“The People of the Book” Middle School Educators Guide

To mark Rabbi Sacks’ fourth yahrzeit, we invite you to participate in the Rabbi Sacks Global Day of Learning celebrating his life, legacy and teachings.

This year’s theme, 'The People of the Book', reflects a concept that Rabbi Sacks cherished – a commitment to learning, dialogue and the power of ideas.

This theme is particularly meaningful as Rabbi Sacks’ personal archive arrived at the National Library of Israel this year. His landmark speech, The Home of the Book for the People of the Book, was delivered at the foundation stone laying of the new National Library building, excerpts of which can be found on this source sheet.

It is powerful to know that people of all ages across the world will be exploring the same ideas from Rabbi Sacks, something you may wish to point out to your students.

This is a suggested outline of what you may wish to explore with your students, but feel free to adapt it to your students’ needs.

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Aims

• To introduce your students to Rabbi Sacks as a person, a Rabbi, and Jewish leader.
• To encourage them to learn some of his Torah in his memory.
• To explore the idea of The People of the Book and how it was explained and explored through the thought of Rabbi Sacks.

Specific areas we will explore include:

• How the focus on education and Torah learning in Judaism has contributed to Jewish continuity throughout Jewish history
• How each of us has a part to play in the continuing conversation of Jewish Torah learning.

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Who Was Rabbi Sacks?

Approximately 10 minutes

Show this short video about the life of Rabbi Sacks, entitled A Teacher, a Leader, and a Moral Voice:

Discuss the video.

Select some general questions for discussion, such as:

• What are your general impressions of Rabbi Sacks from this video?
• What did you learn about Rabbi Sacks?
• Share something you noticed in the video that interested you.
• Share something you noticed in the video that surprised you.

Choose some more analytical questions for discussion:

• Discuss what the following descriptions of Rabbi Sacks mean to you: Teacher / Leader  / Moral Voice
• Who did Rabbi Sacks impact, in each of these three roles?
• Which locations (countries and places) did you notice in the video? What can we learn about Rabbi Sacks from these?
• Which famous people did you notice in the video? What does that tell you about Rabbi Sacks?
• What titles did Rabbi Sacks have, and what do they mean?
• How many books do you think you saw in the video? What does that tell us about Rabbi Sacks?

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Why Are We Learning in Rabbi Sacks’ Memory?

Approximately 5 minutes

EXPLAIN that when someone we hold dear passes away, there is a special mitzvah to learn Torah in their memory.

This is a way to always remember them, and to show Hashem how much we miss them, and ask Him to look after them in heaven.

It is especially meaningful to do this when the words of Torah actually came from them, as in this case with Rabbi Sacks.

SHOW this video of Gila Sacks, the daughter of Rabbi Sacks, who explains that Rabbi Sacks was always looking to learn from every person he met, and he would do this through conversation.

Today, we will have conversations in our class to learn from each other and to learn together an idea that Rabbi Sacks taught.

DISCUSS how they can learn something from every person (you may wish to share with them the Mishna in Pirkei Avot (4:1) where a wise person is defined as some- one who learns from all people) and help them to take in the fact that they can learn from every single one of their classmates using the following questions:

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Optional Activity

Ask every student to find a partner and ask them to share with each other something they have learned from them. This can be repeated with different partners.

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The Question

Approximately 10 minutes

Here is an excerpt from a famous essay about the Jewish people, written by the American author Mark Twain. He ends with an important question which we will be unpacking.

Source 1: Jewish Resilience

If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous, dim puff of stardust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly the Jew ought hardly to be heard of; but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world’s greatest names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine and abstruse learning are also way out of proportion to the smallness of his numbers.

He has made a marvellous fight in this world, in all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendour, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains.

What is the secret of his immortality?

Concerning the Jews, Mark Twain

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The Secret to Jewish Continuity

Approximately 20 minutes

Let’s see how Rabbi Sacks answers this question. In his book Will We Have Jewish Grandchildren?, he quotes a story from the Talmud.

We will see how Rabbi Sacks teaches the story, and how it can answer Mark Twain’s question.

The next two sources (Sources 2 and 3) work well when studied in chavruta (student pairs) followed by a class discussion.

You may wish to explain to your students that this is an aggadic story, and not necessarily a historical text. It was written by the Rabbis who wished to leave us with an educational message. Our job is to try and understand what their message may be.

