A theoretical discourse on educational motivation in Judaism and Jewish literature must be understood not as a pedagogic problem for children but as a serious issue for adults. It revolves around the concept of Torah lishmah (T"L) – Torah study for its own sake. To such a distinguished assembly, I need not elaborate on the virtue of T"L. The sixth chapter of Pirkei Avot is a poetic tribute to it, and countless sources throughout our Talmudic, ethical, and devotional literature extol its greatness. Yet while its significance is beyond dispute, its definition remains contested – and that definition is crucial to this conference's theme, “Beyond the Four Walls.” Motivation lies beyond school or home, deep within soul and psyche. The Talmud says of Torah, “it is not across the sea,” but also “not in heaven.” There was never unanimity on the meaning of T"L – indeed, it was a key point of contention between the early Hasidim and Mitnagdim. Interestingly, definitions of T"L fall into three categories corresponding to Saadia Gaon’s classic division of personality – will, emotion, and intellect – which echoes Plato’s triadic soul structure and reappears in thinkers like Paul Tillich. First is the pragmatic view, expressed by the Tosafists and others, including R. Elijah de Vidas, that Torah should be studied to improve one’s behavior. Second is the devotional view, rooted in Lurianic Kabbalah and Hasidism, that Torah is a means to cleave to God – Torah as religious experience. Third is the intellectual view, advanced by R. Hayyim of Volozhin in Nefesh HaHayyim, that the motivation should be the pursuit of knowledge itself. We shall not adjudicate between these views; all are authentically Jewish. The challenge is that all three are largely irrelevant in our cultural context. America may be pragmatic, but not in the sense of na’aseh ve-nishma – a desire to behave like a Jew cannot be taken for granted. The devotional path is rarer still, limited to esoteric existentialists w…

It is very hard not to sound a bit over-sentimental and saccharine at a time of this sort. It is rather sad to close shop and call an end to our Seminar of 1968. These seven or eight days that we have been together at Camp Morasha have been a highly concentrated period, equivalent to a much longer time. We have gotten to know each other quite intensely. We have experienced much more in this week than people ordinarily do in weeks or even months. To an extent, this period may form a signifleant portion of our lives. I am fairly sure that there are people in this dining room tonight for whom this week represents a turning point in their lives. Something very decisive has happened to them. Henceforth their careers, their futures, their destinies, are going to be much different from what they would have been had they not been here today. So this evening is like the end of a chumash. When you end one book of the Bible and begin the next, there are three words that the congregation recites while rising: ”Chazak, chazak, ve*nitיchazek -- Be strong, be strong, and let us find strength in each other.” Chazak implies the strength of courage. That is going to be my theme for this evening -- the theme of courage, specifically three kinds of courage. The first form of courage that I recommend to you is the courage to grow up fast. There is no time to squander on leisurely -2- childishness in the world we live in. Socially, militarily, politically, and especially Jewishly, the stream of events flows too quickly to allow time for "kid stuff" for people your age. Our world is hungry for adult minds. Nature does not share our human prediliction for coddling people until they are eighteen or twenty. If the youngest of you here were a bird, by this age your mother would long ago have shoved you out of her nest and you would be on your own. If you were a member of any other species, nature would not tolerate that gap in age that we humans have invented and called "adolescence" or "tee…

The Talmud (Ber. 17B) uses the term takhlit, purpose, in discussing what should be the lasting outcomes of Jewish education. מרגלא בפומיה דרבא – תכלית חכחמה תשובה ומעשים טובים. Rava used to say: the takhlit of wisdom is teshuvah (the transformation of personality) and maasim tovim (good deeds). A parallel that immediately comes to mind is the Platonic tri-partite soul. Plato divides the soul into three: the cognitive, or intellectual; the effective, or emotional; and the volitional, that which commits a man to action. In medieval Hebrew thought these were known as sekhel, regesh, and ratzon. What Rava does is to place the first at the service of the latter two. In contemporary terms we would say: the purpose of learn- ing, the takhlit we seek, is the commitment to Jewish action and to the sense of Jewish identity. Jewish education endeavors to produce, first, young men and women who will live their personal lives in a Jewish manner, and participate fully in the affairs and concerns of the Jewish community, both locally and throughout the world. Second, and even more fundamentally, it seeks to secure in him or her an inner sense of identity as a Jew, the transformation of the student’s personality from some- thing Jewishly unformed to something Jewishly informed: its Judaization. We want the product of all our efforts to be Jewish both inwardly and outwardly, psychologically and practically. Of course, those who have differing Jewish commitments will vary in their interpretations of these ideals. From the stand- point of Jewish tradition, it would be necessary for a young man, for instance, to be acquainted with Talmud, to study Torah every day, and to observe kashrut, Shabbat, taharat ha- mishpachah. For others, the standards may be different. But all Jewish educators can agree on the general rubric of “feeling Jewish” and of acting Jewishly. II Now, teachers today — and perhaps it was always that way — are caught in a terrible bind. Economically, socially, cultur…

