(ד) שְׁמַ֖ע יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל יְהֹוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵ֖ינוּ יְהֹוָ֥ה ׀ אֶחָֽד׃ (ה) וְאָ֣הַבְתָּ֔ אֵ֖ת יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ בְּכׇל־לְבָבְךָ֥ וּבְכׇל־נַפְשְׁךָ֖ וּבְכׇל־מְאֹדֶֽךָ׃ (ו) וְהָי֞וּ הַדְּבָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֗לֶּה אֲשֶׁ֨ר אָנֹכִ֧י מְצַוְּךָ֛ הַיּ֖וֹם עַל־לְבָבֶֽךָ׃ (ז) וְשִׁנַּנְתָּ֣ם לְבָנֶ֔יךָ וְדִבַּרְתָּ֖ בָּ֑ם בְּשִׁבְתְּךָ֤ בְּבֵיתֶ֙ךָ֙ וּבְלֶכְתְּךָ֣ בַדֶּ֔רֶךְ וּֽבְשׇׁכְבְּךָ֖ וּבְקוּמֶֽךָ׃ (ח) וּקְשַׁרְתָּ֥ם לְא֖וֹת עַל־יָדֶ֑ךָ וְהָי֥וּ לְטֹטָפֹ֖ת בֵּ֥ין עֵינֶֽיךָ׃ (ט) וּכְתַבְתָּ֛ם עַל־מְזֻז֥וֹת בֵּיתֶ֖ךָ וּבִשְׁעָרֶֽיךָ׃ {ס}
(4) Hear, O Israel! יהוה is our God, יהוה alone. (5) You shall love your God יהוה with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (6) Take to heart these instructions with which I charge you this day. (7) Impress them upon your children. Recite them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up. (8) Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead; (9) inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
בְּכָל־דּוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָּב אָדָם לִרְאוֹת אֶת־עַצְמוֹ כְּאִלּוּ הוּא יָצָא מִמִּצְרַיִם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: וְהִגַּדְתָּ לְבִנְךָ בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא לֵאמֹר, בַּעֲבוּר זֶה עָשָׂה ה' לִי בְּצֵאתִי מִמִּצְרַיִם. לֹא אֶת־אֲבוֹתֵינוּ בִּלְבָד גָּאַל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא, אֶלָּא אַף אוֹתָנוּ גָּאַל עִמָּהֶם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: וְאוֹתָנוּ הוֹצִיא מִשָּׁם, לְמַעַן הָבִיא אוֹתָנוּ, לָתֶת לָנוּ אֶת־הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר נִשָׁבַּע לַאֲבֹתֵינוּ.
In each and every generation, a person is obligated to see himself as if he left Egypt, as it is stated (Exodus 13:8); "For the sake of this, did the Lord do [this] for me in my going out of Egypt." Not only our ancestors did the Holy One, blessed be He, redeem, but rather also us [together] with them did He redeem, as it is stated (Deuteronomy 6:23); "And He took us out from there, in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He swore unto our fathers."
Visions of Jewish Education, ed. Fox, Scheffler, & Marom 2003
Isadore Twersky: "Maimonides taught that the Torah is an educational resource whose purpose is to shape the supreme spiritual-moral character...The practice of each and every mitzvah contributes something to human perfection- moral and intellectual-spiritual perfection. Religious acts lead to perfection. p. 50
Menachem Brinker: ...Judaism is first and foremost a historical fact. The Jewish people is a collective whose continuous historical existence derives from shared memories (especially memories of a common fate); shared languages (Hebrew and many different jargons); shared destiny (determined to a great extent by anti-Semites in the present); and, sometimes, shared expectations of the future. p. 95
Their responsibility for Jewish and Israeli life in the present and future is dependent only upon their will and readiness to see themselves as part of this life. Without any external coercion or obligation, they can, if they so desire, transform the fact of being born into a Jewish family into their own free choice, which can be made on an ongoing basis pp. 96-7
Moshe Greenberg: A Jewish education worthy of the name will address the hunger of the learner to know "whence he came and wither is he going." It will furnish him with value-concepts by which to infuse raw experience with meaning and order. The success of Jewish education is measured by its adequacy in accompanying the learner through life as a treasury of concepts lending meaning to private and public experience. p, 123
Isadore Twersky: "Maimonides taught that the Torah is an educational resource whose purpose is to shape the supreme spiritual-moral character...The practice of each and every mitzvah contributes something to human perfection- moral and intellectual-spiritual perfection. Religious acts lead to perfection. p. 50
Menachem Brinker: ...Judaism is first and foremost a historical fact. The Jewish people is a collective whose continuous historical existence derives from shared memories (especially memories of a common fate); shared languages (Hebrew and many different jargons); shared destiny (determined to a great extent by anti-Semites in the present); and, sometimes, shared expectations of the future. p. 95
Their responsibility for Jewish and Israeli life in the present and future is dependent only upon their will and readiness to see themselves as part of this life. Without any external coercion or obligation, they can, if they so desire, transform the fact of being born into a Jewish family into their own free choice, which can be made on an ongoing basis pp. 96-7
Moshe Greenberg: A Jewish education worthy of the name will address the hunger of the learner to know "whence he came and wither is he going." It will furnish him with value-concepts by which to infuse raw experience with meaning and order. The success of Jewish education is measured by its adequacy in accompanying the learner through life as a treasury of concepts lending meaning to private and public experience. p, 123
