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This article recovers a Jewish and Christian tradition about King Hezekiah as a censor and gatekeeper of scriptural texts. While modern scholarship often assumes that "traditional" interpreters had an ahistorical approach to the Bible, a thread of speculation about Hezekiah's role in canon formation reveals that ancient readers were aware that their texts had a history: theories about their transmission were themselves a kind of biblical interpretation. This cluster of traditions rests on two aspects of Hezekiah's portrayal in the Bible-the transmission of proverbs in his court (Prov 25:1) and Hezekiah as an anti-idolater (2 Kings)-which intertwine to refashion him as a curator of public knowledge who distinguishes between texts to be transmitted and texts to be suppressed. The motif has been overlooked because it exists largely in marginal references, but the data reveal a shared discourse about how the Bible emerged as a result of suppression and selection from a later body of revelation. Recovering this tradition challenges the sharp distinction between "traditional" and "historicalcritical" approaches, which also speculate about Hezekiah's role in the Bible's origins. It also reveals a type of biblical interpretation that is unthreatened by the idea that Scripture developed over time-instead, speculation about the textual history of the Bible becomes another mode of animating biblical characters and episodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key thread of research on how lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) persons of faith navigate and make sense of gender and sexual identities and desires that defy their religious traditions' teachings focuses on identity conflict, management, negotiation, and reconciliation. Drawing on interviews with 64 Orthodox Jewish same‐sex attracted persons in Israel, supplemented by physical and digital ethnographic data, I argue that the conflict frame is empirically imprecise and conceptually flawed. I demonstrate fluidity and ambivalence vis‐à‐vis religiosity and sexual identity and argue that ambivalence is generative: In the process of making sense of their sexual and religious selves, my respondents challenge what it means to be Orthodox and what it means to be same‐sex attracted, thereby challenging the conflict frame's categorical schema. I then make the case for a more contextualized and dynamic framework for theorizing LGBT negotiations of religious and sexual identities. I also observe that the limitations of the conflict lens are symptomatic of broader tendencies in the sociology of religion to rely on U.S. and Christian cases and a pattern of limited engagement with work in other disciplines and subdisciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study explores the origins of Jewish ritual immersion - inquiring when immersion first appeared as a rite of purification and what the reasons may have been for this development specifically at this time. Textual and archaeological evidence suggest that immersion emerged at some point during - or perhaps slightly prior to - the first half of the first century BCE. It is suggested here that the practice grew out of contemporary bathing practices involving the Hellenistic hip bath. Through a process of ritualization, full-body immersion emerged as a method of purificatory washing clearly differentiated from profane bathing. By way of a subsequent process of 'hyper-ritualization', some ventured further to distinguish purificatory ablutions from profane bathing by restricting use of 'drawn water' for purification and by assigning impurity to anyone who bathed in such water. Before us is an enlightening example of one of the many ways wherein Jewish religious practices evolved and adapted in response to Hellenistic cultural innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I deal with the concept of truth and lie in Jewish traditional literature, examining its development in the Hebrew Bible and rabbinic literature. An essential aspect in understanding this concept is the dualism of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ impulses and the free will of human beings, who were created in the image of God and have the choice to decide between right and wrong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines experience as a method of engaging Jewishness in Poland. It offers information on the Polin Museum of the History of Jews which opened in 2015 to produce experiences of Jewish Poland including cultural festivals. Also discussed are tourist attractions related to Polish Jews, the building that housed the Torah study group Yeshiva Chachmei Lublin, and exhibits at the Polin museum.

