Thread by @JoshuaCypess

1/ My kids know my pet-peeves and, thank God, are compassionate people who won't bring things up just to see me angry (outside of the standard parent-child education process). I describe these triggers as 'big red shiny buttons' based on ancient literature:

2/ My wife & I are both trained teachers, a rabbi & a rebbetzin both with MAs from Yeshiva University and PhDs in humanities/history, who care deeply about how to raise educated & ethical Modern Orthodox kids.

Which means, there are a lot of big red buttons to press.

3/ This comes up over Shabbat meals when they repeat divrei Torah they learned in school; but they aren't trying to get me to blow up, rather they're often disturbed by what they hear.

I've pledged to myself that I won't dispute their teachers unless 1 of 2 rules are violated:

4/ If I disagree with the 'vort' they've learned, I use discretion about my scholarly opposition, unless the lesson is (1) cruel/unethical and/or (2) avodah-zara (pagan influenced).

e.g. Og living 1000s of years is silly but not a rule violation. Rivka being 3 yrs old is.

5/ Moreover, I've taught them how to understand Midrash so as to avoid #Literalist traps. Midrash is very rarely meant to be taken literally, often it's purpose is to go entirely against logic so as to increase tension & be memorable.

6/ Another school in Midrash uses the diametric contradiction for apologetics: a character's actions that look wicked will be reinterpreted as commendable (and vice versa).

Having a wide knowledge of tradition can help navigate the contradictory goals of Midrash.

7/ Specifically, how to know when a Midrash is to be taken literally (e.g. Yiscah is Sarai), when it's clearly not (e.g. Melekh Ninveh is Pharaoh), when it's part of a debate (e.g. melekh chadash in Ex. 1:8) and when it started non-literal but many rabbis made it literal.

8/ The pattern and tenor of halakha helps distinguish when a Midrash is non-literal b/c making it so would require a violation of other areas of halakha

e.g. the shevatim marrying half-sisters violates cardinal rules even if it makes parshanut easier. Derekh eretz kadma L'torah.

9/ Then again, the #Literalist thinkers will fall into this trap repeatedly, and perforce create elaborate structures of illogic. In order to take a midrash literally, other areas of Chumash become non-sensical, so more nonsense is invented to reconcile everything.

10/ This endeavor not only insults the intellect & often go against halakhic ethics, but also requires modifying clear statements in Mikra.

Many times this comes about from a misplaced need to accept a rabbinic statement as gospel fact instead of contradictable opinion

11/ Knowing that Rashi can be disagreed with (see: everyone who wrote after him) mainly because Rashi is choosing one Midrash out of hundreds. If you know the original sources, you'll learn how to understand his choices (again, it helps to have an MA or PhD in Jewish studies)

12/ So my kids will tell me what they've learned & I'll see in their faces how they feel about it: does it bother them & why? If it's an ethical midrash, they're bothered by the logic errors or vice versa

Many times it's instinctive/intuitive reaction & I help them explore it

13/ Crucially, I must know their threshold & temperament, esp. as it relates to the "Antignos Dilemma" - ie. many people, possibly b/c of #Literalist thinking, often from egoistic anxiety, simply the world in a way that I must reject but they must embrace

https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1274059426253676545

14/ If there's anything I would preach about education is that we must show deference to taste & temperament. I can't know if my kids will love chassidut or mysticism - despite my rejection of it. My meaning is not (necessarily) their meaning.

15/ The benefit they will have over schoolmates is that since they're my kids, they likely have rare & esoteric cognitive tastes, and if I share them I can show them a whole world, but if I don't, I'll recognize & enable their different path

16/ One way this works in practice is: I recognize 80% of the religious world needs to live in #literalism, deny facts in favor of myth, and rewrite the world in order to make simplistic theodicy.

I lament this, of course, but it's futile to fight against built-in human nature.

17/ All I ask from the religious world is that even when the entire curriculum must be simple, literal-thinking, myth - the schools must ethically accept that halakha recognizes rationalism, anti-mysticism, and living according to Antignos and rejecting Baytus

18/ Or, put more charitably, when we say "eilu v'eilu" - both Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai are the words of God - that means two entirely different logic systems AND different temperaments. Compassion & tolerance (Hillel) vs. #Literalism (Shammai)

19/ Sadly, while my Beit Hillel aspiring attitude - to teach my opponent's position before my own, with confidence that my logic/ethics are strong - the gemara teaches us that Shammai rejected the whole notion (often with violence)
torahinmotion.org/discussions-an…

20/ The biggest lesson the entire world seems to resist is that every person is different and to ignore those differences is to deny their humanity. Yes, I draw the line at cruelty, selfishness & avoda-zara; but that's akin to the paradox of tolerance
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_o…

21/ I'm bringing all this up, despite it being too brief for my tastes, because I want to refer to a thread when it comes to understanding Midrash and the need to comprehend different temperaments in the pursuit of Torah.

22/ I have two lessons in particular that I taught over the past few weeks about (1) the sale of Yosef & (2) the role of women on Hanukkah, and both require a reconciling of Midrash and ethics/logic. BE"H, I'll get to them soon.

PS/ @threadreaderapp please unroll.

@threader_app please compile.