ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author shows how Jewish law, the halakhah, draws the commandments of the Torah into the concrete circumstances of life. He also shows how the law’s internal controversies reflect diverse philosophical and educational positions. The author looks at several focal questions that concern philosophers of education from one corner of the halakhic world of faith. Since traditional Jewish education assumes that initiation of the young into the world of halakhah is part of what characterizes the educational enterprise. Most liberal Jewish education argues for considering halakhic discourse significant, even if not necessarily normative, in Jewish education, reflective Jewish teaching will have to examine its various approaches to this corpus of law on the basis of some conception of human nature. Those who take the view that humans are naturally wild tend to be conservative in their educational approach.
