Social Foundations of Education and Media

Parashat Va-etchanan
Deuteronomy 3:23 – 7:11, we read 5:1 – 7:11
July 28, 2007 / 13 Av 5767

This Shabbat in mid-summer began the readings of the haftorot of consolation after our remembrance on the 9^th of Av. In our congregation, we discussed the section of the Torah reading that many know – the Shema and the following paragraph which begins with loving the divine with all one’s heart, one’s soul, and one’s might (6:4-6:10). Rav Jeremy noted the repetitions of “bet” or “in” in this paragraph – perhaps we are to reflect about the inwardness of this biblical reading that stresses both one’s own love and one’s need to be extroverted about speaking of the divine to one’s children, in the street, within one’s gates, in the time when one rises and when one lies down at night.

Rav Jeremy and I commented on the nature of chosen-ness in the readings when I went up for an aliyah. I mentioned that the 7^th aliyah discussed that the divine chose the people Israel and that this would not be a beloved passage for Reconstructionists. Rav Jeremy responded that Reconstructionists recognize that this notion of being chosen by the divine is part of the past civilization of the people but may need to change in these days. He also thought that the previous section on intolerance to the other nations’ ways of worship would be more problematic.

This Shabbat is known as Shabbat Nachamu, the Shabbat of Comfort. The haftorah starts with 40:1 “Comfort, comfort My people, says your God” and relates the primacy of the divine in comparison to the vanity and temporary state of people – 40:7 “The grass withers, the flower fades beneath God’s breath; surely the people are like grass”. 40:8 “The grass withers, the flower fades; but God’s word will stand forever.”

My college room-mate and his wife came to visit us on Saturday afternoon. They might describe themselves as secular Jews, not synagogue-goers. We discussed the variety of expression of ethnic feelings among Jews in the United States. I introduced Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan’s writings on Judaism as a civilization – based on the religion but included other forms of spiritual and communal experiences. Does not a social worker fulfill the need for repairing the world expressed in the prophetic readings? Does not someone who participates in Passover sederim and in high holiday services not also expressing their support for the ongoing culture that is Judaism? How much of Jewish allegiance is in reaction to others who identify Jews as being different from the general US population?

I differ with Rabbi Kaplan’s notions of chosen-ness, which seems to be that believing that Jews have a special relationship with the divine denies the path of spirituality for others and places us as separate from our neighbors. I believe that Judaism is a choosing tradition, we choose to accept the culture and try to find a way to both live in a contemporary life and in a life that is eternal, balancing the present with the comforts of the past and the promise of tomorrow. The divine will last forever and our time in short, yet there are many ways to expression of connectiveness with each other and some greater than we might ever imagine.

my powerpoint on India

 project information on CultureQuest India!

This Shabbat, we read the start of the fifth book of Moses, known as Deuteronomy, with chapters in Devarim, Words, I-III, 22 and the first reading from Isaiah I, 1-27 as the haftorah.  It was Shabbat Hazon (vision), the Shabbat before Tisha B’Av, the 9^th day of the lunar month, a fast day that we say coincides with the destructions of the first and second temple and several other tragedies to the Jewish nation.  The Torah portion accounts the words of Moses as he prepares the new generation of the children of Israel for their entry into the promised land.  The haftorah includes Isaiah’s vision of the rebellion of the people against the Divine and the forgiveness and restoration promised if they return. 

The promise of a brighter future out of the wilderness and away from the confusion of idol-worshiping if the people return is the theme of these readings.  Moses tells the people that the Divine had spoken to them all in Horeb, a mountain associated with Mount Sinai, as the mountain of the Divine.  Moses had seen the burning bush and spoke with the Divine for the first time there, when he was a shepherd tending the flocks of Jethro in Midian, seeking a lost lamb.  The Divine said that they should turn from Horeb and go to the hill-country as they prepare to enter the land.  The use of turn foretells a theme of the high holidays, of returning through reflection to a more life-enhancing state. 

In the triennial cycle, we focused on the last third of the Torah reading.   Unlike the attitude of the spies 40 years before, Moses reminds the people that the Divine will fight for them and had already conquered two nations.  Moses commands Joshua to not have fear.  These kingdoms – of Og and of Sihon – found to the west of the Jordan River in the steepe land and Golan Heights – were once a land of giants. These cities of giants were given to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh by the Divine.  The men of these tribes were reminded of their promise that they would serve in the conquest of the rest of the promised land before they return to build their own lands.