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Source 2: King David's final days

קִצִּי וּמִדַּת יָמַי מַה הִיא אֵדְעָה מֶה חָדֵל אָנִי״ — אָמַר דָּוִד לִפְנֵי הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא: רִבּוֹנוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם, הוֹדִיעֵנִי ה׳ קִצִּי. אָמַר לוֹ: גְּזֵרָה הִיא מִלְּפָנַי שֶׁאֵין מוֹדִיעִין קִצּוֹ שֶׁל בָּשָׂר וָדָם. ״וּמִדַּת יָמַי מַה הִיא״ — גְּזֵרָה הִיא מִלְּפָנַי שֶׁאֵין מוֹדִיעִין מִדַּת יָמָיו שֶׁל אָדָם. ״וְאֵדְעָה מֶה חָדֵל אָנִי״ — אָמַר לוֹ: בְּשַׁבָּת תָּמוּת. אָמוּת בְּאֶחָד בְּשַׁבָּת? אָמַר לוֹ: כְּבָר הִגִּיעָה מַלְכוּת שְׁלֹמֹה בִּנְךָ, וְאֵין מַלְכוּת נוֹגַעַת בַּחֲבֶרְתָּהּ אֲפִילּוּ כִּמְלֹא נִימָא. אָמוּת בְּעֶרֶב שַׁבָּת? אָמַר לוֹ: ״כִּי טוֹב יוֹם בַּחֲצֵרֶיךָ מֵאָלֶף״ — טוֹב לִי יוֹם אֶחָד שֶׁאַתָּה יוֹשֵׁב וְעוֹסֵק בַּתּוֹרָה מֵאֶלֶף עוֹלוֹת שֶׁעָתִיד שְׁלֹמֹה בִּנְךָ לְהַקְרִיב לְפָנַי עַל גַּבֵּי הַמִּזְבֵּחַ.

David said before the Holy One, Blessed be He: Master of the Universe, Lord, make me to know my end; in how long will I die? God said to him: It is decreed before Me that I do not reveal the end of the life of flesh and blood. He asked further: And the measure of my days; on what day of the year will I die? He said to him: It is decreed before Me not to reveal the measure of a person’s days. Again he requested: Let me know how short-lived I am; on what day of the week will I die? He said to him: You will die on Shabbat. David requested of God: Let me die on the first day of the week so that the honour of Shabbat will not be tarnished by the pain of death. He said to him: On that day the time of the kingdom of your son Solomon has already arrived, and one kingdom does not overlap with another and subtract from the time allotted to another even a hairbreadth. He said to him: I will cede a day of my life and die on Shabbat eve. God said to him: “For a day in your courts is better than a thousand” (Psalms 84:11); a single day in which you sit and engage in Torah is preferable to Me than the thousand burnt-offerings that your son Solomon will offer before Me on the altar (see I Kings 3:4).

כְּל יוֹמָא דְשַׁבְּתָא הֲוָה יָתֵיב וְגָרֵיס כּוּלֵּי יוֹמָא. הַהוּא יוֹמָא דְּבָעֵי לְמֵינַח נַפְשֵׁיהּ, קָם מַלְאַךְ הַמָּוֶת קַמֵּיהּ וְלָא יְכִיל לֵיהּ, דְּלָא הֲוָה פָּסֵק פּוּמֵּיהּ מִגִּירְסָא. אֲמַר: מַאי אַעֲבֵיד לֵיהּ? הֲוָה לֵיהּ בּוּסְתָּנָא אֲחוֹרֵי בֵּיתֵיהּ, אֲתָא מַלְאַךְ הַמָּוֶת סָלֵיק וּבָחֵישׁ בְּאִילָנֵי. נְפַק לְמִיחְזֵי. הֲוָה סָלֵיק בְּדַרְגָּא, אִיפְּחִית דַּרְגָּא מִתּוּתֵיהּ, אִישְׁתִּיק וְנָח נַפְשֵׁיהּ.

What did David do? Every Shabbat he would sit and learn all day long to protect himself from the Angel of Death. On that day on which the Angel of Death was supposed to put his soul to rest, the day on which David was supposed to die, the Angel of Death stood before him and was unable to overcome him because his mouth did not pause from study. The Angel of Death said: What shall I do to him? David had a garden [bustana] behind his house; the Angel of Death came, climbed, and shook the trees. David went out to see. As he climbed the stair, it broke beneath him. He was startled and was silent. This interrupted his studies for a moment, and he died.

