Lest we think that it is only secular cultural literacy that many have spotty knowledge of, let's ask ourselves about what is being taught in our own schools about our heritage. Yup, ask what "Tanach" refers to and you will get Torah, Nevi'im and Kesuvim. So, I went one step further and asked "Can you name the Nevi'im Rishonim and the Nevi'im Achronim?" Only one male who could name them all from memory(educated way OOT), although quite a few females could. Then I framed the question differently to a different group: "Which of the following are NOT one of the Nevi'im--Yehoshua, Shoftim, Shmuel, Malachim, Hosea, Yoel, Amos, Ovadia, Yonah, Michah, Nachum, Havakuk, Tzefania, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi?" When asked this way, every single male either said "I don't know/I'm not sure" or eliminated at least one name from the list.
Just what is it that our boys are getting in all those hours/years spent in yeshiva? Not a full dose of Jewish cultural literacy.
8 comments:
C'mon! Everyone knows that Tanach is only studied by girls and maskilim.
*grr* I've been threatening for years to put my son in a skirt and send him to Bais Yaakov so that he can at least get SOME tanach study in...
Wonderful. Ignorant of secular AND religious subject matter.
So what DO they know? :)
when i was in high school we had to take the bechina yerushalmit, which tested nach, jewish philosophy (not the fluff machshava stuff), medieval and modern hebrew lit, etc.
EFREX:
LOL!
Blame for this shouldn't be on the boys alone. Abba, your school was different from most boys yeshivas today. They don't teach the boys nach so being culturally illiterate is coming from the schools. My boys were exposed to a little bit listening to their sisters talk about what they were learning in their Navi classes. Yeah, I laughed at your comment Efrex, but pretty sad though when Navi is considered as girlie stuff.
JS,
"Wonderful. Ignorant of secular AND religious subject matter.
So what DO they know? :)"
Racial slurs in multiple languages...
And that all gentiles do drugs, have tattoos, and are pregnant @ 16.
Just this morning someone asked me if he could publish, for a Purim joke, a peirush on a non-existent perek in Tzefaniah. I think he should probably append a disclaimer explaining it's just a joke...
JS - So what DO they know? :)
Gemara. Purportedly.
... Malachim ...
Hmmm, this must be the one that doesn't belong as I am not aware of any book of the Navi called "Angels" :-)
Hi great reading your ppost
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