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* * * * *
A MANUAL
FOR TEACHING
BIBLICAL HISTORY
BY
EUGENE KOHN
_Rabbi of Congregation Chizzuk Emunah_
_Baltimore, Md._
NEW YORK
THE UNITED SYNAGOGUE OF AMERICA
5677--1917
COPYRIGHT, 1917
BY
THE UNITED SYNAGOGUE OF AMERICA
_To the memory of_
_SOLOMON SCHECHTER_
ז״צ״ל
_this book is reverently inscribed_
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The author cannot permit this book to go to press without
acknowledging his indebtedness to the Education Committee of the
United Synagogue for their encouragement and assistance. He is
especially grateful to Dr. Julius H. Greenstone for his many helpful
suggestions and his careful reading of the text, both in manuscript
and in proof. To Dr. Cyrus Adler and Professor Mordecai M. Kaplan
his thanks are also due in large measure for their aid in removing
crudities and improving the form and content of the work.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
Jewish pedagogic literature is still in its infancy. While
text-books for children, more or less satisfactory, have been
produced by many authors during the past century, the effort to
provide the teacher with proper material for his guidance in
instruction is of very recent origin and the supply has thus far
been very slight. The students in our several normal schools, and
especially the large army of teachers, scattered throughout the
country, who have not had the advantage of a normal school training,
are often obliged to resort to works by Christian authors for
information and guidance. While these may supply them with the facts
and with the most approved method of presentation, they cannot give
them the Jewish point of view which is so essential to the Jewish
teacher. As the late Dr. Schechter once remarked, "We cannot have
our love letters written for us. We must write them ourselves, even
at the risk of bad grammar." We must place in the hands of our
teachers books which will inspire them with loyalty and devotion to
Judaism, which will give them the proper attitude to the Bible and
to Jewish tradition, and which will provide them with an adequate
understanding of Jewish strivings and ideals.
It is with this object in view that the Committee on Education
of the United Synagogue requested Rabbi Eugene Kohn to prepare
the work which is now given to the Jewish public. The author has
succeeded admirably in his undertaking and has produced a work
which contains valuable aids to the earnest teacher who is anxious
to become more proficient in his calling. This volume, which is the
result of considerable class-room experience, intimate knowledge
of the sources of Jewish history, and arduous labor, gives correct
and adequate data of the lessons treated, stimulating suggestions
as to the manner of imparting each individual lesson to the average
child, and, what is perhaps of greatest importance, an exalted
attitude that the teacher should assume towards his work. While
the responsibility of the work rests entirely upon the author, the
Committee feels gratified in being able to present, as its first
publication, a work that so fully responds to an urgent need. It is
hoped that this book will be followed by many other volumes which
may help in the better equipment of the Jewish teaching profession.
JULIUS H. GREENSTONE, Chairman,
_Committee on Education of the
United Synagogue of America_.
PHILADELPHIA, June 11, 1917.
CONTENTS
PAGE
Introduction 13
PART I
FROM THE CREATION TO THE DEATH OF JOSEPH
CHAPTER
I. Creation 35
II. Adam and Eve 38
III. Cain and Abel 41
IV. Noah 44
V. The Tower of Babel 47
VI. The Choice of Abram and the Choice of Canaan 49
VII. Beginning of Abram's Greatness 53
VIII. Hagar and the Birth of Ishmael 56
IX. Abraham Entertains the Angels 62
X. The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah 67
XI. The Divorce of Hagar 70
XII. The Sacrifice of Isaac 73
XIII. The Death of Sarah and the Marriage of
Isaac and Rebekah 78
XIV. The Sale of the Birthright 80
XV. Jacob Secures the Blessing 89
XVI. Jacob's Dream 93
XVII. Jacob in Aramea 96
XVIII. Jacob Returns to Canaan 99
XIX. Joseph Sold into Slavery 104
XX. From Slave to Viceroy 109
XXI. Joseph Meets His Brothers 113
XXII. Joseph Reveals Himself to His Brothers 117
XXIII. The Death of Jacob and of Joseph 120
PART II
ISRAEL UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF MOSES
CHAPTER PAGE
I. The Birth of Moses 127
II. Moses, the Friend of the Weak and the Oppressed 133
III. God Sends Moses to Save His People 135
IV. Moses' First Appearance before Pharaoh 140
V. The Plagues 145
VI. The Exodus 149
VII. Israel at the Red Sea 156
VIII. From the Red Sea to Sinai 160
IX. The Revelation 164
X. The Golden Calf 173
XI. The Tabernacle and its Service 183
XII. Trials of Moses and Israel in the Wilderness 190
XIII. The Spies 197
XIV. More Trials of Moses 201
XV. Israel Arrives at the Border of the Promised
Land 209
XVI. The Death of Moses 216
INTRODUCTION
