Guide
Early Jewish Education
4th Century BCE–6th Century CE
Restricted
By Carol Bakhos
Related Primary Sources
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The Importance of Practical Education
All practices, employments, and studies, for us, refer back to piety toward God; for [Moses] did not leave any of these phenomena unexamined or indeterminate. All education and the training of habits…
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Scribal Exercise
Part of the process of scribal training in antiquity involved writing abecedaries, or practice alphabets. This Hebrew abecedary was found at Qumran, the archaeological site associated with the Dead…
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Gender Differences in Torah Education
And teach them to your children (Deuteronomy 11:19–21): your sons and not your daughters, the words of R. Yosi b. Akiva. On the basis of the verse at hand they [the rabbis] have said: When a child…
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Rabbinic Support for Elementary Teachers
For R. Judah said [that] Rav said: That man shall truly be remembered for good, and Joshua b. Gamla is his name. For without him the Torah would have been forgotten in Israel. For in the beginning, he…
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A Pedagogue Leads a Prince to Evil
R. Yudan said, “[The matter may be compared] to a king who handed his son over to a pedagogue, and he led him into evil ways. The king became angry with his son and killed him. The king said, ‘Nobody…
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A Pedagogue Aids in Violence
2:5. R. Simeon b. Yoḥai said, “[This may be compared] to a king who had an only son. Every day he instructed a member of his household and said to him: ‘Make sure that my son eats! Make sure that my…