If I’m not engaged by it, I’m not teaching it.
My educational philosophy is as simple as that. I only teach things that I find interesting and meaningful. It may sound constricting on its face, but I’ve found this expands who I can be as an educator rather than limiting it. When I come across a topic that does not immediately intrigue me, I study and explore it creatively until I find what sparks me. This process has been such a gift, and it has inspired some unexpected and unorthodox lessons in Torah for myself and my communities. Check out more below!
Dungeons and Dybbuks
Dungeons and Dybbuks was a project that was inspired by the constraints of Pandemic learning and grew to be so much more. When my middle grade students would have ordinarily been taking on new leadership roles and new responsibilities, they were stuck at home; instead of empowered, they felt powerless. I wanted to find a way to give a little bit of that control and power back to them.
Inspired by Dungeons and Dragons, I designed a simplified Roleplaying Game system and wrote my own original quests based in Torah and Jewish history. My students took on roles as Israelites living in Egypt, they used their critical thinking and imaginative skills to fight mini-bosses inspired by each of the ten plagues and eventually teamed together to escape Pharaoh. The game was so popular that students requested we continue Religious School into the summer (and we did!).
Since our original campaign, I’ve written three additional adventures and run these games with kids and teens of various ages. I’ve written a murder mystery set in Shtetl times, exploring Jewish assimilation and the beginning of the Reform movement, an extension of the Exodus game in which students help Moses find the objects to build the tabernacle, and a time-travelling journey through Genesis in which players attempt to change history and stop the Israelites from being enslaved.
Check out the link below to see an Introductory PowerPoint explaining game play as well as a couple sample games.
The High Council on Jewish Mythical Creatures
In this class, I am not a teacher, and my students are not students. When we step into this classroom, my class becomes the High Council on Jewish Mythical Creatures and I am their research assistant. Every session, I bring them an ethical dilemma regarding one of the many creatures they oversee, as well as research about the creature based in Jewish text. They are tasked with debating the issue from both sides and coming to a legal ruling by the end of class.
On the surface, we’re talking about things like Leviathan, Unicorns, or the legendary Unfinished Corner of the Universe. But I use these flashy topics to help the kids engage with more serious issues. How far should we go to find renewable energy? Is it ethical to fence in intelligent, wild animals for human observation and profit? Did God create the universe with the intention of human beings participating in co-creation?
Every time I teach this class, I am amazed by what I learn from students. Shy kids come out of their shells and show me their passion, moral convictions, and capacity of their imagination. The link below features a sample PowerPoint presentation from this course.
Torah Study
My favorite compliment I’ve received as a Rabbi was “your Torah Study feels like a party where we all just happen to be talking about Torah.” This encapsulates what I strive for when I teach. I want everyone to feel comfortable and welcome, regardless of their level of education or fluency. I want to generate intellectual engagement as well as genuine connection. I come to Torah Study as my full self, and I invite everyone in the room to do the same.
I center every class around a question that I’m intrigued by - frequently, it’s one I don’t have a particular answer to. I bring in sources that allow us to look at the question from multiple perspectives. Typically, I take notes as the class speaks that I project on a screen so everyone can follow along. I find this helps us organize our thoughts as a group and lifts up the voices of participants alongside my own.
I love to teach Torah study from different perspectives. I’ve taught Queer Torah through the Arts, Social Justice Torah, Torah through Poetry, Torah through film, and so many others. At the link below, you can watch me teach a course I titled “Horror Torah: Fear and Anxiety in Haftarat Eikev,” in which I use methods of analysis from Horror academia to understand our holy texts.