=Purpose of Manual.= In recent years some attention has been
given to the improvement of Jewish educational method so far as
instruction in the Hebrew language is concerned, but the teaching
of Biblical history, although it holds an important place in the
curricula of our religious schools, has received relatively little
attention from our educators, at least from those of orthodox and
conservative tendencies. From the reform point of view some recent
publications, though exhibiting the faults which all early efforts
in any direction necessarily show, do mark a decided pedagogic
advance on the older unmethodical way in which the subject was
taught. But from the point of view of traditional Judaism they are
inadequate, however helpful some of their pedagogic suggestions
may be, since they are guided by a different ideal. This manual
attempts to assist the teacher of Biblical history from the point
of view of Traditional Judaism. For whoever considers from this
point of view the way in which Biblical history is taught must come
to the conclusion that not only are we not realizing to the full
the educational values which the study of Biblical history affords,
but we are often giving our children very false notions of the
Bible characters and of the lessons which the story of their lives
is intended to teach Israel. To develop a good course of study in
Biblical history cannot be the work of one man nor can it be done
at one time. It is hoped however that the suggestions contained in
this book may assist the earnest teacher to make his instruction
more fruitful of good results for Judaism.
=Three factors determining method of instruction.= Every discussion
of pedagogic method as applied to a particular branch of study must
take three factors into consideration: the aim of instruction, the
subject to be taught, and the child--his mode of thought, interests
and capacity.
THE AIM. The first thing that we must bear in mind is that the aim
of all Jewish education must be a Jewish life; that the aim of each
branch of Jewish study must be formulated not primarily in terms
of information to be conveyed, but of Jewish habits of thought and
action to be cultivated. It follows that Biblical history as taught
by a Jew who believes in the authority of the Torah and the mitzvoth
over our lives must be very different from the same subject as
taught by one to whom Judaism is merely a number of moral maxims
and the dogma of the unity. This book, attempting as it does to
treat the problem from the point of view of traditional Judaism,
considers that the main object of instruction in Biblical history is
to inspire the child with an appreciation of the religious ideals
that have moulded Israel's life in the past, with an understanding
of how these same ideals express themselves in the religious
institutions of the present day, and with the desire to further the
historic aims of Israel's existence through identification with the
institutional life of Israel, that is through the observance of the
mitzvoth, affiliation with the synagogue, etc. Particularly must
we create in the child the sense of his personal identity with his
people, for this is the lever by which the events of the Biblical
narrative can move the Jew to active interest in Judaism. He must
feel that God's choice of Israel means that God has chosen him to
live a certain life, the life of the Torah, and that if he fails
to live this life, he sins against God and betrays his people. He
should feel proud of the heroes of his nation and inspired with a
sense of the obligations that his noble descent imposes. He must be
made to discover the spiritual kinship that links him with the rest
of Israel in the past, present and future. Unless we can accomplish
this we have not succeeded in our teaching of Biblical history.
=Wrong and right conception of aim illustrated.= A lack of
appreciation of these aims has often led to the treatment of the
Biblical narrative as if it were merely a series of moral stories
or, at any rate, of stories into which a moral can be read.
According to this method the connection of the Jewish people today
with the people of the Bible is almost wholly ignored and there is
no appreciable difference in the way the events of the Biblical
narrative are taught and, let us say, the incidents of some highly
moral fairy tale or folk-lore of other peoples. To give an example I
quote the following summary of a lesson on "Moses' Return to Egypt":
"So then we can learn these two noble things from our lesson;
modesty adorns everybody even the greatest people, yes very often
the greatest people are the most modest. And further, when we have
begun to do something, let us do it with all our might and stick
to it till it is finished, no matter what it is, whether a school
lesson or setting a people free; whatever is worth doing at all is
worth doing well."
One could imagine the same moral attached to the story of George
Washington or of Cincinnatus and brought home as effectively by it.