In contrast of this optimism to not fear, the readings from Isaiah describe the desolation of the land when the people rebel against the Divine.   To return to the Divine, the people must “cease to do evil, learn to do well, Seek justice, relieve the oppressed, Judge the fatherless, plead for the widow (Isaiah I, 16-17)… you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and they that return of her with righteousness” (I, 26-27). 

It is comforting that there is a chance to return, to change one’s way.  The emphasis on justice and righteousness in Isaiah contrasts with the troubling conquest of the land.  Some say that the conquest of the promised land is a metaphor for the conquest of unhealthy habits and ways of living.  The travels, the changes, in this last book of Moses retells the growth of a nation as it begins to reach its goal and the end of the journey.  We all do travel, grow, change in these short lives we live.  It is good that we have the opportunity to return, to amend our routes, without fear of the future.  As we continue on our journeys, there is always room to change and to return to the right road, the just way.           

This Shabbat, we studied the last chapters in the book of Numbers (particularly XXXIII, 50 to XXXVI, 13) and a haftorah from Jeremiah (II, 4-28, III, 4, IV, 1-2), in a double portion of Mattot and Massey – (tribes and stages of travel).  The Torah reading focused on preparations for establishing a nation by organizing territories, cities for the Levites, the local priests who would live in 48 set-aside cities in the land, the development of cities of refuge for those who had accidentally killed another, and inheritance within tribes for women.  The haftorah is a rant against idolatry and a promise that if the Israel returns to the Lord, “in truth, in justice, and in righteousness, then shall the nations bless themselves by the Lord, and in the Lord shall they glory.”

The Torah portions this week included several intriguing topics, including the war against the Midianites, who were kindred peoples to the children of Israel, said to be descendants of Abraham and his concubine-wife Keturah.  Moses had lived with a clan of the Midianites led by Reuel-Yithro and married Yithro’s daughter Tsipporah.  Midian, which is said to mean either judgment or strife, lived east of the Jordan River from the Golan to theArabian peninsula.  They had joined with the Moabites to attack the children of Israel, some say for hate without reason, probably to avoid the changes that would come from the influx of this large population into their environment.  There was a discussion of what people may be allowed to survive after the war; it seems that only virgin females would survive.  The portion also discussed what would happen if a man who owned land died without a male heir but with daughters.  It was decided a daughter might inherit land but would have to marry a man from her tribe and who was her uncle’s son.  This would allow for the holding of land within the tribe.   

Our section begins with a discussion of the distribution of land according to the size of the tribes.  Moses would remind the people that there would be ethnic cleansing for “those who remain of them be as thorns in your eyes and as pricks in your sides and they shall harass you in the land wherein ye dwell.”  The portion continues with a listing of the boundaries of the land – which does not include the Negev of current Israel, but does include the land between the Jordan and the sea.  Two tribes – Reuben and Gad – and half of the tribe of Manasseh would live east of the Jordan.  The Lord then lists the tribal leaders, princes, who would lead the people into the land, including Caleb and Joshua, who were the loyal spies who had urged entering the land earlier, 39 years before.

Instructions on establishing cities for the Levites throughout the territories were discussed, with the city surrounded by pasture lands of at least 1000 cubits on all sides.  Six of these 48 cities would be cities of refuge for those who were involved in the intentional or accidental murder of others, 3 west of the Jordan and 3 to the east.  If the accused had intentionally murdered another with iron, stone, or wood, or hitting out of hatred, an appointed blood-redeemer would kill him/her.  If the death was accidental, the accused would be sent to a city of refuge to live there until the current high priest had died. If the murder was not resolved, then the blood of the murdered would pollute the land.

The portion closed with a discussion of the inheritance of land by daughters.  To maintain the tribal lands, the daughters must marry into their uncles’ families.  The names of the daughters of Zelophehad are listed, a rare time when women are noted by name in the Torah.  The book of Numbers closes with this description of an attempt to provide some justice for women.