Beginning in 1997, the Har Hamor Yeshiva, a leading Jerusalem-based institute for Torah learning, has become the center of a unique stream of thought in religious Zionist philosophy. This article examines how religious Zionist yeshivas have developed an educational curriculum that translates theological beliefs and values into political action. The article seeks to evaluate to what extent this ideology and curriculum will be able to survive in a political reality in which the rift between religious and secular Zionism is constantly increasing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article sets up a dialogue betweenauto-referential (looking to self) andallo-referential (looking to the other) approaches to religious difference and applies these to education for inter religious understanding in Jewish schools. It begins by arguing that the multiculturalism of the 1980s and 1990s set up a duality of self and other, with the responsibility for looking to ‘the other’ (allo-reference) resting largely on the majority community and the licence to look to self (auto-reference) being given to minority communities.Within the Jewish community, multiculturalism supported and legitimated the development of an inward-looking Jewish identity-based education. This was challenged in the 2000s however by the new outward-looking emphases of the community cohesion agenda, and so Jewish schools have had to negotiate a place for themselves betweenauto- andallo-reference. Brief case studies illustrate contrasting ways in which two schools have positioned themselves in relation to these two poles. In School A, the imperative towards ‘the other’ attempts an openness to ‘the other’ in ‘the other’s’ own terms, whereas in School B the same imperative towards ‘the other’ is framed within theauto-referential framework ofbeing and doingJewish. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study seeks to analyse the components that contribute to Special Religious Education (SRE) classes in government schools in Australia being considered as a ‘safe place’ and the ways in which they facilitate an understanding of the students’ own religious and cultural identity. Our research focuses on one of the small faiths, Judaism, as a case study through observation of the Jewish SRE/SRI classes in the two largest Jewish population centres, Sydney and Melbourne. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 90 participants, and classroom observations were undertaken in both cities. This paper draws on Kymlicka’s concept of the rights of minority groups in a liberal society and discusses the distinction between thin and thick multiculturalism. Our findings show that the Jewish SRE teachers implemented Jackson’s interpretive approach, ensuring that the students’ educational experience is meaningful. As a result, they are able to develop their unique identity capital, which is important in a multifaith society to ensure ‘thick’ multiculturalism. Our argument is that students need to have an understanding of their own particularistic identity, as well as learning to respect other religions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Michel de Montaigne’s L’art de Conférer offers a moral groundwork for students’ learning ofhavruta, a traditional Jewish form of studying in pairs, based on collaborative critical text-based learning, that can be applied to students everywhere. The article attends to the nature of havruta learning and to cultural norms that make it difficult for students to become open to their partners’ opposing ideas. Students’ critical discussion of Montaigne’s essay is then conceptualized as a pedagogical tool for cultivating the welcoming of opposing viewpoints and opening their own ideas to critical scrutiny in text- and discussion-based learning. I draw on Wolfgang Iser’s theory of reading as bringing the reader into deeper self-consciousness and calling into question implicit beliefs about the role of opposing ideas. The article provides an analysis of Montaigne’s ideas and includes study questions to help students adopt a more constructive attitude toward opposing views and expand their understanding of the role of the confrontation of ideas in learning discussions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper will discuss three new methods of teaching Talmud that Israeli Religious Zionist Yeshivas have adopted over the past two decades against the backdrop of the hitherto and perhaps still dominant approach to teaching Talmud in these Yeshivas, namely, the classical conceptual, ahistorical, highly abstract “Brisker” approach: (1) a modified Brisker approach; (2) the “Torat Eretz Yisrael,” “the Torah of the Land of Israel” approach; and (3) what I would call the “shiluv” approach, a term that implies forming a new and harmonious whole. What these three approaches have in common is the desire to retain the conceptual analysis of the Brisker approach, but to abandon its strict formalism and combine it with the search for religious meaning and significance. However, while the first two approaches in their search for the religious significance of the text generally eschew the use of the critical methodologies employed by academic Talmudic scholarship, the third approach embraces the use of those methodologies and seeks to integrate them into the world of traditional Talmud study. I will focus on the theological challenges raised by this attempted integration and on how the exponents of the “shiluv” approach have sought to deal with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From a modern point of view, the mixture of Hellenism and Judaism in Sibylline Oracles 3 might appear paradoxical, but not so for the author. It is possible to analyze Jewish religious identity