Eugene Kohn

“ Their fathers, who in youth had been slaves to Pharaoh, had grown up with backs bent by the burdens they had to carry. Many of them had been permanently weakened and even deformed by the hard treatment they had received in Egypt. But their children, who had grown up in the wilderness and had lived all their lives out of doors, with plenty of fresh air and healthful exercise, and with no one to make them work at labor that was too hard for them, grew up straight and sturdy, broad-shouldered and muscular, like well-trained athletes. ”

“ And that is exactly the way the Egyptians began to feel towards our forefathers, when they saw that they would not worship the gods of the Egyptians, and that they kept up their own religious practices and spoke their own language; and when a new Pharaoh arose who had forgotten all about Joseph and the good he had done to Egypt, a man from an altogether different family than the Pharaoh of Joseph's time and from a different part of the country, the Egyptians began making laws against the Jews. ”

“ He rehearses their history and in words of passionate appeal admonishes them in song and prophecy to be faithful to the covenant, as the very life of the nation depended thereon. And he provides during his lifetime for a successor to his labors and secures for him the popular allegiance. Then, with his life-work completed but with all earthly reward for it withheld, he ascends the mountain to behold the Land of Promise and dies content with seeing in prophetic vision the consummation which a less divinely meek man would have demanded to see in realization. ”

“ We must not only give [19] a Jewish moral to each episode in the Biblical narrative but we must give the child the specific moral that the Bible itself attaches to that episode. If we take our Bible seriously, if we regard its interpretation of the events of our history as essentially true, as indeed part of the Torah, a divine revelation, then it becomes our duty to give this interpretation of events and not another to our children. ”

“ For whoever considers from this point of view the way in which Biblical history is taught must come to the conclusion that not only are we not realizing to the full the educational values which the study of Biblical history affords, but we are often giving our children very false notions of the Bible characters and of the lessons which the story of their lives is intended to teach Israel. To develop a good course of study in Biblical history cannot be the work of one man nor can it be done at one time. ”

“ Of what use were the tablets of the law if the law itself was not held sacred?
Moses' motive for ordering the death of the offenders must be explained as not being due to hatred, but to his realizing that if such a measure were not taken, the rest of the people would be led into further sin, which would necessitate the destruction of the whole people as punishment for their wickedness, just as a surgeon [181] may amputate a limb to save a life. ”

“ We are not loath to attach a moral to the stories we tell our children, but where we fail is that we imagine any moral which we can read into the story is satisfactory. We have already shown how the consideration of the aim of instruction in Biblical history, from the point of view of traditional Judaism, opposes this method and limits the moral which should be taught in connection with any given story, but the consideration of the subject-matter to be taught limits it still further. ”

“ The first thing that we must bear in mind is that the aim of all Jewish education must be a Jewish life; that the aim of each branch of Jewish study must be formulated not primarily in terms of information to be conveyed, but of Jewish habits of thought and action to be cultivated. It follows that Biblical history as taught by a Jew who believes in the authority of the Torah and the mitzvoth over our lives must be very different from the same subject as taught by one to whom Judaism is merely a number of moral maxims and the dogma of the unity. ”

“ They knew that there was one God, whom they could not see, who made the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them, but the Egyptians worshipped many gods. They had sacred bulls and sacred cows and sacred cats, and even a sacred bug—a kind of beetle. The Israelites in Egypt understood that they were not to become Egyptians, but that God would some day lead them out of Egypt to their own land of Palestine, as He had promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So they continued to speak their own language, Hebrew, and to maintain their religion. ”

“ After insisting upon the recognition of the God who redeemed Israel from Egypt as the sole source of all authority and the sole object of worship, and endeavoring to secure the acknowledgment of these claims by enjoining reverence for God's name, this code lays down laws governing all the most important human relations. It insists on the sanctity of the home, both in the tie between husband and wife, and between parent and child. It insists on the sacredness of human life, and guarantees the right of property, which is essential to human development. ”

“ Why did not Joseph at once make himself known to his brothers? Why did Joseph speak harshly to them and accuse them of being spies? Did Joseph's brothers know that he understood them when they spoke to each other? Why not? What is a spy? When Joseph's brothers thought that they would be treated as spies, for what deed did they think this a punishment? Why did Joseph keep Simeon prisoner? Why did Joseph return the money of his brothers? What did his brothers think was his reason for returning it? Why did not Jacob want to let Benjamin go with his brothers to Egypt? ”

