Educational Beit Midrash

The term "Beit Midrash" originates in Jewish religious culture and indicates a place for Torah study and prayer. The study was performed orally, when the rabbi would sit and memorize to his students the biblical text and its interpretations.

Educational Beit Midrash is a modern term that describes a flexible school learning environment outside the curriculum that allows for discussion, dialogue, and collaboration between students in diverse social, national, religious, and economic contexts. Beit Midrash is based on the pedagogy of an egalitarian and pluralistic discussion, asking questions free from limitations of prejudice, of topics that are forbidden in the discussion (taboo).

The essence of the learning process is the reading of a biblical text, which serves as a starting point for reviewing texts relevant to the issue, such as literary, journalistic, legal texts and more. Text analysis allows participants to pose questions about the characters and their thoughts, feelings, and actions throughout the plot. The discussion allows participants to identify for themselves aspects that are revealed in the characters, and a personal conversation develops, which expands the participants' observation of themselves and promotes a process of understanding and growth (Feiman-Nemser, 2006; Raider-Roth & Holzer, 2009; Dekel, 2017).

Cooperative learning

The Beit Midrash is not only a place but also a method. It allows personal and collaborative observation of texts studied in a different way from what is accepted or required by the curriculum. Learners gradually build shared knowledge, reveal their knowledge, develop challenging discussions and high thinking skills (Slavin, 2010; Rimor, Rosen & Naser, 2010). On the one hand, the open and egalitarian mode of discussion limits the teacher's influence on the student's opinions and eliminates the hierarchical relationships that characterize routine classroom learning. On the other hand, students are given the opportunity to look at all the participants in the discussion from an egalitarian point of view, which reduces the possibility of underestimating the value of their own opinion that arises in the discussion.

As Freire & Macedo put it (Freire & Macedo, 1995), "through dialogue the teacher-of-students and students-of-the-teacher cease to exist, and in contrast a new concept emerges: teacher-student with student-teacher. The teacher is no longer the one who teaches, but he himself learns in dialogue with the students, while they learn and at the same time even teach. They become partners in responsibility in a process in which everything grows and develops" (p.378).

Values-Moral Dialogue

The Beit Midrash is not a biblical lesson, but at its core is a discussion and values dialogue on issues that arise from the biblical text.

The dialogue in the Beit Midrash revolves around questions of identity, values, belonging, principles, and emotions that are typical of adolescence. Discussions are often related to differences in worldviews, cultural preferences, opinions, norms of values, style of thinking and beliefs, which are revealed during the social-learning interaction. In this way a positive attitude develops for opinions and attitudes and perceptions that are different from the familiar and the known (Albiero & Matricardi, 2013; Brodbeck et al., 2007; Dessel, 2009).

Discussion of social, political, and topical issues promotes awareness and social involvement in what is happening in the country.

From an international perspective, educators and students who participate in the activities of an educational Beit Midrash will cultivate an intercultural service, a positive attitude towards the 'other', will be exposed to different perspectives on socio-cultural issues in their world (Pickering, 2001; Krumer-Nevo & Sidi, 2012).

The purpose of the study is to examine the contribution of the learning experience in an educational Beit Midrash to the students and teachers?

The research is qualitative-interpretive and focuses on the description of the learning experience in an educational Beit Midrash of the students and teachers in the upper elementary school in Israel. The study reveals the personal voice of the teachers, the reasons for their actions in the Beit Midrash while presenting an interpretation and explanation for the contribution of the experience (Zur & Eisikovits, 2015; Tzabar-Ben Yehoshua, 2016). The study is based on in-depth interviews with seventeen Bible teachers with 5–25 years of teaching experience, who led educational seminaries in the schools where they teach. The teachers were selected based on the researchers' professional-personal acquaintance with them, due to their rich teaching experience among diverse populations and mainly due to the part they take in operating the Beit Midrash in their school. The research tool is in-depth interviews, conducted face-to-face and / or by telephone, lasting approximately 45 minutes each. Sample questions asked in interviews: Why was the Beit Midrash established? Who were the partners in the decision to establish and operate it? How is the dialogue in the Beit Midrash different from the dialogue in the classroom? Describe the personal / emotional / value connection created between the participants in the Beit Midrash. Would you recommend other schools to open Beit Midrash? why? The interviews with the teachers were analyzed through content analysis that focused on what the teachers were saying and not on the way things were being said. According to Krippendorff (2004) content analysis looks internally into the personal experience and allows researchers to describe the data and draw valid conclusions for broader contexts. After re-reading the interviews, comparing them, and breaking down the dominant content that emerged from the entire text, key themes that were repeated in the interviews were grouped. The purpose of the reconstruction phase and the theoretical conceptualization is to focus the themes in order to arrive at a coherent explanation around core themes (Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach & Zilber, 2010) and to offer a description of the phenomenon under investigation. The study carefully maintained the ethical rules: maintaining the anonymity and confidentiality of the respondents and the data, avoiding asking offensive questions and giving the respondents a choice whether to respond or not.

Analysis of the study findings revealed two content categories: (1) Personal contribution to participants in the activity Creating Interpersonal Relationships: The activity allowed participants to weave interpersonal relationships across teacher-student-parent boundaries. A ripple effect is created, which emerges from the activities of the Beit Midrash and spreads to meetings beyond the classroom and the school. Participants expressed a desire to continue getting acquainted with other Beit Midrash meetings or other meetings in community life. Discourse Skills: The activity cultivates a value of diverse, colorful, and different discourse, exposing participants to their own different opinions, perceptions, and beliefs. Participants learn to enjoy pure conversation from the conversation itself. In addition, the Beit Midrash gives them an opportunity to converse with the text, with the thinkers in it, with texts from the sources, from which they usually shy away. (2) Professional contribution to teachers who organize the Beit Midrash The activity allowed teachers to break boundaries and find collaborations with other schools, organizations, community experts. The research findings show that in the past year, schools have collaborated with other schools that hold a Beit Midrash. They met for a face-to-face or zoom-in joint activity. Other times guests, social activists or experts in their field were invited. According to the teachers 'testimony, the collaborations broadened their perspective encouraging them to create interdisciplinary activities that combine playful learning and other learning activities (Boix-Mansilla, 2010; Bear & Skorton, 2019). This study is of practical importance because it offers a practical framework in which dialogues can be held on current value-moral issues, thinking about other perceptions, bridging national, social, and religious gaps by understanding the importance of dialogue, cultivating social awareness, and recognizing the value of diversity.

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