A Manual for Teaching Biblical HistoryKohn, Eugene
Religion
A Manual for Teaching Biblical History
Kohn, Eugene
Jewish religious education of children -- United States
=Interpretation.= The early narratives of Genesis serve as an
introduction to Biblical history by giving the Jewish view of the
origin of the world in general and the human race in particular,
preparatory to discussing the role that Israel was destined to play
in the world. The following are some of the most significant ideas
that the narrative of the creation has to tell us with regard to the
world and man's place in it:
1. That God is the creator and consequently supreme over matter,
nature and the world;
2. That man is the highest being in the order of creation by reason
of his being possessed of the divine attributes of reason and
conscience as intimated in the words "in our image according to our
likeness";
3. That God loves His creatures הָרַחֲמִים בְּמִדַּת שֶׁבָּרָא "whom
he hath created in accordance with the attribute of mercy;"
4. That God in return desires man's love and his recognition in
worship as is implied in the institution of the Sabbath.
=Aim.= In teaching this lesson to the child the aim should be to
inspire him with the sense of reverence and worship, particularly in
connection with Sabbath observance. The message of this as of all
the earlier chapters of Genesis is a universal one, but, like most
other universal aspects of Judaism, it has found concrete expression
in a specifically Jewish institution, namely the Sabbath, and, as
our aim is to affect the Jewish life of the child it is through
association of the ideas of the lesson with the institution of the
Sabbath that we must endeavor to make them effective.
=Suggestions to the teacher.= In accordance with the principle
which demands that we proceed from what is known to what is not yet
known, it at once becomes apparent that we cannot begin this lesson
with an account of primal darkness out of which chaos and then the
world was formed. In the introduction (page 22) we quoted an account
of creation which began by a reference to created objects in the
child's experience. In consideration however of the desirability
of stimulating the child's intellectual curiosity before beginning
the lesson, it would be well to introduce the lesson with a few
questions regarding the distinction of the Sabbath from the other
days of the week, culminating in the question, "Why do we act so
differently on the Sabbath than on other days?" Then proceed to
answer by telling the story of creation in the way suggested in the
introduction. When the narrative is completed, again discuss the
Sabbath and how it is to be observed, as in this way the moral of
the narrative can best be enforced.
It is a well known fact that children are attracted by the exact
repetition of certain phrases somewhat in the nature of a refrain.
It is well therefore to utilize the refrain, "And there was evening
and there was morning" with each of the successive days of creation.
CHAPTER II
ADAM AND EVE Genesis 2.4 to 3.24
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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