Torah Curriculae, Autobiographia and Selected Writings on Jewish Themes

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Dissection of Tephillin - yes dissection! An excellent way of teaching Barmitzvah boys (and also others) all about tefillin, is to "dissect" both the hand and head tephillin in the classroom in front of the pupils. They will then be able to see that tephillin are not just "black-boxes" but will see the contents of the "boxes" and appreciate the intricate work needed to construct them. This was part of a Barmitzvah course, (which is included in detail in this book), which I gave pupils when I was the Director of Jewish Studies in the King David High School in Liverpool during the 1970s. The course included distributing quill pens and small pieces of parchment on which the pupils had to write a few Hebrew letters, and in this way thus learning what is involved in writing the parashiot of tephillin. At the time I also produced a 125-page booklet comprising different courses for pupils of varying abilities throughout the various classes in the school, and a few sample courses are included in this book. There was a problem which I encountered regarding the public examination for Scripture Knowledge. England being a Christian country, the examination was accordingly designed and the questions thus worded. Needless to say, this was unacceptable to Jews, and I accordingly wrote a Jewish-orientated syllabus which was accepted by the public examination boards. In this book I included two sample examination papers which I wrote and were accepted, thus solving this problem. Jewish pupils graduating from schools and entering universities encountered anti-Israel propaganda to which they did not know how to reply. I according wrote a booklet, (which was used successfully in universities) on how to answer this propaganda. Very brief extracts from my booklet are quoted in this book. Maimonides wrote that children should be able within just a few days to learn how to calculate the Jewish calendar. In fact, it is not so simple! I therefore wrote a booklet on this subject for High School pupils giving in simplified language the various stages in constructing such a calendar. After each stage there are exercises for the pupils to answer and hence enhance their understanding of the subject. After going through the stages, I gave a large number of exercises which involve combining all these stages. In a similar style, I produced booklets on the practical aspects of the Festivals, which included a biochemical explanation of chametz, the botanical aspects of the arba'at haminim taken on the Festival of Sukkot, and the anatomical signs for animals, birds and fish to be kosher. All these booklets are included in full in this book. In 1990 I delivered a lecture in Jerusalem on the subject of transfer of Arabs from Israel. This lecture is included verbatim in this book, and one can see that the great Zionist leaders, including Herzl, Ben-Gurion and Chaim Weizmann would regularly put forward such proposals, often as compulsory transfer. In addition, there were many leading non-Jews including American Presidents who did so. Furthermore, such a proposal for even compulsory transfer was made by a British Royal Commission in 1936. I have also written a very detailed unpublished autobiography comprising many volumes, which include a volume entitled "My Fight for Yiddishkeit" which describes my tenure as a Director of Jewish Studies in Liverpool, and a volume on my "Three Years in a Military Compound" in Hebron, Israel, which was soon after the Six Day War. Many chapters in these two volumes are included in this book.