The difference between the right and the wrong method of treating
the Biblical narrative from the point of view of the aim of such
instruction can be seen if we contrast the above with the simple
summary of the same lesson in the Passover Haggadah:
"Slaves were we unto Pharaoh in Egypt and the Lord our God brought
us forth thence with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm. And
if the Holy One, Blessed be He, had not brought forth our fathers
from Egypt behold we and our children and our children's children
might still be bondmen to Pharaoh in Egypt." And again: "In every
generation one is obliged to regard himself as if he in person had
come forth from Egypt, as it is said, 'And thou shalt tell thy son
in that day saying, It is because of that which the Lord did for me
when I went forth from Egypt.' Not our fathers alone did the Holy
One, Blessed be He, redeem but us also did He redeem with them, as
it is said, 'And us did He bring forth thence in order to bring us
hither to give us the land which He had sworn to our fathers.'"
According to the method of the former quotation Biblical history is
no more related to the child than the story of the Iliad, according
to the latter it is his own history, the study of which helps him to
self knowledge, to the knowledge of his Jewish self, the knowledge
of the ties that bind him to his fellow Jews and the Jewish people
to its God. Much more might be said of the effect upon the method
of instruction of a clear conception of the aim of instruction in
Biblical history when thus conceived in terms of Jewish life, but a
study of the lessons given in this book will suffice to explain this
without the need of further amplification, so we may pass to the
consideration of the subject-matter to be taught as a determining
factor in the method of instruction.
=The subject-matter: Biblical history.= I have throughout referred
to the subject-matter under the name not of Jewish history but of
Biblical history and I have done so advisedly. For the term Jewish
history does not commit one to that interpretation of the early
history of our people which is to be found in the Bible. From the
Jewish point of view the Bible, in its narrative portions as well
as in its laws, is Torah, that is authoritative teaching. It does
not merely recall the early events of Jewish history but it takes
a distinct attitude to these events, seeing in them the revelation
of a divine purpose; it not only tells the deeds of Biblical
heroes but it passes judgment upon them, here approving and there
disapproving; and it is precisely this attitude to Jewish history,
this interpretation of the significance of historic events, which
must be made an influence in the life of the child. If we were
merely teaching Jewish history as such and looked upon the Bible
merely as the source book of this history we might tell the story of
the Exodus somewhat in this fashion:
"The children of Israel who had at the beginning of their sojourn in
Egypt been well treated by the Egyptian rulers, owing to a change
of dynasty were subjected to oppression and forced to do servile
labor for the Pharaohs. They took advantage however of a series of
calamities that visited Egypt, which their leaders Moses and Aaron
interpreted to the Egyptians as signs of the divine wrath incurred
by her because of her oppression of the Israelites, and so left
Egypt in a body."
The above account is Jewish history but it is not Biblical history
for it has nothing to say about the significance of these events
as the Bible regards them. It does not tell us that Moses was sent
by God, it does not know anything of the covenant with Abraham of
which these events are the fulfillment, it does not therefore see
in the Exodus one link in a chain of events having its beginning in
the election of Abraham and its consummation in the revelation at
Sinai. In the Biblical narrative what is most conspicuous is the
_Eẓba' Elohim_, "the finger of God," in the merely historic account
this may altogether be omitted.
=Must give Biblical moral to Jewish history.= Very few teachers
in our Jewish schools, if any, would make the mistake of teaching
the events narrated in the Bible merely as cold facts without any
attempt at giving them religious significance, though frequent
efforts at rationalization tend in this direction. For the most
part, the aim in teaching the early history of our people is felt to
be a religious one and to call for a religious interpretation of the
events recorded. We are not loath to attach a moral to the stories
we tell our children, but where we fail is that we imagine any moral
which we can read into the story is satisfactory. We have already
shown how the consideration of the aim of instruction in Biblical
history, from the point of view of traditional Judaism, opposes this
method and limits the moral which should be taught in connection
with any given story, but the consideration of the subject-matter
to be taught limits it still further. We must not only give a
Jewish moral to each episode in the Biblical narrative but we must
give the child the specific moral that the Bible itself attaches
to that episode. If we take our Bible seriously, if we regard its
interpretation of the events of our history as essentially true,
as indeed part of the Torah, a divine revelation, then it becomes
our duty to give this interpretation of events and not another to
our children. We sometimes excuse to ourselves the perversion of
the Biblical moral on the ground that because children are children
they frequently cannot grasp what is really the Biblical lesson. If
in any given instance this is the case, it is better not to teach
that story at all to the child than to falsify it. But usually the
ideas of the Bible can be brought home to the child if we but take
the trouble to translate them into the language of childhood and
illustrate them out of the child's own experience. It is largely
due to indolence on the part of the teacher that we so frequently
sin against the Biblical sense of a story. I have heard the story
of Abraham's divorce of Hagar told as if it were a mere family
squabble in which Sarah, by shrewish persistence finally prevails
upon the meek and submissive Abraham somewhat reluctantly to send
away Hagar, who had aroused her jealousy. Abraham was made a rather
doubtful hero who represented the virtue of loving peace--peace
at any price as the narrative showed--and Sarah was regarded as
acting in a mean and ungodly capacity. Had that teacher read her
Bible carefully and intelligently before coming to class she could
not have been guilty of such grotesque distortion of the Biblical
story, by which it is made not only trivial but ludicrous. She would
then have realized that Ishmael had to be separated from Isaac for
the same reason that Lot had to be separated from Abraham and Esau
from Jacob, because they were not of the seed from which Israel was
destined to spring; that even before the birth of Ishmael we have
the prophecy told to Hagar, "And he shall be a wild ass of a man;
his hand shall be against every man and every man's hand against
him" (Genesis 16. 12). She would have observed that in the words
of the Rabbis "Abraham was subordinate to Sarah in prophecy", that
just as Isaac showed a mistaken preference for Esau so Abraham when
the birth of Isaac is predicted to him pleaded, "Oh that Ishmael
might live before thee!", and that the Bible recognizes the superior
prophetic insight of Sarah by telling us that God commanded Abraham
explicitly, "Let it not be grievous in thy eyes because of the
lad and because of thy bond-woman; in all that Sarah may say unto
thee, hearken to her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called."