and Hellenization in the Third Sibyl with precision utilizing Ninian Smart's seven marks of religion. In most respects the sibyllist synthesizes the two cultural contexts easily, but the Jerusalem cult is normative for all, and certain Jewish ethics and rituals are prioritized. This helps us understand not only Sibylline Oracles 3 better, but also Second Temple Judaism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review shows that Jewish understanding of the nature of the obligation to educate a child to observe the commandments has changed over time and should not be regarded as fixed or absolute. Early Tannaitic halakhah focused on the age at which the child possessed the physical ability to perform the commandments, not specifically twelve for a girl or thirteen for a boy. Education was directed at encouraging the child to observe the commandment as soon as he or she was physically capable of doing so. Additionally, early law understood that every Jew must ensure that his fellow-Jew perform the commandments, not just the child's parents. In later law, the child's obligation was postponed to thirteen, and, in this setting, the obligation to educate a child under that age was interpreted as a distinct commandment intended to ensure that the child became accustomed to doing so. This obligation now specifically applied to the father and not to every Jew (and even not to the mother), and it was interpreted as separate from the general responsibility of a Jew towards his fellow-Jew. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discuses the need to organize a core curriculum in Jewish religious education in North America and elsewhere. It notes that Jewish students studying in public schools elsewhere may study Judaism in after-school or Sunday school programs, or they may learn at home from their family's practices. The author suggests that a core curriculum must be built around acquiring the knowledge that enables Jews to live the Jewish year and to observe life cycle events.

During the 1990s, Jewish communal leaders in Britain reached a consensus that Jewish education, in the broadest sense, was the principal means of strengthening Jewish identity and securing Jewish continuity. This belief motivated considerable investment in communal intervention programs such as Jewish schools, Israel experience trips, and youth movements. Twenty years on, it is pertinent to ask whether, and to what extent, this intervention has worked. The Institute for Jewish Policy Research's (JPR) 2011 National Jewish Student Survey contains data on over 900 Jewish students in Britain and presents an opportunity to empirically assess the impact such intervention programs may have had on respondents' Jewish identity by comparing those who have experienced them with those who have not. Regression analysis is used to test the theory based on a set of six dimensions of Jewish identity generated using principal component analysis. The results show that after controlling for the substantial effects of Jewish upbringing, intervention has collectively had a positive impact on all aspects of Jewish identity examined. The effects are greatest on behavioral and mental aspects of socio-religious identity; they are far weaker at strengthening student community engagement, ethnocentricity, and Jewish values. Further, the most important intervention programs were found to be yeshiva and a gap year in Israel. Both youth movement involvement and Jewish schooling had positive but rather limited effects on Jewish identity, and short-stay Israel tours had no positive measurable effects at all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this research is to investigate the intergenerational changes that have occurred in Australian Jewish day schools and the challenges these pose for religious and Jewish education. Using a grounded theory approach according to the constant comparative method (Strauss 1987), data from three sources (interviews [296], observations [27], and documents) were analyzed, thus enabling triangulation. Findings show that there is an incongruity between what the adult community defines as the central components of Jewish and religious identity, which are more particularistic, and the perspectives of Jewish youth, which are more universalistic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medem Sanatorium in Miedzeszyn was one of the most famous establishments of TSYSHO, the Central Yiddish School Organization, in interwar Poland. Although not officially associated with the Bund, it unofficially promoted Bundist ideals through its teaching staff. This article aims to examine the educational methods of Medem Sanatorium in Miedzeszyn. Medem served as a central space for Bundist ideology, attracting such figures as Polish radical socialist Wanda Wasilewska, and hosting, among others, a young Marek Edelman, the future leader of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Showing the activities and struggles of the institution the author touches different problems of the Polish interwar period: the entanglement of Bundist ideology, everyday life, religious practices, and, last but not least, politics towards Yiddish. Ultimately, the author underlines that the Medem Sanatorium was a part of a broader action concentrated on creating a new secular Jewish culture. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents information on the main resources in Jewish religious education literature. Jewish education literature focuses on a dynamism that covers a broad terrain. Reference to several books testify the seriousness and thoroughness with which Jewish education scholars studied, discussed, and collaborated on various subjects that is of central significance to Jewish education.

