One way to strengthen Jewish educational excellence in our day schools is to devote a much larger chunk of instructional time to textual-experiential, affective-oriented study of why we do what we do as Jews. When we involve our students in an experience that empowers them to understand how our religious rituals can help us thrive as human beings—existentially, psychologically, or communally—they bond with those rituals for life.
One example is showing them how the ritual of building, joyfully living in, and then breaking down a sukkah each fall is meant to impress upon us the fragility and ephemeral nature of our life here on earth. At Pardes, we teach our teachers-in-training about this idea by having them, after considering the deeper meaning of the Kohelet leitwort “hevel” as “fleeting,” construct a mandala, made out of feathers, beads, blocks, and other craft items.
In silence, they work together to make a beautiful and symmetrical circle, which in Buddhist tradition, represents impermanence. After ten minutes (during which they listen to a playlist of Kohelet-originated songs such as “Lakol Zman Ve’et” and “Turn, Turn, Turn”), they are instructed to take a long look at the mandala they have formed, and then begin to dismantle what they have made.
After inviting them to share how this experience has made them feel, we then study classical texts (from the Mishnah, and from Rav Kook’s writings) that demonstrate Judaism’s goals in having us build, joyfully live in, and break down a temporary abode each year.
When they experience an activity that makes them feel a certain way, and then see the Jewish texts that drill down on and deepen the ideas that go along with those feelings, they then understand, both viscerally and cognitively, why Judaism enjoins us to do the things we do.