Talmud Bavli, Shabbat, 30a-b

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Source 3: Interpreting the Talmudic story

It is a subtle story. On the surface it is a simple example of midrash aggadah, one of those legends by which the sages fleshed out the bare bones of biblical narrative and made them come vividly alive. It is, however, much more than that. The sages, with their unique combination of simplicity and depth, were talking not just about King David but about themselves and the fate of the Jewish people.

They had lived through two military uprisings against Rome: the great rebellion of 66 CE, and the Bar Kochba rebellion of 132–135 CE. Both ended in disaster. As a result of the first, the Temple was destroyed. As a result of the second, the whole of Judea lay in ruins… The twin defeats of the first and second centuries were catastrophic and devastating. For as long as anyone could foresee, Jews would not be able to survive by military strength or defend themselves by conventional weapons. How then would they endure? The sages gave a remarkable answer. The military arena was not the only, or even the most important, battlefield. Of far greater significance from the point of view of Jewish continuity was the arena of culture, civilisation and faith.

The great Jewish embodiment of military prowess was King David. But there was another David, author of the book of Psalms. Reflecting on their fate, the sages realised that it was this other David who was the enduring symbol of Jewish life, not waging war but engaged in what was to become the very pulse of Jewish life after the destruction of the second Temple: study. The talmudic story of King David and the Angel of Death is nothing less than a metaphor of the people of Israel and its fate. David stood for Israel, the warrior turned scholar. So long as he carried a book, not a sword, he would be immune. The sages, in a story calculated to appeal to children, propounded a sophisticated hypothesis: that so long as their mouths did not desist from study, the Angel of Death would have no power over the Jewish people. The Jews might have lost the battles with Rome but they would win the war against mortality. Individual Jews would live and die but the Jewish people would be eternal. With the hindsight of history, we now know that they were right.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Will We Have Jewish Grandchildren? pp. 38-39

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Covenant and Conversation

Approximately 15 minutes

Now let’s turn our attention to the role we can play in Jewish history through our own Jewish journey and our Jewish learning.

The first sources here are a verse from Sefer Devarim and Rashi’s comment on the verse. This could be explored in chavruta with the guided questions that follow, or you could teach it frontally. It is followed by an excerpt source from the speech 'The Home of the Book for the People of the Book' which could be read, or watched. It is followed by reflection questions to be used as the basis of a discussion on all the sources.

Source 4:

אֶֽת־הַדְּבָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֡לֶּה דִּבֶּר֩ ה' אֶל־כָּל־קְהַלְכֶ֜ם בָּהָ֗ר מִתּ֤וֹךְ הָאֵשׁ֙ הֶֽעָנָ֣ן וְהָֽעֲרָפֶ֔ל ק֥וֹל גָּד֖וֹל וְלֹ֣א יָסָ֑ף וַֽיִּכְתְּבֵ֗ם עַל־שְׁנֵי֙ לֻחֹ֣ת אֲבָנִ֔ים וַֽיִּתְּנֵ֖ם אֵלָֽי׃

“The Lord spoke these words with a loud Voice to your whole assembly at the mountain from amid the fire, cloud, and thick darkness, v’lo yassaf. And He wrote them on two stone tablets, and gave them to me.”

ולא יסף. מְתַרְגְּמִינָן "וְלָא פָּסִיק" (וּלְפִי שֶׁמִּדַּת בָּשָׂר וָדָם אֵינָן יָכוֹלִין לְדַבֵּר כָּל דְּבְרֵיהֶם בִּנְשִׁימָה אַחַת וּמִדַּת הַקָּבָּ"ה אֵינוֹ כֵן — לֹא הָיָה פוֹסֵק, וּמִשֶּׁלֹּא הָיָה פוֹסֵק לֹא הָיָה מוֹסִיף) כִּי קוֹלוֹ חָזָק וְקַיָּם לְעוֹלָם (סנהדרין י"ז); דָּ"אַ — ולא יסף לֹא הוֹסִיף לְהֵרָאוֹת בְּאוֹתוֹ פֻּמְבִּי:

ולא יסף — We render this in the Targum by ולא פסק and He did not cease”, — [Because it is characteristic of human beings that they are unable to utter all their words in one breath (but must make pauses) and it is characteristic of the Holy One, blessed be He, that this is not so, therefore He did not pause, and since He did not pause, He did not have to resume], — for His Voice is strong and goes on continuously (Sanhedrin 17a). Another explanation of ולא יסף: He did not again ever reveal Himself with such publicity.

