One of my twins is always looking for something new to learn online. For awhile, he was fascinated by a Massachusetts service dog project, where Great Danes are trained to provide support to those with balance and mobility impediments. He found this amazing service dog program through the website explore.org. It has live cams of animals all over the world. While we\u2019re not traveling anywhere, my kid is bird watching, seeing service dogs, polar bears, and more. When we least expect it, he rushes up with his iPad and demands that I admire a nesting owl, or that his biologist dad identify an animal he\u2019s never seen before.<\/p>\n
This kind of intellectual curiosity is something I\u2019m excited to see. Open-ended questioning about the world and how it works is a special kind of Jewish exploration. This intensity and enthusiasm is how we delve into studying Torah and Talmud, or how we engage with the world in general.<\/p>\n
Passover is an obvious time to think about questions and how we approach and answer them. Our families have been telling the Exodus and \u201cOnce we were slaves and now we are free\u201d story for thousands of years! Still, our questioning can\u2019t just stick to the Four Questions and be done. Sometimes, even with good intentions, we get hung up on the rote narrative of the seder. We know we have to get through it. We start at the beginning and head to the end. It\u2019s a yearly ritual routine, punctuated by matzah, lots of other foods, wine, and, in normal times, family and guests.<\/p>\n
When we were first married, I once attended a smaller seder with some of my husband\u2019s family. I was excited and nervous to engage over the Haggadah\u2019s ideas \u2013 but it didn\u2019t turn out as I expected. The family was committed to getting through the ritual traditionally and to the food part. They looked uncomfortable when I tried to talk about ideas or ask questions. In retrospect, I realized I knocked them off their game. There was a seder routine \u2013 and I wasn\u2019t following theirs.<\/p>\n
My other twin is also learning. He\u2019s not into the animal live cams. Instead, he comes up with questions about school projects. He brainstorms and makes suggestions, even when they\u2019re not welcome. The remote learning teacher suggested he limit his research on one social studies project to their \u201cclass time\u201d online rather than do more research later.<\/p>\n
Of course, the minute he logs off, I help him look up his questions and learn \u2013 whenever he wants. His teacher maybe wants to slow down the group learning, or avoid making more social studies lesson plans, but feeding intense curiosity with knowledge helps enthusiastic learners blossom. In my experience, putting somebody off when they want to learn more feels negative and does the opposite.<\/p>\n
For many people, the pandemic has knocked them off their game. Losing regular routines may have felt negative. As people anticipate getting vaccinated, they talk more about which things they miss the most and long to do when things return to \u201cnormal.\u201d For another view, I recently read a CBC news article that quoted David Eagleman, a neuroscientist.<\/p>\n
Eagleman suggested that, in fact, the pandemic might be good for people\u2019s brains, because the huge lifestyle changes we\u2019ve experienced have forced us off our \u201cpath of least resistance.\u201d We\u2019ve been forced to be more flexible and innovate. This can be positive for our brain health. In some cases, forcing our brains to adapt may result in positive growth and changes in our work or home lives.<\/p>\n
In a Jewish context though, when we consider our ritual routines, we must balance the comfort of what\u2019s familiar with the opportunity to learn. Questioning and continuing to grow intellectually are valuable, particularly during Passover.<\/p>\n
In the talmudic tractate of Pesachim, on page 105a, there\u2019s a discussion about when to say certain blessings such as the Kiddush. Should we interrupt a meal in the middle to do Kiddush? Rav Hamnuna the Elder says, \u201cYou don\u2019t need to do this, because Shabbat establishes itself.\u201d In other words, our holidays, like Shabbat or Pesach, will happen whether we are ready or not. We must automatically rise to the obligations associated with them. So, yes, we do a lot of things by rote and habit.<\/p>\n
Even so, the next page, Pesachim 106, teaches that there are times where leaders must do things extemporaneously, or work to learn more to figure out what to do. A good leader both continues with the routines and remains able to ask questions, be flexible and learn.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s too early for me to conclude whether our freeform research online this year has helped my twins become lifelong learners. (I hope so!) I don\u2019t know if observing animals via live cam will result in a career like field biologist or even a hobby like bird-watching. Whatever they choose, creating a routine-based learning environment that encourages and cultivates questioning, improvisational thinking and flexibility may go a long way towards helping them succeed later on.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s true, as Rav Hamnuna the Elder explains, that holidays happen whether or not we\u2019re ready for them. As Rabbi Sari Laufer explains on My Jewish Learning\u2019s explanation of Pesachim 105, \u201cKiddush doesn\u2019t make Shabbat begin, we make Kiddush because Shabbat has begun.\u201d Yet, once our holidays begin, it\u2019s our obligation to engage with them, to learn and to question.<\/p>\n
\u201cDue to the pandemic\u201d is a phrase we\u2019ve heard too often, usually in relation to cancelations or programs offered exclusively online. Perhaps we might add a positive \u201cdue to the pandemic\u201d twist. We\u2019re forced to be more flexible thinkers in our ritual routines, too. We can question why we always did them this way. In the end, we might be all the better for that brain jostling and chance for intellectual inquiry.<\/p>\n
My family and I wish you a wonderful, thoughtful, questioning Passover, full of joy this year, however different it may be from your usual routines. Chag sameach.<\/p>\n
Joanne Seiff<\/strong> has written regularly for CBC Manitoba and various Jewish publications. She is the author of three books, including <\/em>From the Outside In: Jewish Post Columns 2015-2016, a collection of essays available for digital download or as a paperback from Amazon. Check her out on Instagram @yrnspinner<\/a> or at joanneseiff.blogspot.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of my twins is always looking for something new to learn online. For awhile, he was fascinated by a Massachusetts service dog project, where Great Danes are trained to provide support to those with balance and mobility impediments. He found this amazing service dog program through the website explore.org. It has live cams of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[9717,9784,3076,3429,218,4328,8302,7579,400,401],"class_list":["post-36533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-op-ed","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-education","tag-family","tag-judaism","tag-learning","tag-lifestyle","tag-parenting","tag-passover","tag-seder"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36533\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}