Renewing the old and sanctifying the new in education

 (Photo: Unsplash/Sincerely Media)

Hebrew academic and Jewish scholar Irene Lancaster reflects on what society can learn from the Jewish approach to education and the importance of nurturing the soul.

In Judaism there is a tradition that a Jewish child’s biblical education should start with the Book of Leviticus. One reason is that just as small children are pure, so their first educational experience should be an immersion in the laws of purity.

As we enter the new Jewish month of Nissan, the first of the year leading up to Pesach in the middle of the month, we also finish the Book of Exodus and embark on the Book of Leviticus.

Nissan, which also marks springtime, is all about purification of home, body and spirit, as we renew ourselves once again by re-enacting our Exodus from Egypt and rebirth as a people in the Promised Land. Fittingly, a new book about the great Rav Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935) has recently appeared and does just that.

The author, Rabbi Dr Marc Shapiro, is the author and has certainly opened our eyes and led us into the spiritual world of this great rabbi, who was chosen as first Chief Rabbi of Palestine under the British Mandate (1921-35).

Also fittingly for the season, the book is entitled ‘Renewing the Old Sanctifying the New: The Unique Vision of Rav Kook’. It is part of the respected Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, published by Liverpool University Press, just down the road!

Rav Kook has been written about more than any other rabbi in recent years. For, somehow, though born in 1865 on a dirt track in a Latvian hamlet, he seems, through intuition, wide reading, or both, to have become acutely aware of the signs of the times and regarded as something of a prophet for the new era.

He mastered all aspects of Jewish learning before emigrating to Jaffa, Israel, in 1904, where he hoped to implement his new vision for the Jewish people, and especially in the realm of education. And he also felt that these new insights could have appeal for the wider world.

In 1914 Rav Kook was trapped when visiting Germany at the outbreak of WWI. He took refuge in neutral Switzerland and then spent a couple of years in London as rabbi to the Orthodox community, where he helped to persuade people to sign the petition for the implementation of the 1917 Balfour Declaration. Subsequently, he returned to Palestine as first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of the whole country under the Mandate.

In the meantime Rav Kook had learned English while strolling with a student in Regent’s Park. On encountering the works of Rembrandt in one of London’s art galleries, he proclaimed that Rembrandt had a ‘Jewish soul.’

He deemed exercise to be of prime importance and sought to incorporate the latest scientific discoveries into the Jewish curriculum, even if they appeared to contradict traditional understanding of Biblical interpretations.

A Talmudic scholar himself, he nevertheless understood that not everyone is cut out for this type of in-depth and often rigid type of book study.

He therefore encouraged an educational curriculum which would put the needs of the student first. He saw a prime role for science, philosophy, and aggadah - the non-legal parts of the Talmud - as well as what he called ‘natural morality’.

In Europe, as well as now in Palestine, he encountered young people who had rejected tradition because their school curriculum had been too restricted. He was a poet and thinker for whom book knowledge was not enough. He believed that soul-searching was beneficial and that aspiring to reach G-d in a variety of ways was a noble enterprise and that traditional modes of Talmud study should be supplemented, at the very least.

In other words, Rav Kook’s aim was to keep every Jewish person within the fold, and to this end a wide and even controversial school curriculum was advisable. According to his view, Judaism wasn’t simply for a small intellectual elite, but for everyone.

As we in our own day are beset by problems in our contemporary educational system, with unhappy and depressed teaching staff and pupils alike, and with universities in disarray, an example of how Rav Kook’s curriculum worked in practice might not go amiss.

One of the first pupils of Rav Kook’s Merkaz Ha-Rav school in Jerusalem, set up when he was Chief Rabbi, was the young Shear Yashuv Cohen (1927-2016). Later, young Shear Yashuv fought for the Old City of Jerusalem in the 1948 War of Independence, was imprisoned in a Jordanian PoW Camp, became Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem and finally Chief Rabbi of Haifa, where I met him and was subsequently asked to translate his 2017 biography, Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen: Between War and Peace, which I translated. 

This is how he describes his school: "The Nazir [Shear Yashuv’s father] felt that the building of one’s spiritual character also required the study of secular studies, so as to create the completeness that includes both Torah [Jewish learning] and general education. To this end, and despite the family’s dire financial situation, he hired private teachers for the boy’s general education: grammar, languages, math and other secular subjects. When he completed this curriculum, the boy stood successfully for the British matriculation certificate."

This took place in the 1930s.

Later, Shear Yashuv describes his studies at Merkaz Ha-Rav, founded by Rav Kook according to his well-thought-out pioneering methods:

"Rabbi Charlap [a leading teacher at Merkaz and disciple of Rav Kook] used to teach Gemara [Talmud] in Yiddish … In contrast, my own studies with my father, the Nazir, were conducted only in [modern] Hebrew. This meant that at first I wasn’t able to understand Rabbi Charlap’s classes. But he felt truly responsible for his flock, and the little lamb mattered as much as the fully grown sheep, and so Rabbi Charlap would invite a group of us into his room to hear the lesson again, this time in [modern] Hebrew ...‘On the other hand, Rabbi Charlap did use [modern] Hebrew to teach his classes on Jewish thought. This was a most inspirational class … It would always open with the words, ‘’You’ve got to learn this; you’ve got to learn this!” 

The classes dealt with the very complex contemporary topics that occupied our thoughts, such as Faith and Science, Secular and Religious Zionism, Aloneness versus Togetherness, the Individual versus the Community, and how we relate to what the Pesach Haggadah calls ‘the Wicked Son’”.

"I once asked Rabbi Charlap why he started his classes with the words “You’ve got to learn this!” His answer was that everyone is aware of the importance of studying the legal aspects of Judaism, found in the Gemara and the Halakha [Jewish law], but he wanted everyone to realize that the non-legal aggadic texts are also essential learning. For if Halakha can be compared to the body of Torah teaching, then aggadah must be compared to the soul of Torah, and we must never give up on the soul."

This excerpt summarizes the implementation of Rav Kook’s educational aims during the first years in which his Jerusalem school was in operation. Marc Shapiro’s new book on Rav Kook’s innovative approach is as relevant today as it was then.

If education is to encompass the whole person, then the soul must indeed be nurtured. This is done by the study of modern, spoken languages, music and art, as well as sport. On the other hand, the novelties of science must also be tackled head-on.

Reading Dr Shapiro’s marvellous new book, so fitting for the beginning of Nissan, I have no doubt that religious practitioners would be much encouraged to deal with the neo-atheists who mock biblical teachings, and would be better able to engage them positively in debate, using the insights of Rav Kook.

If people who espouse a religious tradition remain open and are equipped with the tools to avoid being on the defensive, who knows what miracles might occur, with the much-needed revitalization of the West’s contemporary life, in which religion would play its proper part.

I highly recommend this book for Jewish and Christian readers alike. There is much to learn, much to astonish, much to enjoy, and much to share.