Surely, though the story undoubtedly presents difficulties of a
pedagogic nature, it is not impossible to teach a child that God
foresaw that Ishmael would be a "_pere adam_" (a wild ass of a man),
that he did not wish the chosen people, who were to inherit the
promised land, to be possessed of such traits, and that therefore
Ishmael had to be sent away so that Isaac and his descendants might
become the great people he had promised Abraham they would become.
In this way the Bible speaks for itself and tells a story that is
quite as intelligible to the child as the one that the teacher I
have mentioned told, quite as intelligible and infinitely more
edifying. I have given this instance at some length because it seems
to me typical of the mischief that can be done by reading into the
Biblical narrative any moral that may come to hand instead of the
moral that the Bible itself intended.
=Need of Bible study for teacher.= This manual will endeavor in each
lesson to point out to the best of its author's understanding what
the Biblical moral of the lesson is. But, as interpretations are
always subject to differences of opinion, a study of the suggestions
contained in its chapters cannot relieve the teacher of the
responsibility of a careful independent study, before entering the
class-room, of the Biblical passages whose story he wishes to teach.
=The child as determining method.= And after he has mastered for
himself the meaning of the Biblical narrative, he must study how
to impart this to the child in a way that shall make it not only
comprehensible but interesting, and all this without sacrifice
of the aim of instruction. An adequate treatment of method in
teaching Biblical history from the point of view of the interests
and capacities of the Jewish child is at present impossible. We
need years of study and experimentation in this direction before
we can do it complete justice, but a few universally recognized
pedagogic principles may briefly be considered here in their bearing
upon our subject. We have spoken of the need of effort on the part
of the teacher to make the lesson comprehensible and interesting,
and we shall therefore give some attention to two questions: (1)
How can the lesson be made comprehensible? (2) How can it be made
interesting? We shall treat the questions separately for the sake
of convenience, though, as a matter of fact, they are inseparable;
for neither can a child be expected to interest himself in what
he cannot understand nor can he be made to understand anything
that involves the least difficulty without giving that sustained
attention which only interest can elicit from him.
=How to make lesson comprehensible. Proceed from known to unknown.=
The most important rule to bear in mind in order to make the
teaching comprehensible is the familiar truism that one must
proceed from the known to the unknown and keep constantly defining
the unknown in terms of what is already known to the child. As is
the case with most truisms, the truth of this statement is more
frequently recognized than applied. Take for instance the very first
sentence in one of the Biblical histories intended for the use of
children. It reads, "In the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth, that is the whole visible world." Was there ever a human
being who did not know what heaven and earth meant and yet knew what
the whole visible world meant? Contrast with this the following from
another text-book:
"Once a long, long time ago there was no one living on this earth
that is now so full of people.
"There were no living things at all here: no cattle, no wild beasts,
no birds, no butterflies or insects of any kind and no fishes in the
sea.
"Before that there were no green growing things here; no grass, no
trees, no flowers.
"In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth.
"In the beginning was a time so long ago that no one knows when it
was."
How much better is this way of beginning the story of creation from
what the child has experienced of created objects than to begin with
non existence and chaos. Few of us realize how many terms that are
commonplaces with us mean nothing to the child. Particularly is this
true of terms used in the Bible and descriptive of things familiar
in the primitive orient but little known in the modern occident,
such as altar, sacrifice, tabernacle, caravan, to name but a few.
