Lesson Plan BT Sanhedrin 23a Narrative: This lesson is on a in BT Sanhedrin, 23a.

. This is for a 10th grade rabbinics course, which is also an introduction to Talmud. The students have learned many of the technical and halakhic terms, and have studied the Mishnah and relevant "verses. Big Idea: The laws of the court prevent injustice. For the unit: The rabbis are willing to reinterpret the laws to fit with their idea of justice Essential Question: What motivates the Rabbis to reinterpret the laws? Goal: To understand the literal meaning of the text, to understand how each thought unit connects to its surrounding ones. Students will also understand why the resolution of the best promotes justice. Procedure: 1. Acknowledge that we are jumping ahead a little bit. 2. Trigger (2 min) A Clip from Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Peasants and the witch found at this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr8DIg3oHFI. What is the peasants view of justice? How does the knight try to convince them to reinterpret their view of justice? Why? 3. Review the previous . Ask students to summarize the main idea (5 min). a. What started the off last time? Structurally, the quote and the interpretation. b. Can someone tell me what the assumption was? is a court or a person? c. How did they resolve or clarify the problem? The two litigants compromise and together choose a 4. Review Talmudic terminology (on board) (5 min) terms used and relevant 5. Transition? I heard that last week you all made the connection that with the Talmud, you have to be very aware of the structure of the in order to understand. Now that weve reviewed the terms, and the first part of this , were ready to start studying the second part. 6. Distribute worksheet, say instructions (2 min) Make sure to add that the students should add line numbers to the notes organizer and text sheet 7. Put on the board 8. Check for understanding (1 min) are there questions?

9. Send students to for (20 min) 10. Wander around doing formative assessment. Are they following the instructions on the worksheet. Are they accurately translating, are they accurately applying the terms. If they are having trouble with one of these tasks (applying the terms/ Analysis), then have them focus on the other. I.e - This is really hard/ This is something youre new to. If needed, this step can be compressed due to time constraints. 11. Bring students back together (2 min) 12. Go over each thought unit of the text, making sure to translate the entire unit, and assigning it one of the Talmudic terms. Breakpoints are after the 1st Kushya, the Terutz, or the Teshuva. (25 min). What Talmudic terms are in this thought unit? What does it say? Does it quote the Mishnah? What term should be applied to this unit? What is the connection between this unit and the previous one? What is the connection between this unit and the rest of the text weve studied today? 13. Ask students: What interpretations have we seen today? What problems have been brought up? Do these problems cause the rabbis to change their opinion/ interpretation? Does this interpretation best promote the idea of justice? Why? How does this prevent injustice? (10min) 14. Wrapup (2 min) Where are the students now? The rabbis here are like the knight we saw at the beginning. They are trying to lead us, and lead themselves to a method that best promotes justice. Just he tried to bring justice by weighing a duck and a witch, they try to bring justice by weighing the different options for creating a balanced court. In the end, the verdict will come to truth, and the rabbis do find that one of these ways does encourage a more ideal form of justice

Materials: Worksheet, smartboard. Assessment: Chevruta work, shiur To Include on Smartboard Talmudic terms chart Worksheet Instructions Text Chevruta

Unit 5: Advanced 10th Grade Rabbinics Schechter School of Long Island Text Sheet :

Name __________________ Date____________________

Instructions: 1. The has been divided into thought units. Read each thought unit. 2. Then draw a box around the mishnah text 3. Next, identify and analyze the text. a. Write any words you defined, and any halakhic or talmudic terms below the Talmud text b. Write a literal translation of the thought unit in the column labeled Identification c. Do an analysis of the thought unit. What does this unit have to do with the one before or the one after it? Where does it fit in the context of this ?What is its importance? 4. Make sure that you label in the Analysis section what type of statement each unit it, such as a
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