The Case for Morality Religious Higher Education as Academia

Mordechai Ben Menachem

doi:10.4172/2167-0358.1000188

Abstract

Higher Education is Globalization and Integration-but is it? Stern Warning: This article is highly “Politically Incorrect” and proud of it. An oft-spoken historian’s rule is that the Hebrew Bible did not and could not have contributed anything significant to the rise of modern ideas and institutions. Quite the opposite, it is claimed by some to have been a hindrance. The ‘faith’ is drawn from Marx, that religion is the opiate of the masses-and who wants to be ‘masses’?! It is always more chic to be ‘liberal’ and ‘secular’ and anti-religion. And, if one can ‘get away’ with it, to be anti-religion while proudly declaring a state of utter ignorance about the subject. We probably all know of a certain biologist who makes a point of searing anti-religion statements while expressing pride in total ignorance of the subject. This article is not about religion. It is about Higher Education and the similarities between two types of it, as well as certain debts academia owes to Judaic Higher Education. Judaism has a very long history. Jewish Higher Education has a history nearly as long. Rabbi Akiva is known to have had an “academy” consisting of some 24,000 students, in the town of Bnei Brak, around the year 130 CE. What did they study? How did they study and learn? More importantly for this discussion: What were the pedagogy techniques? How ‘academic’ was it, in the sense of what we are familiar with today? And what can modern academics learn from this? Why is that last question of significance? Because those same and similar techniques are still used in Judaic Religious Higher Education today, with great success!

Highlights

What did they study? How did they study and learn? More importantly for this discussion: What were the pedagogy techniques? How ‘academic’ was it, in the sense of what we are familiar with today? And what can modern academics learn from this? Why is that last question of significance? Because those same and similar techniques are still used in Judaic Religious Higher Education today, with great success!
“We are living in an age of catastrophic thinking
[2] Examples of apocalyptic mentality are legion; surrounding us so ubiquitously that we no longer perceive them. Why is this important and what does this have to do with Higher Education, and certainly with morality? Can Religious, and Judaic, Religious Higher Education matter to the ‘ catastrophe’?

Summary

Introduction

“We are living in an age of catastrophic thinking. Our social and cultural discourse on any number of subjects-the environment, public health, technology-is defined by a vocabulary and worldview that can only be described as apocalyptic.” [1] Or, as David Goldman says in “First things last”: “An apocalyptic mentality (national bankruptcy, demographic decline) promotes policies less as opportunities for renewal than as bitter necessities that follow from this or that collapse.” [2] Examples of apocalyptic mentality are legion; surrounding us so ubiquitously that we no longer perceive them. Academia in the service of civilisation Mores of morality are a basic aspect of any civilisation-academia projects a primary role in forming and, in turn, in passing on, these mores generation-to-generation In the latter half of the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century the breakdown of European morality became implemented via the practice of Eugenics8-Eugenics is considered an international crime against humanity both by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, as well as The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which proclaims "the prohibition of eugenic practices, in particular those aiming at selection of persons". In Christendom, female fertility (birth rates) have fallen to unprecedented lows, that lead inevitably to total demographic collapse within such a short time that a decade will likely mean an irreversible end to Western Civilisation. Sepher Hazohar was written, from the very beginning, to be kept secret and was successfully kept from prying eyes (unauthorized) for over a millennium. (Psalm 90 describes one day of G-d as one thousand human years-Sepher Hazohar was kept secret for ‘one day’.)

Provenance Our tradition holds that Sepher Hazohar was written by Rabbi

Findings

Conclusions