The article presents the author's views on the meaning of the word shefi, which can be found in the book of Numbers, chapter 23, verse 3. He states that the word did not appear again in the Bible in the same construct, however it appears plenty of times in its plural form. He adds that Number 23:3 has been interpreted numerous times with different meanings, however there is no clear agreement concerning its exact meaning.

Two mid-nineteenth-century American Jewish Sunday-school textbooks-Mrs. Eliezer [Rachel Peixotto] Pyke's Scriptural Questions for the Use of Sunday Schools for the Instruction of Israelites (1843) and Simha C. Peixotto's Elementary Introduction to the Scriptures for the Use of Hebrew Children (1840)-shed important light on the relationship between Jews and the dominant Christian (largely Protestant) culture that surrounded them. A comparison of these books with the Protestant Sunday-school texts upon which they drew serves as a revealing case study of cultural borrowing and cultural resistance between minority and majority faiths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A report is presented from a November 5-7, 2012 conference in Frankfurt am Main, Germany on cultural transfer in Ashkenazi Judaism. Topics of discussion included diaspora communities among expelled 14th-century French Jews, rabbinical study in the 13th century, and transfer of cultural norms between Medieval Jewish and Christian cultures.

The article offers the author's insights regarding the importance of participating in the Jewish conversation towards covenant task performance. The author says that the Jewish community will tap the latest technology to link its members and segments to daily conversation and learning. He mentions that living in a Jewish world means socialization and acculturation in the community affairs. He suggests that Jewish education quality must be maintained and improved.

The article discusses the value of Dharma teachings of innate loving-kindness, compassion and wisdom, which fulfills Judaism. It cites the author's experience in pursuing a path that includes practices from the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism and living his life within the traditional Jewish settings. The author asserts that Jewish practices agree with the core teachings of Judaism that require a person's active commitment to improve the human condition.

Particularism, universalism, and realism are core components of modern Jewish advocacy for international religious freedom and other human rights. The most prominent and successful particularist Jewish advocacy movement was the push for Jews to be allowed to depart from the Soviet Union. Jewish advocates have supported efforts that guarantee universal human rights through bodies like the OSCE and the United Nations, and they have spoken out against the “defamation of religions” resolutions. In the United States, Jewish leaders contributed to the success of the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) and to the activities of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses Lithuanian Haredi yeshivas, Ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious seminaries attended by many males of the Haredi tradition, in Israel, focusing on the tension between equality and excellence as goals of education. Topics noted include the history of the yeshiva model in Eastern Europe, the notion of the yeshiva as a World of Torah, and Haredi fears that students will drop out of yeshivas under the influence of secular culture.

