Classroom Battlegrounds: Sherlock Holmes and the high holidays

On a recent Shabbat in Washington DC, I went to doven at Congregation Kesher Israel, which seems to be the nearest shul to the White House (it was not exactly the same excitement as dovening at the nearest spot to the Holy of Holies, but still I make this point).

On that Shabbat the shul hosted Mr. Richard Joel, the president of Yeshiva University. This was not the first time I heard Richard Joel speaking and as usual I enjoyed his lecture, even more so the initial story. It went like this:

Sherlock Holmes and Watson go on a camping vacation. At night Holmes wakes Watson up and asks him: 'Do you see the sky with all the stars above, Watson? What does it mean to you?' 'Well', answers Watson, 'astronomically I realize how immense our universe is, theologically I cannot but acknowledge G-d's unfathomable greatness, existentially I realize how small we are, and from an epistemological point of view I see how limited our knowledge remains. But what does it mean to you, Mr. Holmes'? Holmes lights his pipe, ponders for a while and then answers: 'It means, that someone just stole our tent'.

Joel then went on using this story to make a certain point about the vitality of Jewish life in America, but I want to take it somewhere else.

From a Jewish point of view this seems to be a discussion between one of our Sages and a Greek Philosopher. The latter takes interest in everything and has some important insights to offer. But the former might be the person we would rely on in situations where you better don't miss the crucial point. For me the upcoming High Holidays are such a situation.

During the weeks and months I spent prior to my coming to the USA, preparing myself for this new teaching experience - in terms of choosing the courses I wanted to teach, adjusting my material to a public which lives in direct vicinity to Hollywood, selecting a maximum of available English-language bibliography etc. - I had several things on my mind: the academic level I wanted to maintain, the amount of reading I would impose on my students, my adjustment to American academic habits (e.g. when to wear a tie and when not) etc.

But on the Eve of the High Holidays I might ask myself a different question: How do my lectures affect my students in general, and my Jewish students in particular? What is more important: the number of pages I succeed to make my students read and understand, or the email I got two weeks ago from one of my Jewish students (the only one among them who has had no Jewish education at all and doesn't know Hebrew letters) who asked me some questions about the reading material and then, as post script, wrote that she enrolled for this winter on a birthright-trip to Israel.

What counts more: the amount of material I succeed in covering, or the discussion (again, among Jewish students) which followed my description of the recurring pattern in history - since Haman's appearance in the Book of Esther until the modern reproach of "a nation within a nation" - of accusing Jews of double loyalty and my remark that I am not sure if the anti-Semites didn't have a point here. After class, some of the Jewish students gathered and discussed the interesting question, for whom their hearts would beat, if in the Olympic Games an Israeli athlete would face an American one in the finals . Even my assurance that this could possibly not happen, because Israelis never make it to the finals could not calm the discussion.

I will watch the progress of these students over the year, but this professor has already learned something new. Perhaps the most important work that we visiting scholars can do for Israel is with the Jewish student body.

One should always have a Sherlock Holmes in his pocket to be able to highlight the single truth among the many that is the most important one in a given context.

Dr. Meir Seidler teaches this year as a Schusterman visiting Israeli Professor at USC Los Angeles.