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.
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 ham.
After going through the stages, I gave a large number of exercises which involve combining all these stages.
After each stage there are exercises for the pupils to answer and hence enhance their understanding of the subject.
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.
Maimonides wrote that children should be able within just a few days to learn how to calculate the Jewish calendar.
Very brief extracts from my booklet are quoted in this book.
I according wrote a booklet, (which was used successfully in universities) on how to answer this propaganda.
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.
Needless to say, this was unacceptable to Jews, and I accordingly wrote a Jewish-orientated syllabus which was accepted by the public examination boards.
England being a Christian country, the examination was accordingly designed and the questions thus worded.
There was a problem which I encountered regarding the public examination for Scripture Knowledge.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