Adult Jewish education has a long, storied history. Jewish synagogues offer a variety of programs and classes to assist adults in learning about Judaism. Jewish women are active participants in adult Jewish education. This chapter explores Reform Jewish women's participation in adult Jewish education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In comparison to the expected outcome of the long lasting suppression and persecution, Jews during centuries demonstrated the relative resistance to stress, learned helplessness and depression. This article suggests that this resistance may be related to the peculiarity of the traditional Jewish religious education that stimulates intellectual search activity as well as right-hemispheric polysemantic thinking in equilibrium with the left hemispheric verbal thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus on Jewish continuity has shifted in the last two decades, from concern with anti-semitism to anxiety over the threat of assimilation and, in particular, intermarriage. Scholars concur that the intermarriage rate has risen to about 50 percent but disagree about the significance of the phenomenon. Those in the outreach camp hold that little can be done to lower the rate of intermarriage and, instead, want the community to promote efforts to integrate non-Jewish spouses into the Jewish community. Those in the inreach camp, in contrast, hold that little can be done to increase the propensity of intermarried parents to raise Jewish children and instead promote efforts to encourage inmarriage and conversion. This paper examines the impact of Taglit-Birthright Israel (Taglit), a program that sends Diaspora Jewish young adults on fully subsidized educational tours of Israel, on intermarriage, conversion, and attitudes toward raising children as Jews. Drawing on several surveys of Taglit applicants, including participants and control groups of applicants who did not participate, the study isolates Taglit's impact and compares Taglit's influence to other educational interventions and background characteristics. Taglit has substantial impact on participants' propensity to marry a Jew, increasing the odds ratio of a non-Orthodox participant being married to a Jew several fold. In addition, the program strongly increases participants' regard for the value of raising Jewish children. The study concludes that both the intermarriage rate and the motivation of intermarried parents to raise Jewish children are highly tractable. The study points to the possibility of establishing common ground between advocates of inreach and outreach on the vital importance of Jewish education to the goal of Jewish demographic vitality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the Jewish education system and discusses the changes introduced in it and its impact on the Jews. It is mentioned that in the last fifty years the many changes has taken place in the Jewish education system with focus diverting from yeshiva and rabbinical schools to academic libraries and class rooms. Also, as a part of change, secular Jews and gentiles are being appointed to govern the learning module, publication of books and schools.

The mandatory curriculum mooted by the Israeli Ministry of Education for implementation is designed to include the most important body of knowledge to be taught and acquired by every student in the educational system. In addition to the knowledge present in the mandatory curriculum it also includes the learning skills and social values necessary for the development of productive citizens who function adequately in both cognitive and affective domains. Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Israeli society has radically moved from one in which social solidarity and concern for the welfare of the collective was of utmost importance to a post-modern, individualised society in which collective values have all but disappeared. The result of such developments has been the significant widening of the social gaps between the different groups in the Israeli population. It is hoped that the values-based mandatory curriculum will enhance increased communal and collective understanding within Israeli society while at the same time allowing different social groups to realise their own particular individualised social goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Colin Brock on the political influence of the Church, one by Keith Watson on the teaching of Christianity in European schools, and one by Yaakov Katz on Jewish education in Israel.

In the Jewish tradition there are those who simply identify divine justice with the specific divine commands, which is a theological version of legal positivism. This paper argues for another view in the Jewish tradition, viz., divine justice or divine wisdom is the rationale of the specific divine commands, thus making them more than arbitrary decrees. As the rationale of the specific divine commands, divine justice functions as a criterion of judgment that prevents irrational interpretations and unjust applications of the specific divine commands. This approach is a theological version of natural law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much has been accomplished on formal levels to improve relations among Christians and Jews over the past fifty years. However, the same advances have not been made on the local level, between members of Christian and Jewish congregations. The challenge