“ Now when Hagar saw that God had given a son to Sarah also as the angel had promised and that this son Isaac and not her own Ishmael was the one to whom God told Abraham he would give the land of Canaan and whose children would be the great Jewish people, she became jealous and hated Sarah very much and even Sarah's little baby Isaac. And Ishmael too, who was now grown up into a big wild boy—you remember the angel had said he would be a wild man when he grew up—also was jealous of Isaac. ”

“ If we were merely teaching Jewish history as such and looked upon the Bible merely as the source book of this history we might tell the story of the Exodus somewhat in this fashion:
"The children of Israel who had at the beginning of their sojourn in Egypt been well treated by the Egyptian rulers, owing to a change of dynasty were subjected to oppression and forced to do servile labor for the Pharaohs. ”

“ Hood, and the story of the Akedah is one which can, by very reason of what to our modern mind appeals as weird, impress its lesson on the child's imagination. To pass over it slightingly is to spoil what is undoubtedly the climax of the whole Abraham story and ignore one of the best opportunities of deeply impressing the child with the lesson of faith, obedience and self sacrifice. ”

“ The idea that God does not desire human sacrifice was a great moral discovery and this narrative in our Bible gives us an interesting illustration of how such new spiritual insights in general are born; namely through the willingness to commit ourselves completely to whatever vision of truth is ours at the time. It was because Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac in accordance with his previous sense of what duty demanded of him, that this new revelation of God's will as opposed to human sacrifice was granted him. ”

“ When Ishmael is born, Abram thinks that he is to be the child of destiny and it is one of the tests to which his faith is put when, after the birth of Ishmael, God tells him that not this son but another, who is to be born to Sarai, is to be his heir. The point of all this is that the history of the patriarchs is not merely personal biography but that its real significance is to be understood as showing the care that God exercised in selecting the material out of which the chosen people was to be moulded. ”

“ The punishment of the people at Kibroth-hattaavah is an excellent example of how inordinate desire brings its own punishment, and suggests, as one of the grounds for loyalty, submission and discipline, the fact that what we most desire is not always what is most beneficial for us, a very important moral for children.
The sin of Miriam is described by the Rabbis as lashon ha-ra' "slander," Its lesson is that it is wrong not merely to rebel against righteous leadership, but even to detract from the honor that is due to noble characters. ”

“ The faults of this slave people that needed correction are graphically illustrated in the picture the Bible draws of the reception with which the words of the ten spies and of Joshua and Caleb respectively met: the panic and rebellion, the ineffectual wailing, the clamor for a new leader to lead them back to Egypt and the threats to stone their present leaders. The sublime devotion of Moses is again pictured to us in his pleas for the people and his refusal of a glorious future for himself and his seed in which Israel should have no share. ”

“ Frightened as they had been at the thought of making war against the giant Canaanites in their walled cities, they were even more frightened at the thought of having to wander forty long years more in the wilderness, all the rest of their lives in fact, and never even seeing the land which God had promised to their fathers where, all this time, they had thought that they would at least find rest from their hardships and toils. ”

“ Attempt to make the child realize the heinousness of the offense involved in the making of the golden calf, as idolatry is so remote from the child's experience, that he is not likely to be much impressed by the significance of it. Emphasize not merely the disobedience involved in violation of the Second Commandment, but the blasphemy involved in conceiving of God in animal form. The emotional attitude which the teacher should endeavor to create should be that which led our forefathers always to speak of the gods of other nations as the "abominations" of the heathen. ”

“ We sometimes excuse to ourselves the perversion of the Biblical moral on the ground that because children are children they frequently cannot grasp what is really the Biblical lesson. If in any given instance this is the case, it is better not to teach that story at all to the child than to falsify it. But usually the ideas of the Bible can be brought home to the child if we but take the trouble to translate them into the language of childhood and illustrate them out of the child's own experience. ”

“ On this occasion Judah, the very one who had proposed selling Joseph, makes his eloquent plea in behalf of Benjamin, a speech which reveals his deep sympathy with his father's grief, and appreciation of what the loss of Joseph meant to his father, and the willingness to sacrifice his own liberty for Joseph's brother Benjamin, who had, as the son of Rachel, taken Joseph's place in the heart of Jacob. Joseph could wish no further evidence of his brothers' change of heart and it is no wonder that he "could not refrain himself" any longer. ”

