[Avodah] Rav Moshe Shternbuch: On Teaching Children Tanach

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Dec 06, 2011 at 04:53:18PM -0600, Lisa Liel wrote:
> I've heard yeshiva guys say "Chumash is for girls" and "Nach is bittul  
> Torah".  The latter probably stems from the early secular Zionists using  
> Nach as secular history.  Lionizing Ahab, for example.  I'm pretty sure  
> that's the kind of kefirah they're worried about.

Or Nimrod.

It seems so. The problem I have with this is that one would be presumably
taught Nakh by similar rabbeim to those who are teaching gemara. IOW,
while Nakh /could/ be taught al pi peshuto as a bunch of stories, why
presume that rabbeim immersed in chazal and rishonim couldn't relay Nakh
through their eyes?

If anything WRT chumash we err in the other direction, leaving kids who
can't remember what was chumash and what was medrashic!

Besides, the problem you describe only pertains to about half the books;
neviim acharonium, sifrei EMe"S, Qoheles, etc... don't lend themselves
to that treatment.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             I have great faith in optimism as a philosophy,
micha at aishdas.org        if only because it offers us the opportunity of
http://www.aishdas.org   self-fulfilling prophecy.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                              - Arthur C. Clarke