Introductory Lessons for a Course on Laws, Values, and Morality
The following two lessons begin a year long course in Law, Values, and Morality that I developed for teenage students.
COURSE: Law, Values, and Morality Lesson # 1 Leonard H. Berman
TOPIC: The Need For A Belief In G od
MATERIALS: a flowering perennial plant
a chalk board
OBJECTIVE: To recognize that in order for moral behavior and the ethical system supporting it to be passed on from one generation to another, it is important to accept G od as the authority behind the moral law. Without a belief in G od’s moral law and authority, man becomes the arbiter of what is right and wrong and any law and authority might be substituted.
MOTIVATION: Place a perennial plant or flowering bulbs in soil on table. Cut one of the blooms off the plant.
Pivotal QUESTIONS:
Procedure: Now that the introductory motivational questions are over, take the cut bloom and hand it to a student. The teacher then enters a dialogue with that student using the bloom as a simile for a variety of ideas: The bloom is like a person, like a Jewish person, like moral law, etc. Each time there is a change in simile, the bloom is passed to another student for a new dialogue.
If you were to be separated from your family, friends, religion, etc., how might you be effected?
What possible assurances do you, as a rooted person have in your daily life?
COURSE: Law, Values, and Morality Lesson # 1 Leonard H. Berman
TOPIC: The Need For A Belief In G od
MATERIALS: a flowering perennial plant
a chalk board
OBJECTIVE: To recognize that in order for moral behavior and the ethical system supporting it to be passed on from one generation to another, it is important to accept G od as the authority behind the moral law. Without a belief in G od’s moral law and authority, man becomes the arbiter of what is right and wrong and any law and authority might be substituted.
MOTIVATION: Place a perennial plant or flowering bulbs in soil on table. Cut one of the blooms off the plant.
Pivotal QUESTIONS:
- What is the difference between a perennial and an annual?
- How are the blooms that are still growing similar to the one cut? How are they different?
- Is the flower any less beautiful because it is cut?
- What will happen to it?
- How might you prolong its life?
- Ultimately, what will happen to it?
- Why are the ones in the pot somewhat assured of continuing (soil, nutrients, water, sunlight) while the cut bloom is guaranteed to die?
Procedure: Now that the introductory motivational questions are over, take the cut bloom and hand it to a student. The teacher then enters a dialogue with that student using the bloom as a simile for a variety of ideas: The bloom is like a person, like a Jewish person, like moral law, etc. Each time there is a change in simile, the bloom is passed to another student for a new dialogue.
- If we say that a person like a flower, what are some of the things that sustains a person or keeps them growing?
If you were to be separated from your family, friends, religion, etc., how might you be effected?
What possible assurances do you, as a rooted person have in your daily life?
- If we say that a Jewish person is like the flower, what might we say is the soil in which he or she grows? (Family, G od, Synagogue, people, Israel)
- Let us say that Judaism is the flower. If that is the case, what elements make up it’s soil? (God, Torah, Israel, chosenness, community, righteous behavior, etc. )
- If the flower is the Torah and we separate it from God, saying that moral law and the Ten Commandments were created by people, who then is the authority behind these laws? (People, governments, groups etc.)
- Let us say that the flower is “morality” or what is right and what is wrong. What happens to “morality” when it is separated from G od?
Course : LAW, VALUES, & MORALITY Lesson Two Leonard H. Berman
Topic: The Jewish View of Life.
Objective: TO UNDERSTAND WHY THE JEWISH PEOPLE HOLD THE VALUE THAT “LIFE IS SACRED.”
Motivation: Show picture of Adam being animated by G od by Michaelangelo.
Pivotal Questions:
Let us list some of the different ways Judaism teaches us the idea that life is sacred?
Does the value “life is sacred,” stand a better chance as a beautiful cut flower or as part of a beautiful plant? Why? How can you guarantee that this particular idea will be passed on from generation to generation?
Give out article about boy tossed from window for not wanting to steal candy for some older boys.
Summary: Where might this collective value come from?
How might you have personally come by it ?
Topic: The Jewish View of Life.
Objective: TO UNDERSTAND WHY THE JEWISH PEOPLE HOLD THE VALUE THAT “LIFE IS SACRED.”
Motivation: Show picture of Adam being animated by G od by Michaelangelo.
Pivotal Questions:
- What famous scene is depicted here?
- Who is the artist and where did he get his idea from to paint such a picture?
- What does it tell us about the human being’s relationship to G od? (It is very close. Think parent and child.)
- How does this picture differ from the story of Adam’s creation as told to us in the Torah?
- How does God create Adam in the Torah?
- What does God’s creating Adam in His Image, teach us about human beings and how God views us? (Our lives are sacred because G od animates us directly.)
Let us list some of the different ways Judaism teaches us the idea that life is sacred?
- In the Torah we are told to “choose life.”
- We are also told that we are created in the image of God and are, therefore, sacred ourselves.
- Only we humans are animated by G od’s breath directly.
- Throughout our sacred writings, we are taught that life is of the highest value and to save a life is as if you have saved an entire world.
- Don’t murder.
- You may break the Sabbath laws to save a life.
Does the value “life is sacred,” stand a better chance as a beautiful cut flower or as part of a beautiful plant? Why? How can you guarantee that this particular idea will be passed on from generation to generation?
Give out article about boy tossed from window for not wanting to steal candy for some older boys.
- What is your immediate reaction to this article?
- Your response is a judgment. What criteria are you using for making this judgment?
- Where does this criteria come from?
- Explain why all your responses similar when you are all so different?
- What conclusions might you draw about what you value as a group?
Summary: Where might this collective value come from?
How might you have personally come by it ?