I concede, at the outset, that I have many more questions than answers, and that contemplation of the subject assigned to me leaves me more puzzled than enlightened. At the beginning of this century, Ambrose Bierce defined "education" as "that which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding." The truth in that statement does not diminish with age. In an effort to avoid playing the fool, I shall make no pretense to greater understanding than I possess. I shall bear in mind what Alfred North Whitehead said after hearing Lord Bertrand Russell lecture on quantum theory at Harvard: "I congratulate Lord Russell for leaving the vast darkness of the subject unobscured". Permit me to do just that: to respect the "vast darkness" of the subject, to make no effort to unravel the fundamental mystery that lies at the heart of the educative process and the teacher-student relationship. I shall merely endeavor to remove some of the obscurity covering the darkness and the mystery by discussing four myths or half-truths that have afflicted us this past half-century. Perceptive teachers recognize these sanctified untruths for what they are ; however, as long as they remain unidentified they impair the work of the Jewish educator and have done so this past half century and more.MYTH NO. 1: "Children Don't Want to Learn." This unspoken assumption imposes an obvious handicap upon the teacher. But it is only a half-truth. הספר On a general, theoretical level, it is true that there is a natural resistance to school and learning. The Sages, commenting upon the reluctance of Israel to stay on at Sinai after the Revelation, compared the Israelites to תינוק a child fleeing from school. The aversion of children to learning is no new phenomenon. Yet, that can hardly be the whole story. It may be as much a reflection on the school system in the days of the Sages as an expression of some universal, innate anti-intellectualism. At any rate, such tendency is c…

Any discussion of Jewish education in the coming decade stands to benefit much from Dean Henchey's cogent analysis of the general educational scene. Because Jews do not live in a vacuum, or even – in the open, democratic, and pluralistic society of North America – in hermetically sealed enclaves, what he has to say about the contours of society as they are beginning to emerge for the 1980s must clearly enrich any analyses and prescriptions that we may offer for Jewish education in particular. However, because of the peculiar nature of our community and our concerns, our focus must simultaneously be somewhat narrower and somewhat broader. It must be narrower, because as a minority (irrespective of the degree of our creativity) we are bound to operate within the social parameters, communal structures, and cultural paradigms which our whole society sets for us. Perhaps it would be more courageous to speak of rejecting these structures and paradigms and reaching out boldly for something radically different. But realistically, that will not happen, certainly not when one considers how intimately and intricately North American Jewry is tied in with the mainstream of Western civilization and, even more, with the cutting edge of its most progressive elements. The best we can do — and this must never be denigrated — is to seek out creatively those nooks and crannies within these structures which we consider more amenable to Jewish development, more accessible to Jewish aspiration, and more compatible with Jewish values and principles. It is here that collective innovation is possible for us. Our focus must be broader because our educational concerns embrace not only the transmission of knowledge — of the cognitive and abstract elements of culture per se — but the whole gamut of Torah, which is as broad as life itself. For the Jewish educator, character and religious conduct and morality are not merely the consequences of education, but the very substance and stuff of educat…

The death of Rabbi Moshe Besdin is an occasion of deep bereavement not only for his loving family, many friends, and former congregants, but especially for Yeshiva University – of which he was a proud and loyal son, and which he served with great distinction, love, and dedication. This funeral takes place almost six years to the day that the late Dr. Samuel Belkin, of blessed memory, passed away. And it is my sad duty to speak the eulogy over a distinguished member of Yeshiva's faculties for the third time in two months.Rabbi Besdin, the greatest of all our educators, was in almost every way unique. He was a humble man who bore his humility naturally. His modesty was genuine, not in the least contrived. He possessed remarkable self-knowledge: he completely appreciated his own strengths, especially his superior pedagogic talents, without a trace of false humility and without a scintilla of superciliousness or arrogance. His intellectual integrity and love of truth were so powerful that he was able to view himself with astounding objectivity.Thus, when Moshe Besdin referred to himself as a melamed, it was more than mere playfulness and was certainly not an affectation. It was, rather, an accurate professional description — and a self-identification that lent glory to the entire teaching profession and shed lustre on all who strive to be marbitzei Torah. If ever the term "melamed" had a degree of opprobrium to it, Rabbi Besdin changed all that and made of it an honorific title.He often spoke of having learned how to teach from his late father whom, herevered deeply. But the ability to teach was for Moshe Besdin not an acquired gift, not even a vocation or profession or mission; teaching and teaching ability were part and parcel of his personality. He was a teacher when he taught, when he talked, when he joked, when he preached, when he learned.He was, indeed, the melamed par excellence. In educational philosophy he was essentially a traditionalist. He was an educatio…

Rabbi Lamm examines biblical models for addressing the challenges of raising children in the modern world.

