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So, this Sunday in Hebrew school, I did some teaching about Lashon Ha-Ra.
See, at the staff meeting (the one where I was dressed as Jayne Cobb), the topic of bullying came up. Now, there isn't a big bullying problem that I can see in the Hebrew school, mainly because we're only there for two-and-a half hours a week, and the kids are always under adult supervision. But a lot of kids have been having problems in their regular schools. And we were trying to talk about if there was anything we could do, as religious instructors, to help give kids tools to deal with this.
Now, the bullying that they're really having trouble with is the emotional kind -- teasing and the like. One kid in my class said that she'd lost all of her friends, because someone had spread lies about her. And the only person who she still had left as a friend was someone she didn't even LIKE that much, but it was the only person who'd still talk to her. And my point in the staff meeting was that Judaism teaches that this is really serious stuff -- but it doesn't really offer many solutions. I mean, you could argue that someone who really humiliates people should be stoned to death, but you can't actually DO that in the modern world. But the point that some other teachers made was that, if nothing else, being told that the reason this hurts so bad is because IT'S ACTUALLY GODDAMNED SERIOUS, and it's NOT a failing in them for feeling bad, since this IS actually that bad -- that, even if that was ALL we could do, that would have some value. Validating their feelings was important, and useful enough to do for that reason alone.
So, anyway. We started with a bit of a fun activity, based on the story of the feathers in the wind. Then I started out the lesson proper by asking if anyone knew what story was read in the Torah the day before, on that Shabbat. Nobody knew, and I asked, "Well, would it be something from the beginning, the middle, or towards the end of the Torah?" and they were able to figure that, since Simchat Torah was just a couple weeks ago, it would be right near the beginning. "So what are some stories that are right near the beginning of the Torah?", and the first one they named was the correct answer: Noah.
So I pulled out my prop -- the scale model of Noah's Ark that Dad and I made a couple years back. "Anyone want to guess what this is?"
"It's a box!"
"Actually, it's a model of something. . . this is a scale model of Noah's ark -- one-eighth inch equals one cubit. Who knows what a cubit is?" and we had a little fun measuring all our forearms against each other, discovering that, as expected, I had the longest cubit in the room, and Madeline had the shortest.
"The ark didn't look like that," one kid objected. "It had, like a bow on front, and a little house-like thing on the top!"
"Nope," I said, "according to the Torah, THIS is what the thing probably looked like. Anyway, those little drawings of people on the side of the ark, those would be the size that people would be. So, you can sort of get a feeling for how big the ark would have been."
They sort of nodded. "Okay -- now, could you REALLY put two of every kind of animal in something that big? I don't really think you could -- so that means that the story of Noah's ark must be Torah true, but not Science true."
I've been teaching them the ideas of "Torah true" vs. "Science true." "Science" tells us stuff about how things work, how things happen physically and stuff. The Torah teaches us stuff about what things MEAN, what proper action is, what is right and wrong. They're both important, but it's stupid to expect the Torah to teach you science things, or science to teach you ethics. You have to use the right tool for each thing.
So they pretty much got that. "Anyway, here's the dimensions that the Torah said that the Ark was. 300 cubits by 50 cubits by 30 cubits. Now, if that's not giving us a Science true thing, it must be a Torah true thing. A Rabbi was looking at these numbers, and trying to figure out what kind of lesson this must mean. And, it turns out, that each Hebrew letter has a number associated with it."
I'd written the Hebrew alphabet with Gematra values next to it on the whiteboard. "What's 300?" and they yelled out "shin!" We got the lamed and the nun, that way, too.
"So," I continued, "this rabbi was looking at these three letters, and trying to figure out if he could make a word out of them. And he made the word 'lashon'. Which means 'tongue.'"
"Why did Hashem destroy the world in the story of Noah's ark?" I asked. "Because people were being mean to each other," the kids correctly answered.
"That's exactly right. And the rabbi figured that THIS was a clue to HOW they were being mean to each other. With their tongues. Hashem destroyed the world because people were teasing each other, and lying about each other, and spreading stories about each other."
The rest of the lesson on Lashon ha-Ra went okay. Although I didn't really come up with a good homework assignment for it.
See, at the staff meeting (the one where I was dressed as Jayne Cobb), the topic of bullying came up. Now, there isn't a big bullying problem that I can see in the Hebrew school, mainly because we're only there for two-and-a half hours a week, and the kids are always under adult supervision. But a lot of kids have been having problems in their regular schools. And we were trying to talk about if there was anything we could do, as religious instructors, to help give kids tools to deal with this.
Now, the bullying that they're really having trouble with is the emotional kind -- teasing and the like. One kid in my class said that she'd lost all of her friends, because someone had spread lies about her. And the only person who she still had left as a friend was someone she didn't even LIKE that much, but it was the only person who'd still talk to her. And my point in the staff meeting was that Judaism teaches that this is really serious stuff -- but it doesn't really offer many solutions. I mean, you could argue that someone who really humiliates people should be stoned to death, but you can't actually DO that in the modern world. But the point that some other teachers made was that, if nothing else, being told that the reason this hurts so bad is because IT'S ACTUALLY GODDAMNED SERIOUS, and it's NOT a failing in them for feeling bad, since this IS actually that bad -- that, even if that was ALL we could do, that would have some value. Validating their feelings was important, and useful enough to do for that reason alone.
