Education

Historical-critical and text-critical approaches to the Torah have a strong precedent in classical rabbinic literature. Yet Orthodox Jewish communities today pointedly resist these methods. It is time that critical thinking about the Torah be embraced within our educational systems.

The interest in Project TABS – TheTorah.com has been widespread across many communities, but the extensive interest in the Orthodox community may seem surprising for some, and likely would not have been the case a decade ago. In this essay, Prof. Chaim Waxman, a prominent scholar of Jewish sociology, offers an analysis of why the approach taken by TABS has found such a large audience among the Orthodox at this time.

The Israelite-Samaritan interpretation of “you should afflict your souls” (ועניתם את נפשתיכם) and our experience of Yom Kippur.

The study of biblical criticism cuts to the very meaning of the value system of Modern Orthodoxy, i.e. forging a distinctive synthesis of modern culture with traditional values.

Moses and R. Judah HaNasi implore: “I would be most grateful if you would maintain the Torah after me.”^[1]

The Torah describes God’s fashioning the firmament (רקיע) on the second day of creation. This piece of the universe, however, doesn’t actually exist—a problem obfuscated in my yeshiva education.

After years of yeshiva education and even Orthodox semicha, encountering biblical criticism was a shock to my system. However, my initial fear and disorientation gave way to a new bottom-line understanding of Torah, and it has become part of the message that I use to inspire my students on campus.