I attended a modern Orthodox Jewish Day School from 1st through 8th grade, and then a similar high school. The secular education was quite good, and the Jewish part – at least from the standpoint of “dos and don’ts” – wasn’t bad either. But something was missing, although I didn’t realize what until I went to college and took a course in Jewish History. For me, that’s when everything changed as I came to realize that there’s a difference between “knowing the religious rules” and “understanding the historical connection.”

Back then, I learned the biblical stories; what a Jew is commanded to do; and how to study the sacred books. The approach was hyper-rational and didactic: this is what the Bible states; that is what the Talmud’s Rabbis argued. The Bible’s main characters were heroic (although each with flaws as well), the Talmudic rabbis intellectually brilliant – but they all existed as if in a socio-cultural vacuum.

One central example: the Talmud (including the Mishnah) covers 500 years of history in the Land of Israel and Babylon, but not once were we taught that “this Rabbi lived in the 2nd century CE in Palestine” (the name given by the Romans), whereas “that Rabbi lived in Babylon in the 5th century CE.” Knowing the specific “century” is actually quite important as it’s critical for understanding the political, social and cultural milieu in which these rabbis worked and argued – and the impact of their environment on their argumentation and law rulings.

In other words, Judaism was taught cut and dry, without much emotional resonance. Yes, I knew about the destruction of the two Temples –........

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