is to find an educational model that best serves adult congregants so as to lead to a transformed relationship among Christian and Jewish congregants and con-gregations. I argue that building relationships among individual Christians and Jews should be central to an educational agenda for members of local congregations. Interfaith relationships serve as a motivator of care and understanding for congregants, just as they do for leaders in dialogue. Direct engagement between congregants results in greater self-awareness and commitment to improve relations between the two religious communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilizing “teachable moments” within daily situations to impart knowledge and transmit values is a type of informal education. In a structured camp environment, such teachable moments may be integrated into the educational curriculum. “Jewish teachable moments” may be used to address Judaism and Jewish Peoplehood holistically, as the educators and counselors guide the campers through the Jewish summer camp environment. This article examines the Jewish Teachable Moments method through a case study conducted at a Reform movement affiliated camp in Texas. Theoretical and pedagogical implications of the Jewish Teachable Moments method are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh (PUJF) began a campaign to improve community planning, especially to determine programmatic priorities. Among the many questions they sought to answer was the relationship between childhood programs and retention of adults as active members of the community. We propose a new model to examine the relationship between childhood activities and adult connection to the community that looks at the adult activities in the community at the same time, while avoiding ad hoc indexes of connection. Using this model, we find evidence that childhood trips to Israel and participation in youth groups are most related to active adult members of the community. These results are robust to several model assumptions, including the assumption that the survey nonresponse did not bias the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last decade has witnessed a wave of Haredi literature dealing with the education of children and youth in particular. A common question raised in this literature is that of the proper way to describe the Torah sages of previous generations, i.e., what needs to be remembered and what should be forgotten about them. Many of the writers criticize the ways of writing customary up to our time, which tended to describe Torah sages as superhuman and as lacking any weaknesses or failings; raising educational concerns, they call for a change in these ways of portrayal. In this article, I apply Mary Douglas’s theoretical model of “enclave culture” to the current social circumstances of the Haredi community, in an attempt to explain both the origins of this trend as well as the sources of opposition to these new ways of writing history within the Haredi community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pluralism is an ambiguous term with a multiplicity of meanings. In recent decades there has been a proliferation of a newer category of Jewish Day Schools, the Jewish Community School. Jewish Community Schools distinguish themselves by positioning pluralism as a foundational concept of their school's ethos. Very little is known about how individuals within these schools understand the notion of pluralism. This case study uses in-depth interviews, documentary research, and school observations to determine how policymakers in one such Community School think about pluralism in general, and how this understanding influences their vision for the school's Jewish Education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the proposal of philosopher Friedrich Schleiermacher on the Old Testament (OT). Schleiermacher contends against the canonical standing of OT expressing Jewish religion. It notes that he terminated ranks from Christian theologians and defended the Jews. Author Klaus Beckmann does not consider the possibility that his argument may be subject to criticism. However, his argument is being questioned whether there are obliging reasons for OT retention in the church's Bible.

This study explores intergroup dynamics through group singing during the Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip. Interviews with 14 protesters and 14 security force members showed how different genres of songs affected intergroup conflict or proximity. When protesters sang Israeli folk songs, rhythmic Jewish religious songs and protest songs, these songs evoked negative feelings among security force members, thus increasing intergroup conflict. When protesters expressed pain and sadness through singing slow, quiet, spiritual songs, these songs evoked empathy on the part of security force members, thus increasing intergroup proximity. This dynamic is discussed in the light of socio-psychological studies and the emotional influences of music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the author's view on the Jewish jurisprudence relating to the development of modern obstetrics and the debate on abortion in the Western cultures. The author discusses the development of Jewish religious law and theology on the abortion from the time of Talmud to the modern society. In this regard, he provides the comprehensive thesis which questions the abortion under the Jewish law.

