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Chumash Series

I. Life is for pleasure

1. Tell your class: "It is a principle of Jewish understanding that G-d created us because He wanted to give us pleasure. Illustration: When you have children you'll see, or if you already have children you know that all that you want for your children is that they should live rich and happy lives, filled with joy.
2. At the same time having pleasure isn't always so easy. Illustrations: It's very confusing making a relationship work, raising children, or balancing work with the other priorities in our lives.
3. To teach us how to get pleasure in our lives the Almighty gave us a book of Torat Chayim, literally "Instructions for Living," to teach us how to get the most out of life. Illustration: I tell my 3 year old: "Look, you're 3. I'm 35. I've learned a few things--don't touch the stove. I don't get any percentage from your obedience but because I love you maybe I can spare you some pain."
4. When we learn Torah this is what we are looking for. The Torah isn't a history book or a physics book or a recipe book. It's a book of instructions for living and that's what we look for when we learn. Every time we learn we want to finish a little wiser and a little more clearly understanding how to understand the joy of living than when we began. This is extremely important. You are teaching people here a whole attitude toward Torah study.

II. Important Preface to learning:
As you begin to study Chumash with secular students they will be distracted by the depiction of G-d speaking to man. As long as they are preoccupied with this it will be impossible to communicate the important lessons the Torah has to teach. Therefore you have to raise this issue ahead of time and set it aside. To do this you tell them before you begin to read "I don't know if you believe in G-d or not, or whether you believe the Torah is true or not but for right now it doesn't matter. The question of whether there is a G-d or not, and of whether He speaks to man or not is a very important question but it is not our topic now. For now I'd like to take the text on its own terms and see what we can learn from it about living."

III. A point about teaching
Asking your class questions is primarily a vehicle to become involved in the process of learning rather than sitting passively and waiting for you to teach them. When you ask questions:

• If no one answers accept the silence, sit patiently and wait. Resist the temptation to answer your own questions.
• Encourage them when they speak by nodding your head, telling them good etc.
• Ask them to respond to each other: "What do you think of what x said? Does that make sense to you?"
• When you correct them do so gently and in a questioning manner: "I'm not sure about that. It seems to me that it's a basic Jewish principle . . .

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Introduction to Torah Study

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Rabbi Nachum Braverman studied philosophy at Yale University. For many years he served as Educational Director of Aish HaTorah Los Angeles, and is now Executive Director of Aish HaTorah's Jerusalem Fund for the Western Region. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and children.