So, anyway. We started with a bit of a fun activity, based on the story of the feathers in the wind. Then I started out the lesson proper by asking if anyone knew what story was read in the Torah the day before, on that Shabbat. Nobody knew, and I asked, "Well, would it be something from the beginning, the middle, or towards the end of the Torah?" and they were able to figure that, since Simchat Torah was just a couple weeks ago, it would be right near the beginning. "So what are some stories that are right near the beginning of the Torah?", and the first one they named was the correct answer: Noah.
So I pulled out my prop -- the scale model of Noah's Ark that Dad and I made a couple years back. "Anyone want to guess what this is?"
"It's a box!"
"Actually, it's a model of something. . . this is a scale model of Noah's ark -- one-eighth inch equals one cubit. Who knows what a cubit is?" and we had a little fun measuring all our forearms against each other, discovering that, as expected, I had the longest cubit in the room, and Madeline had the shortest.
"The ark didn't look like that," one kid objected. "It had, like a bow on front, and a little house-like thing on the top!"
"Nope," I said, "according to the Torah, THIS is what the thing probably looked like. Anyway, those little drawings of people on the side of the ark, those would be the size that people would be. So, you can sort of get a feeling for how big the ark would have been."
They sort of nodded. "Okay -- now, could you REALLY put two of every kind of animal in something that big? I don't really think you could -- so that means that the story of Noah's ark must be Torah true, but not Science true."
I've been teaching them the ideas of "Torah true" vs. "Science true." "Science" tells us stuff about how things work, how things happen physically and stuff. The Torah teaches us stuff about what things MEAN, what proper action is, what is right and wrong. They're both important, but it's stupid to expect the Torah to teach you science things, or science to teach you ethics. You have to use the right tool for each thing.
So they pretty much got that. "Anyway, here's the dimensions that the Torah said that the Ark was. 300 cubits by 50 cubits by 30 cubits. Now, if that's not giving us a Science true thing, it must be a Torah true thing. A Rabbi was looking at these numbers, and trying to figure out what kind of lesson this must mean. And, it turns out, that each Hebrew letter has a number associated with it."
I'd written the Hebrew alphabet with Gematra values next to it on the whiteboard. "What's 300?" and they yelled out "shin!" We got the lamed and the nun, that way, too.
"So," I continued, "this rabbi was looking at these three letters, and trying to figure out if he could make a word out of them. And he made the word 'lashon'. Which means 'tongue.'"
"Why did Hashem destroy the world in the story of Noah's ark?" I asked. "Because people were being mean to each other," the kids correctly answered.
"That's exactly right. And the rabbi figured that THIS was a clue to HOW they were being mean to each other. With their tongues. Hashem destroyed the world because people were teasing each other, and lying about each other, and spreading stories about each other."
The rest of the lesson on Lashon ha-Ra went okay. Although I didn't really come up with a good homework assignment for it.
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I liked that in principle. Then I saw where you went with it in this instance, and... I'm not so sure I like that. It makes reading the Torah sound rather like reading Tarot cards - you can find whatever lesson in it you want to find if you look hard enough. Leaving aside the question of the author intended it to be that open-ended, I think that philosophy makes it very easy to abuse the Torah for purposes of which a good person might not approve (as some Christians are widely accused of doing with the Bible). I'm not sure that's a good thing.
I don't mean to say you shouldn't have said that, and I happen to like the lesson you drew from the story... but something about it rubs me the wrong way. At 2am, I'm not certain I've adequately identified (either in my own mind or in this comment) exactly what that is.
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For instance, you're not allowed to make a ruling on law based primarily on a Gematra argument. Gematra is only to be used as a supplimental tool to get deeper insight.
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And isn't it nice that the Vatican is finally figuring out that whole scriptural truth/scientific truth thing?
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As a couple of others have said, that's a really good observation. Having people take what was going on seriously always made a big difference when I was a kid, even if nobody could do anything about the teasing.
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That's an awesome interpretation.
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I was thinking about this yesterday
What I was thinking was: suppose intelligent design was true. Suppose it could be proved that evolution is so complex and so beautiful that it had some mega spriritual being behind it. It still would not change that the science of evolution is taught in science class and the mega spiritual being part is taught in Sunday School. A science class is about the physical part, the theories, the investigation and the proofs of that level of reality.
Religion is where that level of reality meets the infinite, the awe inspiring. There is no conflict - it's just where each belongs. I love your Torah true and science true, what a wonderful way to express it.
And I agree if I had a Sunday School teacher like you maybe I would be a JewBoo rather than just the Boo! (with deference to recent Halloween)