Religious Education is one way to increase and maintain community involvement among teenagers. In many Jewish communities across the United States, participation in religious activities and religious youth movements have decreased. As research in this area is limited, this study sets out to identify the curricula that are more effective in building a Jewish identity for adolescents. The results suggest that: (1) The community would like teenagers to feel more connected to their Jewish identity; (2) A training program that combines content of leadership, Judaism, and Israel-related issues is desired; and (3) Women are ambivalent with regard to their children practicing Judaism or the extent of their religious practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The founding fathers of the new Jewish community in Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel, or Palestine) as well as many philosophers, public figures, educators and authors both in Israel and in the Diaspora were preoccupied with the image of the new Israeli Hebrew. The educational system was seen as an instrument to create the 'new Hebrew' (identifying with the ancient Hebrews) and to instil new values and behaviours in the young Palestinian-born generation. During the first three decades (1981-1914) of Jewish education in Palestine, the typical teacher had neither pedagogical training nor prior experience in education, lacked the vocabulary for teaching subjects in Hebrew, and was familiar only with educational systems that differed from the one that she/he dreamed of creating. Individual teachers had no contact with one another and no institutionalised support system. They worked as 'lone soldiers', contending with a severe shortage of reference books, textbooks and reading material, struggling with the necessity to create a curriculum and set its priorities, and to translate and prepare material. Yet despite these tremendous difficulties, many educators did manage to realise their educational aims. What characterised these early teachers? What were the difficulties they faced? How did they manage to achieve their aims? This article attempts to answer these and other relevant questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article interprets the Psa 89 as a supplication of a dispirited king before serious Davidic dynastic crisis. The king is uncrowned (B.) and without children (A.), despite the ritual oath of Yahweh (A), which according to near-east mythical-cosmogonic tradition, in this case, Israelite/Jewish (B), legitimizes the Davidic monarchy as replica of heavenly royalty of the cosmogonic god (X). The ritual makes the king and the people to know that the .faithfulness. and .loyalty. of Yahweh ensure the perpetuity of the dynasty . respectively of the .creation.. The dethronement of royalty (B.) is already in itself an anticosmogony (B x B.). But an even greater tragedy is just around the corner . the king is near death, and has no offspring (A.). That is the anguish of distress: where did all the old loyalties of Yahweh that he in his fidelity had sworn to David (A x A.)? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Irving Sigel''s distancing theory and his cognitive and educational research has led to an understanding of the importance of “encompassing” educational settings and the promotion of positive developmental outcomes in the area of Jewish education. This paper describes how distancing theory provides a basis for understanding the effects of identity-enhancing educational settings. An examination of parallels between challenges confronted by Jewish educators and by educators in secular American settings broadens the applications of Dr. Sigel''s work. The authors draw from their work with Jewish education to make recommendations for secular American education. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Central to this article is the riddle of the chain of verses that follow the magen, mehaye, and meshalesh in the qedushta, suggesting that they derive an ancient version of the amidah benedictions. We show that when chains of verses are included in hymns, they are derived from parallel chains of verses in prayers. Hence, the benedictions of the amidah probably also contained verses in an earlier period of its formation, and we find traces of these. Several ancient rabbinical sources indicate that a longer and more complex version of the amidah was once recited, and it included biblical verses. We suggest that they were included in order to distinguish between blessings, which were newly composed, and Scripture. This practice contrasts with the prayers (mainly the sectarian ones) from the Second Temple Era and other writings of that time, whose authors sought to imitate the language of the Bible and resemble it, sometimes even striving to have their works included in the canon. The amidah prayer evidently underwent processes of change and abbreviation, and it probably developed from an alternative version, 'an abstract of Eighteen Benedictions', shorter and less complex than the original prayer. The possibility that the cantor was called upon to recite the long prayer in its entirety, whereas the congregation tended to be satisfied with the short version, can explain the flourishing of hymns that embroider on the prayers. Chains of verses disappear from hymns when they are abbreviated. Toward the end of the article, we focus on the qedushta again and discuss the appearance of concluding rhymes that divide it between the chain of verses and the conclusion of the benediction. After a short conclusion, an appendix is presented, presenting a very ancient qerovah, every part of which is no more than a passage of poetry and a chain of verses, without any concluding rhymes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of 'rabbinic' prayers, such as the midah and birkat