Foundations & Orientation: 3 credits -- History
The program's first week will be dedicated to Foundations & Orientation (F&O). Beginning on Sunday and continuing through Shabbat, F&O will launch the academic year by introducing the students to each other and establishing a ruach kvutzah (group spirit) from the outset while also introducing them to the institute, its curriculum, and its methods. These introductions will be accomplished in large part via the work of laying a historical foundation for the year ahead. This historical foundation is an example of one of our fundamental pedagogical principles: Inventory Enables Interpretation. The idea is that before we can engage substantively with something, we first must know, deeply and thoroughly, what it is and of what it consists.
Accordingly, the "Foundations" part of F&O is a three-credit History course in Yisrael Bishlaymuto (Israel in its entirety): Am Yisrael (the Jewish People), Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel), Torat Yisrael and Machshevet Yisrael (constitutive Jewish texts and thought), and Medinat Yisrael (the State of Israel). The course will combine broad surveys, detailed timelines, and in-depth case studies to develop a solid base of knowledge that will be reiteratively engaged in steadily increasing depth and rigor throughout the academic year.
Students will prepare for Foundations via a reading list that will incorporate a range of primary sources and Torani and academic/disciplinary secondary sources. Their task with regard to these readings will be straightforward, yet crucial: to read the texts actively, inventorying them extensively. The inventory is an informal yet fundamental project that is to consist of annotations, summaries, descriptions, outlines, questions about and questions raised, ideas sparked and difficulties clarified, comparisons of how Texts A and B address Issue C, similarities and differences, agreements and disagreements and other kinds of textual relationships, challenges, themes, problems, solutions, charts, diagrams, notes on areas of particular interest to the individual student, and so on.
The F&O week itself will build on the students' reading and inventories through individual, small-group, and whole-class work aimed at reviewing, clarifying, and reinforcing the details as well as the big picture. We will also engage additional historical material through further readings and text study, guest speakers, a field trip with an expert guide, and other resources and activities, and we will hold individual meetings for each student with the Institute Director and the Rav HaMachon. On the Friday of F&O week, each student will articulate his thinking so far in a "thoughts-in-progress" talk on the questions, "What Are Our Foundations? What Are The Implications For Our Future?". Culminating with a powerful Shabbat experience, with students and faculty alike now forged into a cohesive, inspired, energized kvutzah, F&O week will launch a dynamic year of learning based on a deep and solid foundation.
• Grading: Inventory 25% + Participation 50% + Talk 25%