Beyond Jewish Identity, eds Kelman & Levisohn, 2019
Having a "strong Jewish identity" comes to mean, roughly, being more normatively involved in Jewish life, or more interested in or committed to Jewish causes, communities, knowledge, etc. p. ix
Having a "strong Jewish identity" comes to mean, roughly, being more normatively involved in Jewish life, or more interested in or committed to Jewish causes, communities, knowledge, etc. p. ix
"Jewish Educators Don't Make Jews" by Tali Zelkowicz in Beyond Jewish Identity
Neither individuals nor institutions possess control over another's identity forming processes. That is not how education or identity formation works. In short, Jewish educators don't make Jews; Jews make themselves. p. 145
Many Jewish studies teachers inadvertently create classroom cultures where what matters most is what students will do with the learning one, five, or 25 years into the future, and not what it means to them in the present, this week, this day, and this class...In this way, the fantasy that educators can make Jewish is largely rooted in widespread communal fears and anxieties about the survival of the Jewish people. p. 150
Identities are not systematically and externally imposed. To assume so would require us to think of "identity" as a sort of static object or product, or a thing that one person installs, like an app, "into" another person. Jewish identity formation involves the work required to navigate the cultural straddling for Jews in any host nation of an inherently unstable process of always becoming Jewish. p, 152-3
Contemporary American Jews of all ages need their educators to be models of Jewish identity-work navigators. They do not need their educators to tell them whom to become. As such, they must let go of the urge to want or expect to make Jews and control the outcomes of their students' Jewish futures, while holding on, closely and carefully, to the students' processes of grappling with Jewish subject matter and its methods. p. 159
Neither individuals nor institutions possess control over another's identity forming processes. That is not how education or identity formation works. In short, Jewish educators don't make Jews; Jews make themselves. p. 145
Many Jewish studies teachers inadvertently create classroom cultures where what matters most is what students will do with the learning one, five, or 25 years into the future, and not what it means to them in the present, this week, this day, and this class...In this way, the fantasy that educators can make Jewish is largely rooted in widespread communal fears and anxieties about the survival of the Jewish people. p. 150
Identities are not systematically and externally imposed. To assume so would require us to think of "identity" as a sort of static object or product, or a thing that one person installs, like an app, "into" another person. Jewish identity formation involves the work required to navigate the cultural straddling for Jews in any host nation of an inherently unstable process of always becoming Jewish. p, 152-3
Contemporary American Jews of all ages need their educators to be models of Jewish identity-work navigators. They do not need their educators to tell them whom to become. As such, they must let go of the urge to want or expect to make Jews and control the outcomes of their students' Jewish futures, while holding on, closely and carefully, to the students' processes of grappling with Jewish subject matter and its methods. p. 159
"Jewish Education as Initiation into Practices of Jewishness" by Jon Levisohn in Beyond Jewish Identity
The proposed alternative to "Jewish identity" is "Jewish practices." That is, the most helpful and constructive way to think about the goals of Jewish education is to identify the practices of Jewishness that we value, and then to conceptualize Jewish education as an initiation of students into those practices. p. 225
Once we [reimagine Jewish education as an initiation in Jewish social practices], we can ask ourselves: what are the habits and dispositions that we want to cultivate among our students, within this engagement with the Jewish textual tradition? p. 232
The point is simply that it is not possible to have that identity- to have a conception of who you are in the world- without also having a sense of the practices that are constitutive of that identity, what it means to enact that identity. p. 236
The proposed alternative to "Jewish identity" is "Jewish practices." That is, the most helpful and constructive way to think about the goals of Jewish education is to identify the practices of Jewishness that we value, and then to conceptualize Jewish education as an initiation of students into those practices. p. 225
Once we [reimagine Jewish education as an initiation in Jewish social practices], we can ask ourselves: what are the habits and dispositions that we want to cultivate among our students, within this engagement with the Jewish textual tradition? p. 232
The point is simply that it is not possible to have that identity- to have a conception of who you are in the world- without also having a sense of the practices that are constitutive of that identity, what it means to enact that identity. p. 236