Literary tools....

The erudite, complex and emotionally laden discussions of literary method that have graced this site remind me of a similar discussion that ensued about 30 years ago concerning Talmud study for women. There were passionate arguments for and against, but in the end, those who were opposed to women’s learning always ended up asking the annoying, slippery slope question- “but where will this lead?” Their real concern was never whether women’s learning was right, important for women, or even, halachically permissible. If it may cause an upheaval, let’s stop now.
In the end, we have witnessed a revolution in women’s learning, bringing about unimagined creativity as well as many complex challenges for women and their families.

I sense the same underpinnings in the current discussion about applying literary tools to the teaching of Tanach. The real fear behind this discussion is “but where will this lead?” In truth, serious literary analysis applied to teaching Tanach, leads to some hard questions about Biblical authorship, sources, genres, agendas, and much more.
Simply stated it boils down to this: Those who are willing to take religious risks in order to pursue what they view as a quest for truth will follow the words to where they lead. Those who are reluctant to take risks, who don’t want to jeopardize what is given or already known- won’t.

We all know that literary analysis is here to stay, just as is women’s higher learning.
The question has long stopped being “if” to teach it. The questions are pedagogic-how, when, where, etc?

We cannot teach our students that one of God’s names is Emmet, and then withhold knowledge from them because of where that knowledge may lead. Wherever it leads will become the teacher of emmet’s next challenge.

B’bracha
Esther Lapian