Wednesday, July 22, 2009

"Jewish education is so lacking that it almost has no meaning"


"There are many Jews whose only sense of being Jewish is the sense that they are hated, that they are a persecuted minority.


But when Judaism is only defined as a kick in the backside, it’s not worth continuing.

The root of the problem is that Jewish education, almost all over the world, is so lacking that it almost has no meaning.

To use an example from the physical sciences, in flight mechanics there is what is called a critical velocity, under which no plane will fly.


In the same way there is also a critical level of Jewish knowledge under which no effective tie with Judaism will ever be reached.

Below this level, all attempts to teach Judaism are quite useless."


--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

From Pebbles of Wisdom from Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz (forthcoming)