The Jewish Home School by Hinsdale

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Jul 2, 1908

The Jewish Home School

By Hinsdale

JEWISH education began with the mother. . . . The very household duties that she performed molded her children in accordance with the national discipline. “The Sabbath meal, the kindling of the Sabbath lamp, the setting apart of a portion of dough from the bread for the household, these are but instances with which every ‘taph,’ as he clung to his mother’s skirts, must have been familiar.” . . . More than this, it was in the school of the mother’s knee that the stories of patriarchs and prophets, of statesmen and warriors, of poets and sages, of kings and judges, wise men and patriots, and the great Lawgiver himself,—the whole forming the very best body of material for the purposes of child nurture found in any language,—were told and retold until they became parts of the mind itself. It was not strange, but quite the contrary, that Timothy, although the son of a Gentile, and living at a distance from any school or synagogue, should have thoroughly known the Holy Scriptures from his infancy. As teachers of their children, the women of every country may learn lessons from the matrons of Israel.

Up to ten years of age, the Bible was the sole text-book. From ten to fifteen the Mischna, or traditional law, was used; and after that the pupil was admitted to the discussions of the rabbinical schools. . . . Bible study began with the book of Leviticus. Then came other parts of the Pentateuch; next the prophets, and finally the Hagiographa.—Hinsdale.