=Avoid formal definition.= But at this point a word of caution is
necessary against a too pedantic application of this principle of
defining the terms that are used in the child's instruction. For
example one book of Bible stories for young children prefixes to
the story of creation a vocabulary which includes explanations of
such words as ground, dark, light, sky, under, above, good, rest.
But it must be apparent that a child who cannot without previous
explanations understand such simple words as these is not in a
position to profit by instruction in Biblical history at all. It
is possible so to overload a story with definitions that the whole
thread of the narrative is lost. We must be cautious lest our pupils
fail to see the forest by very reason of the trees. Ample allowance
must be made for the constructive imagination of the child, which
builds up its own definitions out of the material of the narrative
itself. Children have always had an understanding of fairy tales
without ever having had the terms fairy, witch, king and princess
defined for them. When you tell a child that the king sat on a high
throne with his crown on his head, his sceptre in his hand, while
all the people bowed down to him, the child, though he has never
seen a throne, will recognize that it is something on which kings
sit, that a crown is something that a king wears on his head, a
sceptre something that a king holds in his hand, and that a king is
a man who is distinguished from other men and to whom they bow,
a very good working definition of a king which would make quite
unnecessary any elaborate attempt to define for a child the concept
of royalty. In fact, formal definition should be avoided wherever
possible, and the skilful teacher will know how to make a story
define its own terms in the same way as the sentence that we just
gave as an instance defined for the child the four unknown terms:
king, throne, crown, and sceptre. Indeed the most important idea of
all, that we have to give to the child cannot be defined otherwise
even to ourselves, namely the idea of God. The general rule to be
followed may be laid down in these words: Never define for the child
any term that the story itself can be made to define but do define
every necessary term that the story itself cannot be made to define.
It is worth while noting in this connection that the best definition
for a concrete object is the object itself or a picture of it.
=How to make the lesson interesting. Oral instruction preferable.=
So much for the question how to make the lesson comprehensible to
the child. As has already been said, this in itself goes a great
way toward answering as well our second question, how to make it
interesting, but other considerations must also be taken into
account. The art of teaching history is in great part the art of
story telling. Children love stories and particularly true stories
if they are well told, but this love of a child for a good story is
limited, especially in earlier years, to a story that is told. The
mere technical difficulties of reading, the physical inconvenience
of the posture demanded, the absence of that commentary which voice
and gesture supply to the story, the impossibility of asking
a book questions, and a number of other similar considerations
make it undesirable that the first acquaintance of a child with a
lesson shall come from a text-book. Text-books have their uses,
particularly in the higher grades, for purposes of review, to aid
the memory in retaining what has already been taught by word of
mouth, but the practice that obtains in some schools of expecting
the child to learn the lesson from the book before he comes to class
is bad and should be avoided.
=Some suggestions as to story telling.= If then the first
presentation of a lesson must be given orally by the teacher, it
follows that the teacher has to perfect himself in the art of story
telling. Like all other arts, the art of story telling cannot be
imparted by rule and particularly not within the small scope of
this introduction. A few suggestions however may be helpful. Lewis
Carrol, whose Alice in Wonderland shows a rare insight into the
childish mind, makes his Alice express a preference for books with
plenty of illustrations and conversation. There are two hints here
that are of value to the teacher of Biblical history, the first
is to use pictures to illustrate a story and the second always to
prefer direct discourse to indirect. To take up the second of these
suggestions first, compare the following accounts of the same event
and ask yourself which appeals more to you:
1. Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that
stood by him and he ordered every man to leave him. And there
stood no man with him while Joseph made himself known to his
brethren. And he wept aloud and the Egyptians heard and the
house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph told his brethren who he was
and asked whether his father was yet alive. And his brethren
could not answer him, for they were affrighted at his presence.
Joseph told them to come near, and they came near, and he told
them that he was Joseph whom they had sold into Egypt and that
they should not be grieved nor angry with themselves for having
sold him thither, for it was in order to preserve life that God
had sent him before them. For the famine had been in the land
for two years and there yet remained five years during which
there would be neither plowing nor harvest, and so God had sent
him before them to give them a remnant on the earth and to keep
them alive for a great deliverance.
