rivky – OJCS Jewish Studies

On a high from conquering the city of Yericho, Joshua sets forward on the course to conquer city #2: Ai. Unbeknownst to him one person – Achan – violated the ONLY thing that God said not to do after winning Yericho. Achan stole from the spoils of war. Why does this matter? Well, we are told that this was (part of) the reason that the Israelites lost the battle against Ai.

How is this even fair? This excellent question was the subject of Navi class last week. Is communal punishment ever ok?

The classes read the following excerpt from a letter sent to Dear Abby:

“It is necessary to listen to and follow the teacher’s instructions so that the teacher can get on with teaching us.

On the other hand, I am a perfectly obedient student, I always do as I am told and rarely talk in class. And yet, I still get punished for other people’s bad behaviour every day. Therefore, I feel that there is no point in behaving well because I am going to be punished no matter what I do.

This attitude or mindset I have developed has been brought on by teachers like you, who insist on punishing the whole group/class for one or two people’s bad behaviour. This type of behaviour is unfair and unjust and I don’t think I can withstand it any longer.

If somebody is misbehaving, punish them individually (this is fair). I don’t mind being punished if I know I deserve the punishment, but, being punished through no fault of my own is just unfair.

Although it is important for the students to follow the rules, it is also important to treat us as students fairly and respectfully.”

Then we watched clips that addressed each side of the issue:

and

Finally, the students were asked to write their own letters addressing the issue: Is it ever fair to have a communal punishment.

Here are a few examples of the answers:

Dear Disgruntled student,

I understand that you could hate your teachers for punishing you while you did nothing, and it is not okay for them to punish you every day for the actions of your peers. However sometimes in order to inspire team spirit it is necessary to punish the whole team together. Imagine if you were on a soccer team and one of your friends showed up late, as opposed to punishing them individually, which would result in them feeling isolated from the rest of the team, it would make more sense to punish the whole team. This concept also applies to the classroom.

Dear Student,

I understand how you feel, and I know many other students feel the same way.

But your class is a team, one person does something wrong, you all go through the punishment together. I do this because I want you to learn how to work together.

Even though someone does something wrong everyday, it is not impossible to teach them how they should not do it, so after many reminders, nobody will do anything bad, as a team.

Sincerely,

Mrs.Abby

PS, I’m not close enough to you for you to call me Abby without the Mrs.

And, voting for the other side:

Dear Dalosras pickle brain,

I respect your argument in every way. It is not fair that if just one person does something wrong not everyone should be punished. I know that many people feel that is wrong. But I also think that it is important to take some things as a team because if everyone gets punished the person who did wrong will feel guilty and not do it again and the people who are getting punished will try not to do it because they don’t want to be that person and to let everyone be punished.

Sincerely,

Altonato tomato

This chapter ends with Achan’s punishment and Bnei Yisrael preparing for the second battle of Ai.

Hello and welcome to the Grade 6 Navi Page

Winter break is upon us and I would like to take this opportunity to give you a brief summary of what we have been studying in our class. Each chapter gives a chance to work on reading skills in Hebrew and English, analysis of text, and another theme that I chose to help make the text more relevant and interesting to the students. Below are summaries of the perakim (chapters).

This year we are studying the book of Yehoshua. We began the year talking about leadership and imagining how Yehoshua felt about taking over from his mentor Moshe. We discussed how he might feel unqualified and looked at texts from Chumash that teach us that, actually, Yehoshua was uniquely qualified for this job: to lead the Children of Israel into the Land of Israel. In fact, the book of Yehoshua begins with a pep talk from God explaining all of this to us (and, of course, to Yehoshua!)

Theme: Leadership

In Perek 2 Yehoshua sends in Spies just like Moshe did. What was the purpose of the mission? It was really a “rubber stamp” because Hashem promised Bnei Yisrael that they were going to win. We also met Rachav, a woman who brokered a deal with the Spies to help them complete their mission (We will meet her again in Perek 6 when she helps with the war). We discussed three reasons motivating Rachav:

She was afraid of Bnei Yisrael
She was unhappy in Yericho
She believed in Hashem.

Theme: Faith vs. Action

Perek 3 details the crossing of the Jordan river. We spent some time working on understanding the geography of the crossing through working with maps. God split the river similar to the splitting of the Red Sea. Why was that necessary? What do we learn from miracles? This miracle brings us back to the idea of another literary theme in this part of the book of Yehoshua: filling the shoes of Moshe. The entire introduction of the book is peppered with events that echo back to Chumash as a way of communicating Yehoshua’s choseness.

Theme: Miracles

Perek 4 teaches us about a monument that Yehoshua erected in the Jordan river and next to the Jordan river . The students all looked for monuments from around the word and we discussed the different reasons to build a monument – to tell about a victory, to honor a person or event, to remember someone, or to say thanks. We discussed the reason reason that Yehoshua built two monuments at the site of the Jordan.

Theme: Memory

In Perek 5, Bnei Yisrael have entered into the land of Israel and are ready to conquer, right? Actually, it is the first of Nissan and they are worrying about getting ready for Pesach! Interestingly, before the military campaign, the Children of Israel celebrate their freedom. We are also told that God stops providing the Manna everyday. All of this is another indication that the people are ready to really be independent in their land.

One more curious event happens in this perek, Yehoshua meetaa “man” who introduced himself as a “captain of the LORD’s host” who told him to “Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy.” This is the final story that echoes back to the Chumash; to the conversation at the Burning Bush when Hashem told Moshe to take off his shoes.

Now, Yehoshua is ready to start his conquest.

Theme: Independence

Have a wonderful vacation!

Morah Rivky

rivky@lookstein.org

Author: rivky

Grade 6 – The Battle of Ai and Communal Responsibility

Grade 6 Navi Page – Year in Review