Jun 24, 2019 By: yunews
Dr. Moshe Krakowski, associate profession and director of the masters program at Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, and David Block, teacher at Shalhevet High School, Los Angeles, California, have co-authored an article for titled 鈥淲hen the Truth Is Not What Actually Happened: The Epistemology of Religious Truth in Orthodox Jewish Bible Study.鈥
This paper, said Dr. Krakowski, 鈥渦ses data from Jewish religious chumash [Bible] study to examine how students鈥 conceptions of biblical truth are grounded in the particular forms of chumash study they engage in.鈥
The authors had two takeaways from their study. 鈥淭he first," said Dr. Krakowski, 鈥渋s that scientific, historical approaches to epistemology are not useful for understanding Orthodox students鈥 understanding of the nature of chumash.鈥
Second, instead of focusing on whether one methodology or another is the right way to teach, 鈥渋t is probably better to ask how teaching this way shapes students鈥 epistemology鈥攖hat is, how does the activity shape students鈥 understanding of the world given the broader cultural context to which they belong? How would these understandings be affected if the activity changed?鈥 It is important to understand that 鈥渟mall changes in the practice may lead to large changes in religious outlook.鈥
