University School of Law.<br />
essence of the human person. Second, they<br />
serve to refine the human personality, help<br />
us to integrate noble virtues and to avoid<br />
the learning of ignoble and degraded perssonality<br />
qualities. Third, Rambam contends,<br />
mitzvot provide us with understanding of<br />
the social values which make <strong>for</strong> the develoopment<br />
of a just social order, and enable us<br />
to avoid injustice and societal disorder.<br />
Ought we not teach all <strong>Jewish</strong> texts and all<br />
<strong>Jewish</strong> experiences from the perspective of<br />
this Maimonidean position! <strong>The</strong> impact of<br />
doing so would be to produce an extraordinnary<br />
level of spirituality in every aspect of<br />
<strong>Jewish</strong> education – a deep consciousness of<br />
the presence of God, of the Divine virtues<br />
and of Torah’s social values.<br />
We may not be able to directly cultivate<br />
the experience of God’s presence in our<br />
classrooms, but we could shape them as safe<br />
places in which people could talk about the<br />
experience of God, could engage in God talk,<br />
without embarrassment and without the<br />
fear of ridicule. We could certainly explore<br />
all texts, and all <strong>Jewish</strong> experiences which<br />
we provide in educational settings, from<br />
the perspective of what they reveal about<br />
human virtues which we aspire to achieve.<br />
And we could benefit from a more proffound<br />
awareness that God desired not only<br />
personal improvement, but the <strong>for</strong>mation of<br />
an ideal society in which social justice is the<br />
religious foundation of the social order.<br />
This latter awareness, the shared aspiration<br />
of the <strong>Jewish</strong> people <strong>for</strong> the shaping of the<br />
State of Israel as the embodiment of <strong>Jewish</strong><br />
values of justice, mercy and mutual responssibility,<br />
is the way in which the study and<br />
experience of Israel could be made part of<br />
the spiritual experience of <strong>Jewish</strong> education.<br />
In this most challenging era, <strong>Jewish</strong> educattion<br />
is charting the path towards <strong>Jewish</strong><br />
survival and <strong>Jewish</strong> renaissance. Another<br />
powerful tool to enhance that progress is<br />
unfolding itself as we engage in an intense<br />
search <strong>for</strong> the proper use of spirituality in<br />
<strong>Jewish</strong> education.<br />
64 | <strong>Jewish</strong><strong>Education</strong>alLeadership
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