Devarim 5:19 and Rashi’s explanation

Source 5:

At the heart of Judaism is this remarkable idea contained in the description of the great festival Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks. When Moses is at the end of his life recalling those events, in his final address to the Jewish people, the children of those that he brought out of Egypt, he reminds them of the great experience at Mount Sinai and uses a remarkable four-word phrase, remarkable only because it is so ambiguous. He says that what they heard was a “kol gadol v’lo yassaf”, “a great Voice and it went on no more” (Deuteronomy 5:19). As the commentator Rashi points out, this could mean one of two things. “V’lo yassaf” means the Voice sounded once and never again, or, as the Targum translates it, “passak v’lo”, a great Voice that sounded and never stopped. It is completely ambiguous.

Did the Voice happen once and never again, or did it sound once and ever again?

Of course, the reconciliation of that contradiction is that there were two modes of communication, the Torah Shebichtav, the Written Torah, and the Torah Shebe’al Peh, the Oral Torah. The Written Torah was written once and never again, but the Oral Torah has never ceased. From the days of Moses to today, Jews have engaged in the mandate that God gave us to interpret His word afresh in every generation.

Judaism is, in short, an ongoing conversation between that once-and-once-only Divine Voice that sounded at Sinai, and the human interpretation of those words that has continued in every generation since. It is the great conversation that never ended. I call my commen-tary essays on the weekly Torah reading “Covenant & Conversation”, because “covenant” is mutual. God made it with Israel. Israel made it with God. But the whole of Judaism is that ongoing “conversation” between Israel and God as to how we understand God’s word for all time to make it God’s Word for this time.

The end result of this was something quite extraordinary. We all know this, but we don’t often stop to remember it. What happened, having received the Torah from Moses, the Jewish people spent the next thousand years, from roughly the 13th century BCE to the third century BCE, writing commentaries to the Torah, which we call Nevi’im – Prophets and Ketuvim – Writings, the other books of Tanach, the Hebrew Bible. They then spent the next thousand years writing commentaries to the commentary in the form of Midrash, Mishnah, and Gemara. Then they spent another thousand years writing commentaries to the commentaries to the commentaries, from Biblical interpretation to Jewish law to poetry, to philosophy, and to mysticism.

For 3,000 years, virtually every word that Jews wrote from 1,300 BCE to around the 18th century, was a commentary to the Torah. It was only in the 19th century that Jews began developing the literature of the Jewish Enlightenment, which was not directly a commentary to the Torah. Jews became a textual civilisation.

That text becomes the defining feature of Judaism, which could be understood in two different ways. The mystics and the prophets before them saw that text as a kind of ketubah, a marriage contract between the loving God and His beloved people, or to understand it, as I prefer to do, as the written constitution of Israel as a nation under the sovereignty of God. For these two reasons, Jews became a people of the text: because of the invention of the alphabet and because only through words could we fully enter into a relationship with God.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, The Home of the Book for the People of the Book

This source can be viewed as a video clip (timestamp 35:28 to 41:25).

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Concluding Video Activity

Approximately 15 minutes

This animated video, using audio recorded in 2010, explores the powerful message on Jewish identity that Rabbi Sacks presents in Chapter Four of his book “A Letter in the Scroll”. He asks us to understand that every Jew is a letter in the scroll, a link in the chain of Jewish history and heritage, and he challenges us to consider what chapter we will write in the book of Jewish history.

This video could be an answer to question 4 in the previous section, and is a great tool to reflect with our students how they can be part of the Jewish journey and conversation, guaranteeing our Jewish continuity.

Source 6:

After showing this animation to your students, then ask your students to consider as individuals, for their family, and their community, what their chapter in the book will look like.

You could even create booklets for your students, with their names on the spine/front cover, as seen in the video, with some information in the first few pages about the Jewish journey so far, and then some blank pages at the back. Ask them to write in them their family history, their thoughts on being Jewish and their ideas on how they can help to keep the Jewish people alive. You may also wish to ask them to use the booklet to ask their parents and grandparents to contribute some pages of their own.

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To mark Rabbi Sacks’ fourth yahrzeit, we invite you to participate in the Rabbi Sacks Global Day of Learning celebrating his life, legacy and teachings.

May the soul of Rabbi Sacks be elevated in merit of the learning we will do in his memory.