Teaching Midrash
Meaningfully in Elementary
School
Deena Sigel
In This Discussion
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My Research (briefly)
The need for pedagogy in midrash
Underpinnings of my model of midrash
pedagogy
Overview of Data: midrash understandings
Illustrations from one student, Lucy
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The Need for Midrash Pedagogy
for meaningful understandings of midrash
“Doesn’t everything we teach have a pedagogy?”
In the case of midrash: answer is negative
 Result: confusion, some questionnaire responses
 American Students: “Don’t take it literally.” “What does
that mean?”
 British Students: Midrash is complex or deep. (agree)
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Midrash is not very deep. (agree)
 Some erroneous views:
 Pious view: midrash is ‘too holy to understand’
 Cynical view: it’s only midrash
 Worst case: midrash is ridiculous Torah is ridiculous
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Theory to Practice: A Model for Midrash
Pedagogy: Basic Theoretical Underpinnings
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Children’s Religious Understandings
 a. Piaget: stages of development; concrete thinking only
 b. Ashton et al: imagination leads to abstract thinking and
toward spirituality
Children’s ‘sense-making’
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Dewey: Inquiry & Reflection on experience; engaging - problems
Bruner: Storying (Egan: Romantic Understanding)
Construction of Meaning :Bruner’s co-operative model
 Children’s intuitive thinking: complex and analytical
 Learning spirals
midrash on its own terms
Hermeneutic of affirmation and exploration (A. Wright)
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Testing the Model: Quantitative Data
from the international study
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correct scores
All Students' Scores
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Lucy at Pre-Test
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What she knew
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Midrash contains stories
Midrash is, “to interpret the Torah, to make it
clear”
What she didn’t know
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That Rashi quotes midrash
That midrash contains values or ethics
That midrash is serious
That midrash is complex
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Midrashic Narrative (handout)
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Teaching Aims
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Exegetical nature
Exegetical opportunity (filling in gaps)
Religious underpinnings
Complexity and seriousness
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Lucy’s Journey
(a) Learning & Questioning
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Q: What is the midrash trying to explain by creating
a conversation between Satan and God?
A: To explain why God asked Avraham to sacrifice
Yitshak.
“[But] they could make up anything..So, whatever
they make up? .. But different rabbis could see the
Torah in different perspectives?”
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Lucy’s Journey
(b) Was this unclear?
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Q: What is the purpose of midrash?
A: So, um, to give - Let's say we don't know,
why, um, something happened,
to give a reason why something happened
which is not unclear, but to show something
that's not completely clear. To give reasons for
things that seem unclear.
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Lucy’s Journey
(c) Midrashic Process: complexity & exegesis
Teacher: Can you think of a midrash that explains things on
different levels?
Lucy: The akeidah, that it explains what these things were, and
why the akeidah happened.
Teacher: How does the midrash connect itself to the part of the
Torah that it speaks about?
Lucy: Let's say with the akeidah. No-one actually knows why it
happened, so it explained why it happened and said the things
had [been] said before, and so they use it, that hint, to make
something. They made like an idea or a story .. what could
have happened or might have happened….
.. Not for little children, [because] you have to think deeper than
the outer reason.
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Post-Test Reflections
Lucy: I liked how they took the hints from what
the Torah was saying, and kind of introduced it
in, like a, maybe, a jealousy kind-of-way or a
'showing-offy' kind-of-way or in an encouraging
kind-of way.
Teacher: Does midrash change the way we think of
the story in the Torah?
 Lucy: It makes you think, ‘yeah, how did that
happen?’ [Midrash] makes you think [about the
story in the Torah] from a different perspective.
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Conclusion: Kids and Midrash
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Children are abstract thinkers
Children are capable of religious
understanding
Children need to question in order to reflect
Children need to engage with the midrash text
in order to achieve meaningful understandings
of midrash
See step-by-step model on the handout sheet
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