1: Source sheet, “Silence in the Tanakh and rabbinic literature,” 2017, Hebrew with English translations.

1: Source sheet, “Silence in the Tanakh and rabbinic literature,” 2017, Hebrew with English translations.

Passages from the Hebrew Bible and the teachings of the Rabbis, in which characters are described as silent, or in which the value of silence is extolled.

Suggested activity: Have students consider the value of silence in Jewish culture. When does Jewish ritual or tradition demand silence, and when does it forbid silence? Examine the examples from rabbinic literature on this source sheet; can we trace contemporary Jewish attitudes toward silence back to these texts, or not?

Source: Josh Lambert, based on a source sheet by Jacob Fine, “Silence in the Tanakh and rabbinic literature,” Sefaria source sheet (October 2017), <https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/81849>, accessed May 20, 2018.