2. Then could Joseph not refrain himself before all them that
stood by him; and he cried, "Cause every man to go out from
me." And there stood no man with him when Joseph made himself
known unto his brethren. And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians
heard and the house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto
his brethren, "I am Joseph; doth my father yet live?" And his
brethren could not answer him for they were affrighted at his
presence. And Joseph said unto his brethren, "Come near to me,
I pray you." And they came near. And he said: "I am Joseph your
brother whom ye sold into Egypt. And now be not grieved, nor
angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither; for God did send
me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath the
famine been in the land; and there are yet five years in which
there shall be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me
before you to give you a remnant on the earth and to save you
alive for a great deliverance."
The reader will at once recognize in the second citation the exact
language of the Bible. The first is the same passage turned into
indirect discourse with no other change in its wording, yet how much
it loses in force even for us adults and even in print; for children
and in actual narration the story would lose even more.
=The advantage of using illustrations.= As for the advantage
of using illustrations whether in the form of pictures that
are distributed and passed around the class or in the form of
stereoptican views, we have already suggested one advantage in
that they help define for the child the meaning of some of the
concrete terms not yet in his vocabulary, but they perform a still
more important function in helping him to visualize the narrative.
For what we see seems always a more intimate part of our experience
than what we have merely heard. When Job wants to express the deeper
intimacy of his new knowledge of God after God had appeared to him
he declares, "I had heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now
mine eye seeth Thee." (Job 42. 5.)
=When to use illustrations and what illustrations to use.= Though
the use of illustrations, particularly of stereoptican views, which
have the advantage of focusing the attention of the class on one
thing, are a decided help, they should be used only in reviewing the
lesson. The reasons for this are: 1. that the picture distracts the
attention of the class from what the teacher is saying, 2. that it
prevents the smooth flow of narrative by the necessity of explaining
details of the picture that are often irrelevant, 3. that the
interest in the dramatic dialogue of the characters which reveals
their motives and, in most cases, the actual moral of the story is
sacrificed to the interest in picturesque details of dress, scenery,
etc., 4. that the teacher is at the mercy of the artist's conception
of the Biblical narrative which rarely does it justice from a
Jewish or from an artistic point of view, and often does violence
to the nobler conception of the story that the unaided imagination,
stimulated by the teacher's narrative, would have constructed.
Pictures that represent God in human form should of course not be
allowed in a Jewish school. Nor should the school use such pictures
as represent anything of a mystical character in images so definite
and familiar that they dispel the whole mystical atmosphere. When,
for instance, the revelation on Mount Sinai is represented by two
tablets of stone falling from heaven into the waiting hands of
Moses, as in one familiar picture, it is hardly likely to instil
the highest form of reverence. Or when, as in another picture, the
ascension of Elijah is represented by a chariot drawn by horses of
a brilliant red, meant to suggest fire but too definite in outline
to permit of such suggestion, the child will in all probability
merely be amused at the peculiar color of the horses and the picture
will not have illustrated the story for him at all. It is therefore
apparent that the teacher must exercise some sort of censorship over
the illustrations used in teaching.
=Self activity of child.= We have several times referred to the
activity of the child's own imagination in working over in his mind
the material supplied by the teacher, and the recognition of the
fact that the child's mind is not passive but active leads us to the
acceptance of a principle of the most far reaching importance in all
education, namely, that the teacher cannot impart a lesson unless
he can get the child's mind of its own accord to seek that very
knowledge that he wishes to impart. This is the wisdom of the homely
proverb, "You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him
drink." We must stimulate an appetite for the mental food we wish to
give the pupil even before we give it. How can this be done?
=Jewish symbols and ceremonies a stimulus to self activity.= When
discussing the aim of instruction in Biblical history we took a
hint from the Haggadah for Passover, the reading of which was
mainly intended for pedagogic purpose since it is in fulfillment
of the commandment, "And thou shalt tell to thy son in that day";
we may take another hint from it in this connection. The child
at table on Passover eve sees before him a number of curious
objects and ceremonials to which he is not accustomed. He sees the
_maẓẓot_, the _maror_, and other symbols, he also notices the
reclining attitude instead of the usual erect posture, and so
he very naturally exclaims _mah nishtannah_! "How different is
this night from other nights!" Then when his own curiosity has
been stimulated he is given the answer to his questions and the
lesson has been impressed upon him. The symbols and ceremonies
of Jewish life which have their origin or explanation in the
Biblical narrative are excellently adapted for this stimulation
of intellectual curiosity which should precede the telling of the
story. A reference to the Sabbath and how it is observed might
well precede the story of creation which explains its origin and
significance; a reference to the Passover observances might well
precede an account of the Exodus; a reference to the synagogue might
precede an account of the construction of the tabernacle, etc. These
serve the double function of interesting the child in the narrative
and of interesting him in those things in Jewish life which the
narrative helps to explain. Where an object of Jewish ceremonial
life cannot be found with which to stimulate his curiosity, some
other fact of his experience may be taken instead. Thus the story
of Noah might well be introduced by reference to the rainbow, the
meaning of which the teacher will then undertake to explain to the
child by the story.
