We have to admit, aloud and with our heads bowed in shame, that religious Zionist education has failed - abysmally.
A new program for teaching Tanach called "Tanach 929" is being disseminated at the present time. The curriculum is uploaded on an internet site and consists of interpretations and video clips on a daily chapter of Tanach. The initiative for the idea and its execution are the brainchild of several religious Zionist figures in the Education Ministry.
As a rabbi who loves Tanach, I decided to read the entire syllabus and could not believe my eyes. The syllabus ignores hundreds of years of commentaries by our Talmudic Sages and does not even refer to the long list of Torah luminaries of past generations. It is as if they never existed. There is no Rashi, no Ibn Ezra, no Nachmanides, no Or Hachaim, no Rabbi Samson Rafael Hirsch – they have all been swallowed up by the earth.
Instead of the above, the program is full of vulgar words (some erotic), idolatrous descriptions of the Almighty, low level portrayal of great biblical figures as if they were friends who hang out with us at pizza parlors, a shallow description of Creation, and a generally derisive attitude to the holiness of the Tanach.
Here are some examples:
The description of the Garden of Eden: "There was a note attached to her in a female handwriting: If you want to taste this together, I am at a restaurant…while they immersed unclothed in a small pool."
The attitude to G-d (from a link to an essay): "Every time I read this (Torah) portion, I fail to understand how rational people can believe that such wickedness and ignorance can be called the words of the living G-d."
On Eve's creation: "For the sake of drama and rating, he (G-d) removes one of Adam's ribs and creates feminine nudity alongside male nudity. Now there will be action."
These are selected quotes; I am sparing the reader the worst examples. You can enter the site on your own and feel the Torah's pain.
To head the program, the Education Ministry chose Ms.Gal Gabai – a pluralistic, non-observant woman who is a member of the leftist cultural and political camp. She was given the reins to educate Jewish children and encourage the general and religious public to know what the Tanach is.
She will be responsible for educating the Jewish sector to respect the Torah, aided by a staff most of which does not accept the normativity of Torah and mitzvot.
As expected, the project was immediately hailed by representatives of Reform Judaism, such as the Reform institute "Bina" whch runs a Beit Midrash headed by a female Reform religious leader ("Rabba" in Hebrew). The syllabus includes many poems and essays, videos and explanations, the works of people some of whom do not believe in the Revelation at Mount Sinai, some who jeer at the Torah handed down by our Sages. Their common denominator – the desire to interpret the Torah so as to make it instantly popular, no holds barred, no red lines.
If this is the fruit of religious Zionism, it is time for us to do a thorough investigation of how this bitter crop grew from the seeds we sowed.
We always knew that the Torah was a G-d given message from the Lord of the Universe to Moses at Mount Sinai. We always knew that one learns Tanach from someone who is in awe of He who gave us the Torah, the Eternal G-d. But now, a new goal has emerged from our ranks. A directive whose main purpose is finding favor in the eyes of the secular intellectual public – even if the price we pay is selling out our deepest value as a religious group – the value of the sanctity of the Torah.
In the past few days, I have spoken with no small number of important religious Zionist rabbis so as arrange to discuss together how to respond to this shocking syllabus. Should we attack it? Ignore it? Try to change it from within?
All the rabbis were profoundly shocked by what each one of them chose to read from the syllabus. There was unanimous agreement about how to respond. We, the rabbis of religious Zionism, will not allow the Torah given to Moses on Mount Sinai to be violated, to allow the hearts of our dear students to be skewed by Tanach education that sees it as a literary work of human hands that has no G-dliness and sanctity.
Some of the rabbis took part in creating the curriculum and had no idea of the contents that were woven into its fabric. They protested that as well.
Our complaints are two-fold: First, how can a religious educator imagine this content being presented to religious students, even as a voluntary option? It contains a basic antithesis to faith in the Torah as G-d given, in its presentation of our holy forefathers, and is a betrayal of the trust placed in the school system by religious parents who expect their children to be raised in the spirit of the words of our Sages.
And secondly, how can this travesty be part of the general curriculum, and even be seen as its flagship program? Instead of exposing children to the grandeur of the Tanach and the light of faith, instead of strengthening the connection of the beloved, wholesome general public to the Book that G-d gave all of us – instead of that, this will distance the public from the Tanach, which will be seen as just another shallow, frail human work.
Honored Deputy Minister, you took G-d out of the Tanach experience and replaced Him with western man. Recall this program, do not make us culpable for this sin. The idea that everyone can and should study Tanach is a blessed one in principle, and you can bring it into fruition in the right way if you get rid of the heretical and reviling parts of it.
Remember that most of the population of Israel is traditional or religious. They do not want western culture's confusion and complexes to lower the Scriptures to the level of man's desires. They wish Tanach to be read in the tradition of our Sages, with pure, untainted, accepting and holistic love and fear of G-d, whether they themselves are observant or less so. G-d talks to us through the Tanach, we must study it with awe and love, faith – and most of all, acceptance of G-d's rule of the world.
Anyone who reads Tanach as if it were a newspaper, is actually continuing the cause of the ancient Greeks who wished to make us forget its message. The Sages said "to make them forget Your Torah" not just "the Torah", but "Your Torah". Greek culture saw the Torah as a wise, beautiful and legitimate literary work. But the Greeks did not agree that is has anything to do with Heavenly instructions for leading one's life, with the real meaning of the words "Your Torah". In their view, it is not G-d given. That is the reason we celebrate Hanukkah, the victory of the light of Torah over the Greek heresy.
Now, the Greeks are coming in by the back door with the "929" program to make us forget G-d's Torah, to turn it into the western man's Torah.
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook, Israel's iconic first Chief Rabbi and a Religious Zionist, asked in one of his books – why does it say "when the Greeks entered the Temple hall they caused all the oil to be impure?" Why doesn't it say that they touched or spilled out the oil, why is the fact that they entered the Temple hall what caused the oil to become impure? And he explained that when Greek culture that aims to sever the connection of the Jewish people with G-d is allowed in, all the oil becomes impure by definition. The Greeks don't have to actually touch the oil, it suffices that their culture enters our home – and all is impure.
There is not the slightest doubt that a school that allows this program onto its premises will keep its students from reaching the level of awe and love of G-d and accepting his commandments. I call upon every religious and non-religious school that believes in the sanctity of the Torah to prevent this heretical syllabus from entering our children's hearts.
Say no to "929" and say for all to hear: Blessed is the Lord who gave us the true Torah and sowed within us the key to eternal life."