"Arbaim shanah akut be'dor" – For forty years our generation struggled to understand the mystery of those fatal years of the Holocaust. Neither our speech nor our silence helped us to uncover the secrets of God or of man. Perhaps we shall have to wait another forty or another four hundred years, or perhaps we shall never be wise enough even to know how to react. But events march on, and history does not permit us the luxury of contemplation. Hence, some reactions began to emerge fairly quickly. The first and enormously significant response to the Holocaust was the political one: the founding of the State of Israel. Powerlessness would never again be considered a Jewish virtue. The desperate struggles of the heroic Jewish fighters in Warsaw and elsewhere were metamorphosed into the pride of statehood and the military confidence of the Israeli Defense Forces. Today, the future of the Jewish people is unthinkable without the State of Israel.Another response has been a holy, compulsive drive to record and testify. We do not want to forget, and we do not want the world to forget. We have resolved to keep the memory of our Kedoshim alive by demonstrations and by meetings such as this. And many of us have undertaken projects of sculpture and art and museums and exhibits to perpetuate the memory of the Six Million. As the years slip by and memory begins to fade, we desperately want to prevent their anguish and blood and cry from being swallowed up by the misty, gaping hole of eternal silence, banished from the annals of man by the Angel of Forgetfulness.The efforts at remembering and reminding must continue. As long as so-called “revisionist historians” deny that the Holocaust occurred; as long as Babi Yar and Buchenwald behind the Iron Curtain contain almost no reference to Jews; as long as it is even conceivable that an American administration, which preaches more compassion for the victim than for the criminal on the domestic front, can see nothing wrong in its Presiden…

דברים בטקס קבלת תואר "עמית כבוד" בכנס ארגון המורים הדתיים בישראל נחום לאם נשיא "ישיבה אוניברסיטה," ניו יורק הפלא ופלא: הנה מדינה אשר בעית השלום היא כמעט הנושא היחידי בכל כנס, בכל אסיפה, בכל פגישה מקרית, אפילו בשיחה קלה שבין איש ואשתו. ישראל היום היא חברה שהיא כקדירה רותחת שאינה נחה מרתיחתה אפילו לרגע. והתקופה היא עידן שפוליטיקה ומדיניות נוגעות ישירות לחיי כל אזרח ואזרח. מידת החום של הויכוחים עולה משעה לשעה, והמתח והכעס והדאגות מתגברים, והכל בקולי-קולות. ובסביבה שכזאת מתאסף קהל נכבד של אנשים נבונים במעמד נכבדי האומה, לגמור את ההלל על מספר אנשים ונשים יקרים, שכל מלאכתם נעשית בצנעה ובהשקט, וכל חייהם מוקדשים לנושא צנוע ושליו: החינוך. היתכן דבר שכזה? האם אינו אבסורדי? והתשובה היא, ייתכן וייתכן, ואין שום אבסורד בו! אדרבא, מגיע לכם יישר-כוח על הכישרון לגזול שעתיים מן ההווה הרועש והסואן לטובת העתיד המעורפל לטווח ארוך, ולהכיר שהעתיד הזה ייחרץ לפי טיב החינוך של בנינו ובנותינו לא פחות מאשר על ידי ההחלטות הגורליות במישור המדיני והפוליטי. הנושא שלכם־-שלנו הוא: נשמת העם כולו. אסור, וגם אי אפשר להזניח, ואפילו לדחות את דרישות הנפש היהודית לעוד שנה ולעוד שנה. תשואות חן חן לכם! רק דבר אחד אינני מבין: מדוע בחרתם בי, איש הגולה, לכבדני ברשימה המרשימה הזאת של "יקירי החינוך הדתי". יודע אני שיש גדולים וטובים ממני שמגיע להם כבוד זה של "עמית כבוד". אלא שבכל זאת קיבלתי את הצל״ש הזה מפני מעשה שהיה. מספרים על הרי טרומן, שהיה אז נשיא ארה״ב, שהזמין אדם למשרדו למנות אותו כראש מחלקה חשובה בממשלה. הלה התפאר בכבוד שניתן לו, אבל מתוך נימוס התחיל לסרב ואמר, "אני מכיר לפחות מאה אנשים חשובים ממני שמגיע להם הכבוד הזה." הנשיא טרומן השיב, "אמנם כן, אבל טלפנתי לכל אחד מהם, וכולם סירבו"... האמת, לא ענווה פסולה, ואף לא ענווה כשרה מדברת מתוך גרוני, כשאני אומר שכבוד זה שחלקתם לי, לא לי כיחיד מכוון, אלא לי כנציג ציבור חשוב בארה״ב, כלומר, החינוך הדתי שהוא מקביל, בערך, לחינוך הדתי-לאומי בארץ. ואני מברך אתכם על ההכרה שיש להדק את הקשרים עם זרם חינוכי זה בארה״ב, קשר שיש בכוחו להביא תועלת למוסדות החינוך השונים, לעם כולו, ובעיקר - לתלמידים גם הכא גם התם. מה טיבו של החינוך בזרם זה שלנו בארה״ב? רובו ככולו של החינוך היסוד…

Rabbi Lamm considers the significance of Jewish education for women in the modern world.