=The teacher's question as a stimulus to self activity.= Inasmuch as
there are in every class those of the type mentioned in the Haggadah
"who know not how to question", it often becomes advisable for the
teacher himself to put to the class the question that he wishes to
have answered. And indeed an occasional question from the teacher
in the very midst of the story may go a great way toward arousing
interest and securing a clearer comprehension. Thus it may be that
the teacher is telling the story of Joseph. He reaches the point
where Joseph's brothers come to him to buy corn and explains how
Joseph, having recognized them without their having recognized him,
had them wholly in his power. He then asks, "Now what do you think
you would do if you were Joseph and your brothers had treated you so
cruelly and then they come to you for food and you have them in your
power?" At once he has the class interested in the question of what
Joseph actually did and their interest in the rest of the story as
well as their better comprehension of the motives that underlie it
is secured.
=The pupil's recitation.= So much for the teacher's original
presentation of the lesson. This completed, the child must be
called upon to recite it, not primarily, as most teachers seem to
think, in order to give the teacher a chance to find out whether
the child had learned the lesson, but because the necessity of
telling it over to the teacher forces the child to think about the
subject of the lesson and once more appeals to his self activity.
The questions asked by the teacher should not be merely such as
call for items of information but such as require the exercise of
intelligence on the pupil's part and give evidence not only of his
remembering the story but of his understanding it. If for example
the teacher wishes to question the child on the story of creation,
such formal questions as "In how many days did God make the world?
What did he make on the first day? What did he make on the second
day?" etc., are not enough, as they test the memory only. He should
ask such questions as these: "Why do we rest on the seventh day of
each week? What was the last thing God made? Why did God make man
last?" For these test not only the memory but the understanding as
well. The story that the children tell when thus asked to repeat the
lesson will give the teacher an idea of what points have impressed
themselves on them and what have not, and on the basis of these he
must question further. In general there ought to be fewer questions
beginning with "what" and more beginning with "why".
=Dramatization of lesson.= Beside the repetition of the lesson
by the child in the form of a recitation and the answering of
questions, there are many stories, in which the interest centers
chiefly in the dramatic dialogue, that children might be encouraged
to dramatize in class. The dramatization must be made by the
children themselves in the spirit of free play, the teacher merely
offering general suggestions but the dialogue being the spontaneous
creation of the children. The natural imitative instinct of children
which makes so much of their play the mimicry of the activities
and occupations of their adult environment, takes very kindly to
this sort of make-believe. At the same time this exercise enables
them to enter into the motives of the Biblical characters and to
understand and remember the incidents of the Biblical narrative
as few exercises can. Nor need the teacher be discouraged by the
lack of accessories to dramatization such as scenery and costume.
The child's imagination, which can convert a rocking chair into a
boat or a table into a mountain, can easily dispense with those
accessories which the sophisticated mind of the adult requires.
Stories that lend themselves to such treatment are Esau's sale of
the birthright, Isaac's blessing of Jacob and Esau and the various
episodes of the Joseph narrative.
=The teacher's preparation.= It follows from the above discussion
that the teacher of Biblical history who wishes to do justice to
his subject must give careful preparation to each lesson, not only,
as we have already suggested, with a view to understanding the
significance of the Biblical passages that he wishes to teach, but
also with a view to teaching them effectively to the child. This
preparation must include 1. inquiry as to object in teaching that
particular lesson to the child, 2. the effort to find some point of
contact between the theme of the lesson and the previous knowledge
and experience of the child such as would appeal to his interest,
3. the study of the subject from the point of view of literary and
oratorical effectiveness in the presentation, 4. the attempt to find
the best possible illustrations and applications of the lesson to
the life of the child, 5. preparation of questions and other devices
by which the child is made to work over the lesson in his own mind
and give proof of having assimilated it. In the chapters of this
manual the object of each lesson according to the author's opinion
will be pointed out and suggestions will, from time to time, be
given as to the other points that have been here enumerated. This
book refrains, however, from giving a detailed plan of each lesson
as it is deemed important not to put restraints on the originality
and initiative of the teacher but on the contrary, to encourage
free and spontaneous expression of personality both on the part of
teacher and of pupil.
