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WHO IS AN EDUCATED JEW?A historical perspective on the Jewish canon, andreflections on what today’s learned Jews need to knowPaula Hyman • Reprinted with permission from Sh’ma: A Journal of Jewish Responsibility (http://www.shma.com) Feb., 2002.Paula E. Hyman is Lucy MosesProfessor of Modern Jewish Historyat Yale University.Hebrew is an essential toolfor reading much of whatJewish culture has produced.But it is more than a tool.Without Hebrew there is novisceral, as distinct fromintellectual, connection toJewish creativity across timeand space.There has been no consensus on the issue of “Who is an educatedJew?” for more than two hundred years. If one were to have posed thequestion in 1750, say in Poland, the answer would have been obvious.The educated Jew was a mature male who had devoted his life totalmudic study, debating fine points of halakhah (Jewish law) inyeshivah (a school for rabbinical studies) and the beit midrash (house ofstudy). He was familiar with all of the classic rabbinic texts and theircommentaries, the rishonim and the aharonim [earlier and later commentators],and the languages in which they were written—Hebrewand Aramaic—in addition to the Jewish vernacular that he spoke (inPoland, Yiddish, of course).No women were given such an education, because the teaching ofclassical religious texts in Hebrew to women was neither halakhicallynor socially legitimated; it was also irrelevant to their roles within thefamily and society. While regional variations in learning styles and inthe details of the curriculum existed, the substance of what educatedJews should know was widely shared in the Jewish world.P A G E 26 • C O N T I N U I T Y M A G A Z I N E
The Influence of theEnlightenmentThat shared commitment to a curriculum,and therefore to a vision of Jewish knowledge,was irretrievably disrupted with thesocial and political changes that occurredat the end of the eighteenth century. TheWestern states’ desire to reshape the socioeconomicand cultural configuration oftheir Jewish populations, and the emergenceof a cohort of Jewish intellectualsand businessmen who were eager to respondto the opportunities that integrationinto the larger society seemed to promise,led to a sharp dissent from the consensusabout Jewish learning that had prevailed, atleast within Ashkenazi communities in Europe.For a growing number of Jews, thetalmid hokhem [as described above] was nolonger the model of the educated Jew. Instead,modernizing educated Jews, followingthe model set by the maskilim[advocates of the Jewish enlightenment]saw Western culture as an essential componentof their consciousness and createda canon that placed secular education atthe fore. They expected educated Jews tobe at home culturally in both traditionalJewish and secular learning.A good example is the scarcely knownPuah Rakovsky, who was an educator anddirector of a girls’ school in Warsaw thattaught Hebrew and secular studies, atranslator, and a Zionist and feminist activist.Born in Poland in 1865 to a traditionalfamily, she lost her faith as anadolescent and was assertively secular.Still, her Yiddish memoirs are replete withallusions in Hebrew to biblical andmidrashic sources, and she was convincedthat her Jewish learning was the source ofher values. Because she witnessed growingindifference to Jewish culture among youthin the years before World War I, Rakovskywas able to discern that the goal of modernJewish education had to be transformedfrom the “regeneration” of Jews under theinfluence of secular knowledge to the “rejudaization”of Jews bereft of Jewish knowledge.Modernity and the Fluidity ofthe Jewish CanonModernity fractured Jewish experience, destroyingthe hegemony of rabbinic Judaismand the authority of traditional Jewishelites. Contemporary currents of thoughtlike postmodernism and multiculturalismhave challenged virtually all certainties andshaken all canons. No canon is fixed, andall guardians of cultural transmission arerequired to make hard choices.We are fortunate that the Jewish canon hasalways been a relatively open one, for thetraditional Jewish system of interpretationof classical texts has provided a mechanismfor ongoing revision. The developmentof interpretive strategies, in midrash, forexample, as literary scholars have argued,demonstrates a way to recover oppositionalstrands within traditional texts.Insofar as we focus on the spaces for debateand contestation within the traditionalJewish canon, we acknowledge the needfor, and sustain the possibility of, multiplecultural expressions for the diverse peoplethat we are. Although the term “opencanon” sounds like an oxymoron, it simplyreflects the recognition that every canon isconstructed and merits a healthy combinationof respect and skepticism and regularrevision if it is to speak to its intended audience.A truly “open canon” affords opportunitiesfor choice and for the inclusion ofongoing cultural creativity.What Will Educated JewsShare?Once we acknowledge that unity is neitherpossible nor desirable, though, we mustask what models of educated Jews we seekto promote. What, if anything, will educatedJews of different paideias (educationalvisions and curricula in the broadestsense) share?I can think of three prerequisites—necessarybut not sufficient—for all educatedJews: the Hebrew language (in all its variants,from the Bible to the present—notjust street Hebrew); an acceptance of biblicaland rabbinic texts as one’s own; and ageneral knowledge of Jewish history. Hebrewis an essential tool for reading muchof what Jewish culture has produced. But itis more than a tool. Without Hebrew thereis no visceral, as distinct from intellectual,connection to Jewish creativity across timeand space.Accepting Tanakh [the Hebrew Bible] andrabbinic texts as one’s own does not necessitateascribing to them sacredness or religiousauthority. But it does necessitategrappling with their meaning and their rolein world culture as well as Jewish cultureand in the choices that contemporary Jewsmake. The knowledge of the broad outlinesof Jewish history enables us to understandthe societal and intellectual contexts inwhich Jewish culture has developed.Accepting this core curriculum is only thefirst step in becoming Jewishly educated.An open Jewish canon in the twenty-firstcentury draws upon a variety of voices andgenres. It must embrace all the Jewish culturalproducts of the past two centuries—that is, the different forms that Jews havechosen to make meaning of their existenceas Jews. Secular forms in many languages—includingliterature, memoirs,folklore, film, and the visual arts-are toooften dismissed as lacking in cultural significance.What I am suggesting, then, is that educatedJews would share a core curriculumof Hebrew language, foundational texts,and knowledge of historical development.They would then follow a multipletrackmodel of curriculum development, choosing,according to their own interests, froma far broader range of cultural expressionthan is commonly considered “Jewishknowledge.” Although biblical and rabbinictexts would define a core of Jewish knowledge,further learning would not privilegeany single genre of cultural production orany single text.A P U B L I C A T I O N O F Y I T Z H A K R A B I N H I G H S C H O O L“ A L i f e t i m e o f L e a r n i n g ” • P A G E 27
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