I missed it. I try to be on top of misinformation about Judaism, and about Israel, and there it was, as plain as day on page 297 of my daughter Margot’s sixth grade social studies textbook, A Message of Ancient Days, published by Houghton Mifflin. I was leafing through the textbook as she was preparing for her final exam, so I didn’t catch it until school was almost over.
Usually, I look at the textbooks that kids use for social studies. Invariably, there will be a sentence like “Jews worship the God named Yahweh or Jehovah.” I have encountered many confused young Jewish children who come to religious school with their secular school textbook in hand and say, “Mrs. Alpert, I’ve been going to religious school my whole life. Who the heck is Jehovah?” It is at this point that I discuss the lack of an editor at textbook publishing companies who understands Jewish theology or who would even care about presenting Judaism appropriately.
The creators of textbooks connecting Jewish with Jehovah worship don’t understand a basic Jewish tenet: we protect the name of G-d by not pronouncing G-d’s name, and for some of us, by not writing G-d’s name. G-d’s name, through much of the Bible, is written with the Hebrew letters Yud-Hey-Vav-Hey. It used to be recited aloud once a year on Yom Kippur by the High Priest in the Holy of Holies. Thus, the name was only ever spoken in the holiest place by the holiest person at the holiest time. Now that the Temple in Jerusalem is destroyed, we no longer say the name. Now, we replace that name with “Adonai”, which means “my Lord”. (Very religious people won’t say Adonai except in a prayer setting. They even replace Adonai with Hashem. Ask a religious Jew how their family is and their response will be, “Baruch Hashem, everyone is fine.”)
But, this textbook didn’t even have that error. In fact, it had one word that was so insidious, so seemingly small, but that fills me with anger and a need to tell you all (and to have you check what social studies textbook your child or grandchild, niece or nephew is using). Here is the sentence placed atop a scene of the Dome of the Rock with the city of Jerusalem in the background:
The original Jewish temple in Jerusalem may have been built on the site where the gold-domed mosque now stands.
May have been built? What were these writers thinking? There is a wealth of extra-biblical writing (documents that are not biblical documents) about the location of the Temple in Jerusalem. Josephus wrote about the destruction of the Temple in his histories. There is archaeological evidence, including of course the Western Wall, but the more recent southern excavations at the Davidson Center, including the fallen stones of Robinson’s Arch, which were built during Herod’s time. The Arch of Titus in Rome includes a frieze showing the sacking of the Temple. And finally, let’s be clear: The historically significant reason that Moslems built the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount was to show Jews everywhere that Moslems controlled the area now, and not Jews.
We can’t protect how people feel about Judaism and Israel, but we can protect our children from misinformation presented in a textbook. I missed it and I missed an opportunity to give correct information to her teacher and her class. I make a promise to check my daughter’s “text messages” from now on.
Click on any of the following links to read some of Keren's interesting articles on education.
We're Still Here
Packing for Collage
Baruch ata Adonai, WOW
696
OUR HOUSE
ANOTHER MEETING
CHECKING THE PULSE
LIVING TORAH
BIG STORY ON THE LITTLE TOWN
THE BAGEL MAN
NOBODY'S PERFECT
LESSONS ON FILM
BOXES OF SHABBAT
HEBREW HAPPENINGS
