Reading the variety of responses on the manner in which our most important text should be approached is a window into our era. The sum of all the contributions on the subject indicate the breakdown of an orthodoxy of approach, and the ramification is that there is no predicting what the student will get out of a given classroom in a given school. Year to year contradictory approaches may be taught.
This leads me to ask the following from the perspective of a yeshiva teacher of Tanach in Israel. Students who arrive in Israel do not generally have mastery of Ivrit, nor mastery of parshanut, nor mastery of modern approaches. They have a smattering of this and that, some decent knowledge, but little feel for detecting what is excellent interpretation. They are Art Scroll level readers. The exceptions read pesukim with fresh eyes, open and searching for something they didn't catch before. Most wait to be informed. That being so, the approaches taught year to year do not really reach the hearts of our students.
Before the inculcation of any preferred style of parshanut, I would love to see teachers inculcate a burning desire for thougtful reading. Without it, the variety of approaches will not be valued. This is something our era needs - because nothing tells the story of Yahadut like the Tanach. How, in an era in which Tanach is being appreciated in varied ways, do you do that for more students? Uniting and underlying all these styles - is it possible to teach the excitement of good questions?
Moshe Simkovich