We also noted that today was la jour de la Bastille and Emmanuel, a French graduate student, explained to us that when the Bastille was liberated in 1789, there was only 10 prisoners remaining.  This act represented the end of absolute power for the monarchy. 

The establishment of cities reminded me of my understanding of the settlement of cities in the
United States, around a city center, church, and eventually school, surrounded by pasture lands.  Counties in the Midwest, as well as states, were laid out in squares with their centers within travel distance for most of the settlers.  Thes US centers also did not take into account the original inhabitants.  Murders in our society are also either killed by state-sanctioned blood redeemers or sent to prisons, not quite city of refuge, and not only until the religious leader or a regime changes, necessarily.  The emphasis on maintaining tribal lands suggests that more emphasis was placed on the tribes and their families, and not the decentralized federal government initially.

The reading from Jeremiah is filled with pastoral images of a people who have adopted the customs of their neighbors – accepting local gods, following the ways of strangers, every city with its own god.  The Lord calls for change, a return to the divine, to truth, justice, and righteousness, for we would be a model for other nations. 

Following our request for the Lord blessing for the upcoming new month of Av, a congregation leader and sociology professor from UCONN discussed the role of gender from these readings.  She suggested that if we change that reading to represent youth instead of just virgin women, there is a clear emphasis on family and the maintenance of societal order. 

We closed the service with some time for meditations.  I tried to get the congregation to sing Adon Olam to La Marseillaise but no one else wanted to. 

It was a very busy week, filled with growth among the future teachers in our summer institute, online courses, evaluating applicants for a campus search, orientation and advisement.  Unfortunately, we went to the funeral of a friend’s son, who had died at 30 very suddenly.  His motto was “30 is the new 20.”  The reverend reminded us that it may not be the quantity but the quality of one’s life, the service one does.  He quoted Job, “the Lord gives and the Lord takes, blessed by the name of the Lord.”  The service, at the Liberty Christian Center International in the North End of Hartford was filled with the music of an organ, and electric piano, and drums, and a choir, and singers, and remembrances.  It was a week to remember the importance of family, of solidarity within the tribe and the nation, and of hope and faith in the Lord.

Notes for the third evening of the SIFT Educational Technology Component – 7/11/07 

This evening, the SIFT participants will be working mostly on their own projects with the assistance of the instructor, Mr. Singh, and the residential assistants, Sasha Muniz and David Archibald.  Dr. Singh will also be participating in the session. 

(I will be attending the monthly meeting of the board of the directors of the Covenant Soup Kitchen in downtown Willimantic.  I regret that I will not be with you this evening.  I look forward to see your projects tomorrow.) 

These are the tasks that I would like you to work on. The first four tasks are a review of what we have done so far.  If you are confident to proceed, go to task 5.   

1)      Please practice logging in to your assigned training accounts.  This is your individual information:  

The password is August400.   

If you have saved files in the training folder in this account, you might want to open your email account – for example, Yahoo account, and send the file to your email as an attachment.  Please see Mr. Singh, Sasha, and David if you have any questions on this process. 

2) Since you are now enrolled in a university course, you should be able to access your student records.  We reviewed this process yesterday evening.   

First, this is how the university has you on file – 

your name -

your student identification number is

Try logging into  

http://eweb.easternct.edu/wfbprod/twbkwbis.P_GenMenu?name=homepage  

a quick way to get there is to go to the student portal at  

http://www.easternct.edu/portal/index.htm and click on Online Services and then eWeb Online.   

Your log in is your id # and your password initially is MMDDYY – your birthday – for example 061791 would be June 17, 1991.  You will be asked to change your password – write it down and don’t forget it.  Please write your password here – _________________.If you have trouble accessing your account, please contact 860-465-4346 for assistance or Mr. Singh, if he has time, may be able to reset your account. 

3) Most of us were able to establish a http://learnerblogs.org/ account.  If you were not successful last evening, please try again with the help of the instructors and RAs.  Please call your learnerblog – Electronic Portfolio.  Learnerblog will send you an email with a link to a website that has your log on information for learnerblog.  Your online information for learnerblog is (please fill in)  

4) Once you have secured a learnerblog account, please write an introductory post answering this question, “Why do I want to be a teacher?”  Please publish your post.  Then view your site.  The web address (URL) for your site is (please fill in) 

http://_________________________________________________________________. 