“ When he would see the children of his neighbors at play with their bright eyes and laughing faces, he would think, "If only I had a little child like that how happy I should be and what delight it would be to watch him grow big and strong! ”

“ Little need be said by way of interpretation of this episode, as the Biblical narrative makes its point very clear. It shows us the consequences of a lack of faith and of a lack of that courage which faith inspires. As a substitute for this courage born of faith, not even the fury of despair can avail. This is illustrated by the disastrous defeat of the Israelites when, spurred on by their fear of facing the punishment for their previous cowardice, they finally do rush to the attack contrary to the advice of Moses, leaving the ark of the covenant behind them. ”

“ And the Lord spoke unto Moses: "Depart, go up hence, thou and the people that thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt unto the land of which I swore unto Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, saying: 'Unto thy seed will I give it', and I will send an angel before thee and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiff-necked people; lest I consume thee in the way." (Exodus 33. 1-3.) ”

“ He is ready to permit the men to go, provided they leave the women and children as hostages biding their return. When this concession is rejected, his fury leads him again into a mad defiance. The ninth plague makes him seek once more to appease Moses and Aaron. He is ready now even to let the women and children go, only the cattle must remain in Egypt. But Moses is firm; the cattle were needed for sacrifice. Nothing less than a complete exodus of all the people with their possessions for a three days' journey into the wilderness to worship God on His holy mountain would satisfy Moses. ”

“ Before the child reaches adolescence, analysis of character is not natural to him, and the discussion of men's virtues and vices fruitless, but imitation of character is natural, and hero-worship is the lever by which he may be moved to acquire a love for virtue and a disgust with vice.
In order to put the character of Moses in a heroic light make the class appreciate the depth of the ingratitude and treachery against which Moses had constantly to contend, and how difficult this made his task of leadership. Begin by calling on a child to tell the story of the preceding lesson. ”

“ No, for Moses, although he had not hesitated to punish his people according to God's command, loved them as a father loves his children, even when they do wrong, and it hurt him to think that God was angry with them, even though he himself enjoyed God's favor. ”

“ The story of Joseph as told in the Bible is so wonderfully impressive in its simplicity for the child as well as for the adult that the only advice one feels inclined to give to the teacher of this story is that he should model his narrative as closely as possible upon the lines of the Biblical story itself. ”

“ The interest of the children in the plagues must not, however, be merely due to their interest in the marvelous. Endeavor to interest them primarily in the contest between God and Pharaoh. All the conversations between Pharaoh and Moses must be told as nearly as possible in the language of the Bible, so that the child is made to feel the strength of the firm insistence of Moses and the weakness of Pharaoh's vacillating and temporizing attitude. Unless at the end of the lesson the child is filled with admiration for Moses and contempt for Pharaoh, the teacher has not taught the lesson well. ”

“ The idea of the birthright can be explained by saying that in the days of which we are speaking the father used to be the king over all his children and their families and servants, that he used to lead them in war and judge all their disputes in time of peace, and that he was also their priest, who used to perform the sacrifices for them and lead them in their prayers and hymns to God, but that, when the father died, the oldest son got all these rights and this right of the oldest son to become priest and king after the death of the father is known as the birthright. ”

“ But this moral is too abstract and complex for the child and must only be kept in mind by the teacher in order that he should not teach the lesson in such a way as would later becloud the true meaning of the story, as, for example, would be the case if he made Jacob throughout his whole life the ideal religious hero. The immediate lesson that the child can be taught to derive from the story is that humble trust in God and obedience to His will can achieve for us what a cunning that does not scruple at deceit cannot achieve. ”

“ In describing Jacob's wrestling with the angel do not read a far-fetched moral into it. Merely explain that God sent an angel to wrestle with Jacob and that if Jacob could make the angel bless him that would be the sign that he was strong enough and great enough and good enough to be the father of the Jewish people. The blessing of the angel should be given in direct discourse. In teaching the change of name from Jacob to Israel, call attention to the fact that we Jews are sometimes called Children of Israel or Israelites because we are all descended from Israel. ”