=Summary.= Much more might be said about the method of teaching
Biblical history, but this will have to suffice by way of
introduction to the more concrete suggestions that are to follow in
the chapters of this book. It may be well, however, before closing
to summarize the more important conclusions reached:
1. That the aim in instructing the child in Biblical history is not
merely to teach him a moral such as he might learn from any edifying
story but to influence his life through the consciousness of his
spiritual identity with the Israel of the Bible;
2. That the events narrated must be given the same significance that
the Bible itself gives them and not any convenient moral that we may
wish to append to them;
3. That teaching shall be so adapted to the child as to make the
lesson (a) comprehensible, (b) interesting;
(a) That in order to be comprehensible it must proceed from the
known to the unknown and must define the unknown in terms of the
known, avoiding however, so far as possible, all formal definition,
and leaving large scope for the exercise of the child's imagination;
(b) That in order to be interesting the lesson should first be
presented by the teacher orally in a style made vivid by plenty of
conversation quoted directly, and that this may well be followed up
by illustrations such as the showing of pictures or stereoptican
views; that the teacher stimulate the curiosity of the child before
beginning the lesson preferably by the introduction of some relevant
object of Jewish ceremonial, but, in the absence of that, by some
other appeal to the child's experience; and finally, that the
teacher encourage self activity and self expression on the part of
the child by tactful questions both in the course of presenting the
lesson and when the child is asked, as he should be, to recite the
lesson he has learned.
These suggestions it is hoped may prove of some help to the
earnest teacher of Biblical history. In the chapters which
follow, an attempt is made to give them more concrete and
definite illustration. Each chapter will therefore contain 1.
the interpretation of the subject-matter of the lesson, 2. a
brief discussion of the aim in teaching it, and 3. miscellaneous
suggestions as to the way it can best be made to appeal to the
child.
PART I
FROM CREATION TO THE DEATH OF JOSEPH
CHAPTER I
CREATION Genesis 1.1 to 2.3
Note.--The lessons in this book are necessarily divided somewhat
arbitrarily, that is without exact reference to the amount
that can be taught at a single session of the school. This is
unavoidable at present as periods vary in length in different
schools, and classes vary in age and in the mental development
of their pupils. The division therefore has been purely on the
basis of the subject-matter and not of the time to be spent in
instruction. Some lessons may require two or even three hours
for their complete presentation.
=Interpretation.= The early narratives of Genesis serve as an
introduction to Biblical history by giving the Jewish view of the
origin of the world in general and the human race in particular,
preparatory to discussing the role that Israel was destined to play
in the world. The following are some of the most significant ideas
that the narrative of the creation has to tell us with regard to the
world and man's place in it:
1. That God is the creator and consequently supreme over matter,
nature and the world;
2. That man is the highest being in the order of creation by reason
of his being possessed of the divine attributes of reason and
conscience as intimated in the words "in our image according to our
likeness";
3. That God loves His creatures הָרַחֲמִים בְּמִדַּת שֶׁבָּרָא "whom
he hath created in accordance with the attribute of mercy;"
4. That God in return desires man's love and his recognition in
worship as is implied in the institution of the Sabbath.
=Aim.= In teaching this lesson to the child the aim should be to
inspire him with the sense of reverence and worship, particularly in
connection with Sabbath observance. The message of this as of all
the earlier chapters of Genesis is a universal one, but, like most
other universal aspects of Judaism, it has found concrete expression
in a specifically Jewish institution, namely the Sabbath, and, as
our aim is to affect the Jewish life of the child it is through
association of the ideas of the lesson with the institution of the
Sabbath that we must endeavor to make them effective.
=Suggestions to the teacher.= In accordance with the principle
which demands that we proceed from what is known to what is not yet
known, it at once becomes apparent that we cannot begin this lesson
with an account of primal darkness out of which chaos and then the
world was formed. In the introduction (page 22) we quoted an account
of creation which began by a reference to created objects in the
child's experience. In consideration however of the desirability
of stimulating the child's intellectual curiosity before beginning
the lesson, it would be well to introduce the lesson with a few
questions regarding the distinction of the Sabbath from the other
days of the week, culminating in the question, "Why do we act so
differently on the Sabbath than on other days?" Then proceed to
answer by telling the story of creation in the way suggested in the
introduction. When the narrative is completed, again discuss the
Sabbath and how it is to be observed, as in this way the moral of
the narrative can best be enforced.
It is a well known fact that children are attracted by the exact
repetition of certain phrases somewhat in the nature of a refrain.
It is well therefore to utilize the refrain, "And there was evening
and there was morning" with each of the successive days of creation.