5) Go to http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/sift/sift07/ and download the template file for the powerpoint presentation for CultureQuest at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/sift/sift07/projectinfo.ppt . 

Save the powerpoint to your training folder.  Then close the powerpoint presentation on your screen, open the powerpoint program on your computer, and open the file that you just saved.  You should be able to edit and change the powerpoint to reflect your CultureQuest
India! topic.  We are looking for at least 10 slides with the last being a bibliography of resources.  Please use http://www.stylewizard.com/apa5/apawiz.htmlto cite your resources in APA-style. 

When time is about up, save either in your training folder or to your learnerblog. 

6) If you would like to upload a file to your learnerblog, please open your account and sign in.  You will get a screen that has the name of your blog followed by <View site>. 

To post a blog, click on write a post.  Be patient until the screen opens.  Then write a title and in the text box describe your powerpoint – 25 words or less.

Then upload your powerpoint by scrolling down the page to the upload link.  Click on Browse… and find your file in the training folder.  Press open on the window that has your files and its address will appear to the left of the Browse… button.  Then press Upload >>.

You will get a screen with the filename and Edit. Link to page and click on Send to editor >> projectinfo1.ppt and the link will appear.  Then Save.  The page will go to View site mode and then click on the file.  It will then go to another screen with the filename and click on it.  Your file should then open.   Copy the URL from the Address bar and paste it here – http://____________________________________ .

 Tomorrow you will share the address of your site with everyone in the group via Eastern’s email system.

The SIFT (Summer Institute for Future Teachers) participants addressed this question as part of their learnersblog account.  The essays were very moving and we will include links as part of the SIFT website at the end of the month.  The attached powerpoint was the template for their own powerpoints for the CultureQuest project on India – projectinfo.ppt

This Shabbat, the first during the mourning period in memory of the breach of the walls of Jerusalem and the destruction of the first and second Temple, in 586 BCE and 70 CE, we read as haftorah the beginning chapter of the book of Jeremiah (I-II, 3) after the Torah portion known as Pinhas (Numbers XXV, 10 – XXX, 1). 

During our pre-service Bible and Bagel section, we discussed three types of leadership – a prophet like Jeremiah, a priest like Pinhas, and a leader like Joshua.  Pinhas, who reacted violently to intercultural commingling in the previous chapter, was awarded in this portion by a divine gift that he and his descendants will form a hereditary priesthood.  Joshua, through the laying of hands on his head by Phinhas’ father, the high priest Eleazar, after the priest had used his oracle, Urim, was charged to be the leader after Moses’ death.  Jeremiah, a member of a clan of priest who did not live in Jerusalem and who may have been dissenters from the other priests, was appointed by the divine as prophet even before he was born.  We discussed problems when these types of leadership were not in balance with each other.  During the drive home, we stretched the image and proposed that the prophet is the congress, usually a member of the people who questions the status quo, that the leader was the executive branch – organizing the bureaucracy and administration, and that the priests were like the judicial system, using codes of law to maintain order in society.   

The portion also included a second census of the tribes before they were to enter the land with a count of 601, 730 Israelites and 23,000 in the tribe of Levi – who did not have an inheritance of land.  Inheritance by daughters was also discussed in the case of the daughters of Zelophehad, who survived their father and would be granted the inheritance to allow the land to remain in the tribe.  Moses was shown the land that he would not be allowed to enter and prepared by arranging for the appointment of Joshua as his successor.  The portion also listed the offerings for the holiday cycle.   We discussed that on the harvest festival of Succot that there were many more offerings than on the other holidays. 

