Limudei Qodesh

Limudei Qodesh classes are designed to generate learning experiences that provide students with the skills, knowledge, and most important, the disposition to continue to interact with biblical and rabbinic texts throughout their lives. Students are encouraged to see this ongoing interaction as part of their own, constantly developing and growing identity as Jews. As part of this process, students develop an awareness and appreciation of the multiple voices of the text, separate and distinct from their own personal thoughts. Stressing the value of critical thinking, classes are designed to help students learn the skills necessary to engage in close, thoughtful, and reflective readings of the text. Students learn both to raise questions based on their textual studies and to develop the skills necessary to locate textual evidence to support their own conjectures and interpretations. Fundamental to the structure of all Limudei Qodesh classes is the idea that respectful and thoughtful interactions with others serve to sharpen and refine our own positions. Thus students learn to listen carefully to each other and to respond seriously and thoughtfully to the other learners in their classrooms. In order to help students develop the textual skills necessary to continue to learn texts in the original language after high school, classes stress the grammatical and hermeneutical structures central to understanding biblical and rabbinic texts.

All four years of the curriculum cohere around an examination of the ברית brit (covenant) between God and the Jewish People. Among the fundamental questions that guide the students’ textual explorations over the four years are the following:

• What does it mean for humans to be in a ברית brit relationship with God?
• What are the responsibilities and expectations of both parties?
• What forms of leadership and authority can help to sustain this relationship over time?
• What role does law play in this relationship, and what are the religious values and institutions that serve as the legal structure for safeguarding the relationship?

Students in ninth grade study those moments in ספר בראשית (Sefer Bereshit, the Book of Genesis) when the Divine-human relationship is most sharply defined as an expression of ברית brit. Through selected סוגיות (sugyot, portions) from the Talmud, מסכת ברכות (Masekhet Brachot, Tractate of Blessing), students examine תפילה (tefillah, prayer) as a manifestation of the brit. Building on the contextual and textual framework from ninth grade, Limudei Qodesh in tenth grade explores the concept of brit at the national level. An exploration of שמות (Shemot, Exodus) allows students to confront the way in which all laws, both religious and civil, serve to actualize the nationalization and codification of the brit between God and humans. Selections from מסכת בבא קמא (Masekhet Bava Kamma, Tractate Bava Kamma) help students to examine the interplay between civil laws and religious values. In the eleventh grade, students further explore the covenantal relationship between God and nation as they move forward together through history, focusing on the concepts of continuity and transition. Using ספר במדבר (Sefer Bamidbar, The Book of Numbers), ספר שמואל (Sefer Shemuel, The Book of Samuel), and מסכת סנהדרין (Tractate Sanhedrin) as fundamental texts, students investigate the changing forms of leadership that emerge in the biblical and rabbinic periods, as well as the legislative and judicial institutions that structure Jewish society and help the community enact its value system. Twelfth grade students conclude their study of Tanakh with ספר מלכים (Sefer Melakhim, the Book of Kings,) as they investigate the impact that the covenantal relationship has on the rise and fall of the Israelite nation. The analysis of the ברית brit, the words of the prophets, and the trials of the nation lead to a continuous inquiry into what it means to be in a relationship with God. Issues of theology form the core of the twelfth grade courses in Talmud and Jewish thought, as students work towards articulating their own personal theology and how this theology affects their lives.