In the Jewish tradition, the act of teaching is never merely the transmission of data; it is an act of sacred translation. When we sit down to write a curriculum, we are not just organizing topics on a page. We are building a sanctuary of ideas, an intellectual and spiritual home where our students can meet the Divine, wrestle with tradition, and discover their own voices within the eternal chain of Torah.
As a rabbi and an educator, my philosophy of curriculum development is rooted in a fundamental truth: the curriculum will be most successful when it is a partnership between the curriculum writer and the classroom teacher. A curriculum written in an ivory tower, detached from the lived reality of the classroom, is a beautiful blueprint for a building that can never be built. The writer provides the structural integrity—the texts, the frameworks, the essential questions—but it is the teacher who breathes life into those bones. The teacher knows the specific heartbeat of their classroom, the students who need more time, and the ones who need to be stretched. A successful curriculum does not shackle the teacher; it empowers them, offering a rich, flexible laboratory of learning where writer and educator walk hand in hand.
The Pillars of Vision
When we first embarked on creating the Mitzvah Workshop Curriculum, we spent a significant amount of time crystallizing our vision. From the very outset, three core principles guided our trajectory.
First, we knew we wanted to expose our students to more authentic text. For too long, Jewish education has occasionally defaulted to teaching about Judaism rather than teaching Judaism itself. We wanted our students to get their hands dirty with the primary sources—to read the words of the Talmud, to trace the lineage of a halakha (Jewish law) from the Torah to the Shulchan Aruch, and to realize that they are capable of navigating the texts of their ancestors.
Second, we wanted to ensure a profound balance in the types of commandments explored. As an introductory course for 6th graders we wanted students exposed to a diverse range of mitzvot. We therefore balanced mitzvot Bein Adam l’Makom (between humans and G-d) and mitzvot Bein Adam l’Chavero (between human beings). To love G-d without loving His creations is an incomplete Judaism; to love humanity without recognizing the Divine spark within them lacks an eternal anchor. Our curriculum had to reflect both.
Third, we established a strict boundary regarding modern pedagogy: technology must be a tool, not an end unto itself. We live in an era where flashing screens are often mistaken for innovative education. In the Mitzvah Workshop, technology is invited into the room only when it elevates the learning, facilitates deeper expression, or democratizes access to text. It serves the student; the student never serves it.
From Blueprint to Construction
We did not build this curriculum in a vacuum. We were blessed with an incredible foundation. We already possessed a core text we were deeply happy with—the robust materials created by Living Lessons. Furthermore, my brilliant partner in this endeavor, Raquel Farin, had already laid invaluable groundwork, creating many of the essential questions and companion pieces that sparked our conceptual frameworks.
With Raquel’s foundational pieces in place, our workflow fell into a harmonious rhythm. We began by settling on the macro-topics for each unit. Once the thematic trajectory was set, I stepped into the role of researcher and archivist. I researched and curated the classical texts connected to each mitzvah, collecting, translating, and formatting them. Here, a modern blessing must be acknowledged: the digital library of Sefaria made this process infinitely smoother, allowing us to seamlessly curate bilingual source sheets that respect both the integrity of the original Hebrew/Aramaic and the linguistic needs of our contemporary students.
Once the texts were gathered, I curated and compiled the pieces into manageable and developmentally appropriate components. But compiled text is only half the battle. The true test of a curriculum is how the student processes and synthesizes that knowledge.
Empowering Voice: The Final Projects
When it came time to design the summative assessments—the final projects for each unit—we shifted our focus entirely to student agency. We decided that true mastery is demonstrated when a student can take ownership of their learning. To achieve this, we instituted a three-pronged framework for our projects:
- Student Choice: Students should generally have the autonomy to choose how they demonstrate their understanding, catering to diverse learning styles and interests.
- Clarity of Expectations: Rubrics and guidelines must be crystal-clear, ensuring that while the medium of expression is flexible, the academic and spiritual rigor remains uncompromised.
- The Technological Option: In line with our philosophy on digital tools, we ensured that at least one project option in every single section utilized technology.
To expand our horizons during the brainstorming phase, we embraced a very modern partner: Artificial Intelligence. By inputting our strict parameters, targeted age groups, and core text concepts into AI, we generated a vast array of creative project seeds. We then took those raw AI-generated concepts along with our own experiences and ideas and meticulously crafted them by hand, refining them into age-appropriate, deeply meaningful projects that connected with our themes.
For example, instead of a standard test on a very abstract concept like emunah, faith in G-d, students have the opportunity to create an emunah podcast where they interview peers, teachers, and parents about what emunah means to them and how it appears in their daily lives. The technology serves as a conduit for both their Torah knowledge as well as for learning in a deeper context.
Looking Ahead: The 8th Grade Horizon
The journey of curriculum writing is an ongoing process of renewal. Having laid a strong foundation, we are now eagerly turning our sights to our next major project: the 8th-grade curriculum.
As students stand on the precipice of high school and young adulthood, their social worlds expand exponentially. Therefore, the 8th-grade module will turn its lens sharply toward the sacred dynamics of interpersonal relationships—the ultimate laboratory of Bein Adam l’Chavero. We will be focusing on topics that hit directly at the heart of their daily lived experiences: returning lost objects (Hashavat Aveidah), the destructive power of gossip (Lashon Hara), the ethics of speech, bullying, and navigating the delicate boundaries of empathy and peer pressure.
Our goal for these upcoming units is to show our 8th graders that the Torah is not an ancient, dusty relic, but a living, breathing guide to modern survival. The same Talmud that discusses an ox goring a cow in antiquity holds the keys to understanding digital citizenship, cyberbullying, and the sanctity of a classmate’s dignity today.
Through this curriculum—born of partnership, anchored in text, balanced in scope, and amplified by thoughtful technology—we pray that we are doing more than just teaching mitzvot. We are raising a generation of young Jews who do not just know what a mitzvah is, but who possess the skills, the heart, and the passion to live them every single day.
(Rabbi Dr. Avi Greene is Director of Curriculum and Instruction and Director of Judaic Studies at Scheck Hillel Community School in Miami, Florida. A recipient of Sinai and Synapses’ Deepening Jewish Education in the Digital Age Grant for The Mitzvah Workshop: From Text to Tech, he brings more than 25 years of experience in Jewish education, curriculum development, school leadership, and innovative Torah learning.)
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