ha-mazon is obscure, as are the origins of differences in the text found in medieval manuscripts, where these prayers are first attested. This article discusses two texts that might shed some light on the wording of benedictions in 'rabbinic' liturgy: 1. Three fragments of a small scroll, XḤev/Ṣe 6, paleographically dated to about 100 CE, previously published by Yardeni, Morgenstern and Qimron. The fragments are republished and thoroughly scrutinized in the present article. Features similar to those known from 'rabbinic' prayers may be discerned: (1) the first benediction in this scroll begins and ends with formulae strikingly similar to modim, the thanksgiving benediction in the amidah; (2) the content, and to some extent the formulae, of this benediction resembles modim according to the Palestinian version of the amidah; (3) God's epithets at the beginning of the benediction are strikingly similar to those that occur in modim according to inferior liturgical copies of the Babylonian rite; (4) the concluding formula of the first benediction in the scroll, (These character(s) cannot be represented in ASCII text), is reminiscent of a Palestinian ending formula, which was regarded inferior and of payranic origin; (5) the ending formula of the first benediction begins with the word(These character(s) cannot be represented in ASCII text) (instead of (These character(s) cannot be represented in ASCII text), the standard 'rabbinic' formula). It might be argued that some of the (These character(s) cannot be represented in ASCII text) formulae at the end of benedictions (before the ending formula (These character(s) cannot be represented in ASCII text)) in the 'rabbinic' prayers are in fact remnants of a similar liturgical convention; (6) God is addressed in this scroll both in the 2nd person (in benedictions 1 and 2) and in the 3rd person (in benediction 3), as is the case in several clusters of 'rabbinic' benedictions (e.g., birkal ha-mazon); (7) the third benediction in the scroll begins with the formula (These character(s) cannot be represented in ASCII text). The meaning of this formula, prevalent in 'rabbinic' liturgy, is discussed; (8) the thanksgiving benediction in the scroll is followed by a very fragmentary benediction, but it begins with mentioning God's choosing of Aaron and his posterity and ends by stating that God 'brings peace on the land'. This is perhaps reminiscent of the two last benedictions of the amidah. The third benediction seems to concentrate on the Temple; (9) it has been noted that the wording of the third benediction is similar to the benediction for the musaf prayer for festivals 2. 4Q448 (the Qumranic 'Prayer for Jonathan'). The formulation of the Babylonian version of modim is compared with formulae in birkat ha-mazon and in 4Q448, dated to the 2nd century BCE. It is clear from the latter that the Babylonian version represents a very ancient formula. Moreover, it might be argued that in 4Q448, the formula, whose origin was in thanksgiving benedictions, was adapted for petitionary benedictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on research conducted within a Lubavitch girls' yeshivah in the United States, this article describes in detail how the Holocaust was taught and learned about in an eighth grade, secular studies classroom. The article describes the yeshivah, its site and students, and the teacher and the unit she taught. Special attention is given to the meaning the students made of their learning. The article concludes by arguing that the Shoah was rendered mysterious in this classroom, that the teaching of history was compromised, and that both the students' historical understandings and religious growth opportunities were shortchanged in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes aspects of the relocation of schools from the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip (Gush Katif) after implementation of the disengagement plan in summer 2005. The study describes "successful" and "unsuccessful" relocated schools in the eyes of parents and the impact of the schools' new geographical positioning on the parents' discourse. Parents from successful rural schools in the periphery mainly emphasized the schools' attainment of educational-ideological goals, whereas parents from a semiurban school located close to the center mainly emphasized learning achievements. Although both groups underwent the same trauma of disengagement, the parents from successful rural schools expressed a more segregated tendency, whereas parents from the semiurban school expressed a more integrated and multicultural tendency. The semiurban school located close to the center serves as a mediator between the particularistic and universalistic concepts of the refugees from Gush Katif and as a means to normalization and integration within general society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I have always seen making ethical people, or at least making people ethical, as an essential part of the task of Jewish education and synagogue life. I have often quoted Leo Baeck who, when he sought to define the essence of Judaism, wrote about ethics. But it is not quite so simple. Is being a good person enough to make you a good Jew, as this congregant ultimately believed? If so, are our institutions and, indeed, Judaism itself, necessary for this to happen? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the lectures of Rabbi Aharon Kotler as one of the influential leaders in American Haredi Orthodoxy. It looks into the impact of Kotler's lectures in imparting an ideology and theology that can promote the abandonment of the aristocracy of American life in replace of the poverty of a yeshiva life among American youth. The author highlights the ideology formed by Kotler for American yeshiva students in the context of the Lithuanian tradition.