The prophetic reading featured a discussion between the divine and Jeremiah, who  expressed his reluctance to assume the role, a common discussion between the divine and the selected prophetic.  Moses and Jeremiah both argued against the appointment.  Jeremiah claimed he was still a boy.  Since the chapter opens with a chronology tied to kings of Judah, commentators have proposed that his age was 24 at the time of the appointment, generating a discussion on whether 24 year olds were still boys.  This prophet would be sent by the divine “to root out and pull down, and to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”  Not just a societal critic, Jeremiah was to provide leadership through his prophecies.  This chapter prepares the people for the attacks by the kingdoms of the north who would set up their thrones before the gates of Jerusalem and start sieges that would destroy the city.  The prophecy also features the use of symbols – an almond-tree, which is the first tree to blossom in mid-winter, and a seething pot, representing the turmoil of the attacking armies.  The divine promises that the Lord would be with the people and had taken steps to fortify the city.  The metaphor of Israel and/or Jerusalem being like a bride to the divine and that to those who attack Israel, evil will come, is described in the first 3 lines from the second chapter read.

A commentator from Israel, Teddy Weinberger, who is featured in The Jewish Leader, a weekly paper serving the Jewish community of Eastern Connecticut and Western Rhode Island, wrote that these weeks before Tisha b’Av, the 9^th day of Av, the day that the Temples were destroy, “serve as a sober countdown to the one day of the year when it is extremely difficult to reconcile ethnic-based observance with the actual practices of the Jewish people.”  The priestly leaders today, those who wish for the rebuilding of the Temple, do not generally represent the majority view of Jews in Israel or in the world. Perhaps the priestly leaders do not have the voice they have had in the past, but neither do the world’s prophets and governmental leaders.  We seem to be in a world without easy answers and strong leaders.  Let us hope that the divine and the collective wisdom of people will find the most appropriate leadership that will lead us to a more peaceful and understanding world.

The stories for this second summer week are on prophecy, zealotry, and hope.  In Numbers XXII, 2 – XXV, 9, we read of the king of Moab, Balak, who hires a prophet from the River, Bilaam, to curse the children of Israel so that they do not conquer his lands.  Bilaam hesitated to accept the position and reminded Balak and this people that he could not say anything the Lord would not allow him to say.  There is a comic piece, a good summer’s evening story and play, about the prophet’s female donkey halting on the road, in fear of an angel that only she sees.  Bilaam beats her and she responds in words, demanding why he is beating his faithful servant.  When the angel allows Bilaam to see him, he reminds the prophet that he will speak for the Lord.

Upon Bilaam’s request, Balak builds altars on the hill-tops overlooking the tribes arranged in their order in the steepes below.  Although Balak wants curses, Bilaam praises the children of Israel first as “a people that shall dwell alone” and then as “a lion that lifts himself up and does not lie down again until he eats his prey.”  Bilaam contributes a praise that is used to welcome congregants to services – “how goodly are your tents, O Jacob, Thy dwellings, O Israel” in a third poem.  A fourth prophecy deals with the geopolitics of the region – that Israel shall conquer Edom, Amalek, the Kenites – related peoples to the Israelites, descendants of other children of the patriarchs.  He also includes the foretelling of the conquest of the region by Assyria and by the sea peoples of Cyprus.  At this point, Balak fires Bilaam and sends him home.

There are lovely words of praise, of turning the history of the past into a story of future prophecy.  The tribes were preparing to displace related peoples and these prophecies were useful to justify the need for land by these children of slaves.  The prophet can only speak the words of the Lord, even if he dooms his employer.  I see them as comforting stories for a warm summer evening.

But added to the reading of the week is a cautionary tale against intermarriage, relations with foreign women.  Balak could not get his prophet to curse the people but his women could attract the men of Israel into their tents and to their religion.  The Lord demanded that Moses impale the leaders of the tribes in the face of the sun for this straying from the camp.  But when one of the men takes a Midianitish woman into the camp and to his tent, Pinchas, the son of Eleazar, the current high priest, and the grandson of Aaron, took a spear and stabbed the couple with one thrust through their bellies.  Moses, who had married a woman from Midian, may have been conflicted by this act of zealotry.  Pinchas is featured in the stories for next week and is seen as a hero.    Zealotry is praised and the people hearing the story on a summer evening might have learned a cautionary tale about straying too far from their villages.  

The prophetic reading in the haftorah ends with some hope, a passage from Micah – VI, 8 - that is used as the motto for our religious community in Willimantic – “it has been told you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord expects of you, only to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your Lord.”  The middle way between prophecy, divine determinism, and zealotry, human action felt to be divinely determined, is the struggle of trying to be just, merciful, and divine as humanly possible in dealing with others.