The Five Types of Dvar Torah
Whenever I read or hear divrei Torah, I tend to mentally classify them into one of five categories. I associate each category with a little image - like an emoji.
If I ever have to give my students an assignment which requires them to present or write a dvar Torah, I find it useful to provide them with these categories as guidelines. In my experience, many high school students are unaware that not all divrei Torah are created equal, and few of them are capable of sifting out the wheat from the chaff.
Here are the five categories, their definitions, and their associated emojis.
If I ever have to give my students an assignment which requires them to present or write a dvar Torah, I find it useful to provide them with these categories as guidelines. In my experience, many high school students are unaware that not all divrei Torah are created equal, and few of them are capable of sifting out the wheat from the chaff.
Here are the five categories, their definitions, and their associated emojis.
Tier #1: Dvar Torah of Insight / The Light Bulb
The ideal dvar Torah contains at least one chidush (new insight) which we wouldn't have otherwise known.
Obviously, this classification is dependent on the level of the student. What is an obvious fact to one person might be an earth-shattering chidush to another. Still, the classification is useful, since divrei Torah are usually given with an eye towards a specific audience, and one can usually gauge what will be considered a chidush for that audience.
Obviously, this classification is dependent on the level of the student. What is an obvious fact to one person might be an earth-shattering chidush to another. Still, the classification is useful, since divrei Torah are usually given with an eye towards a specific audience, and one can usually gauge what will be considered a chidush for that audience.
Recent examples of Tier #1 divrei Torah on this blog include Megilas Rus: A Different Kind of Stinginess, Bruce Lee: On Lefum Tzaara Agra, and Torah Study as Natural Discovery, since all of these use the sources as their base line and aim to bring out a deeper understanding.
Tier #2: Dvar Torah of Information / The Set Table
The second-best type of dvar Torah is the informative type - one which doesn't necessarily yield a chidush or deeper understanding, but is still valuable insofar as it presents the facts in a manner that is clearer, more organized, or more complete than before.
Recent examples of Tier #2 divrei Torah on this blog include Parashas Nasso: What's the Deal with Birkas Kohanim?, the first half of Parashas Shelach: What is Kareis?, and Parashas Balak: On Citing Midrash as Proof. These divrei Torah are basically presentations of pesukim and meforshim, without adding anything beyond the collation, organization, and clarification of the material.
Note that this classification is also dependent on the level of the student. What is a clear presentation of previously learned material to one person might be a treasure trove of chidushim for another.
Note that this classification is also dependent on the level of the student. What is a clear presentation of previously learned material to one person might be a treasure trove of chidushim for another.
I will accept divrei Torah from my students if they fall into these two categories. I would also like to believe that all of the posts on this blog fall into these two categories. Although Tier #1 is higher than Tier #2 as far as the quality of learning is concerned, both are necessary. This is a fact I have to remind myself from time to time, when I feel pressured to only write Tier #1 blog posts. I mustn't forget how valuable Tier #2 can be.
The next three categories are those which I do not accept from my students, and which I hope I do not write on this blog.
The next three categories are those which I do not accept from my students, and which I hope I do not write on this blog.
Tier #3: Dvar Torah of Fluff / Cloud of Fluff
"Fluffy" is a term I've heard people use to describe divrei Torah, but there are different definitions of "fluff." To my mind, there are two subcategories of "fluffy" divrei Torah:
The first type is a dvar Torah which contains nothing but clichés and banal platitudes, and doesn't actually teach us anything. I can't tell you how many divrei Torah I've heard from high school students which end with "lessons" like "And this teaches us that we should have emunah (faith) in Hashem," or "And this teaches us that Hashem is always there, behind the scenes" or "And that's why we should follow the laws of the Torah."
The second type of "fluffy" dvar Torah is one whose sole purpose is to give people warm and fuzzy feelings, and doesn't contain any intellectual content. I'm referring to the whole genre of inspirational tales, hashgachah pratis stories, and "Chicken Soup for the Soul"-style parables and pep talks.
The first type is a dvar Torah which contains nothing but clichés and banal platitudes, and doesn't actually teach us anything. I can't tell you how many divrei Torah I've heard from high school students which end with "lessons" like "And this teaches us that we should have emunah (faith) in Hashem," or "And this teaches us that Hashem is always there, behind the scenes" or "And that's why we should follow the laws of the Torah."
The second type of "fluffy" dvar Torah is one whose sole purpose is to give people warm and fuzzy feelings, and doesn't contain any intellectual content. I'm referring to the whole genre of inspirational tales, hashgachah pratis stories, and "Chicken Soup for the Soul"-style parables and pep talks.
Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying that these types of fluff are without any value. There seems to be a lot of people who are moved and inspired by these kinds of things. My point is that these do not qualify as talmud Torah (Torah study). Being inspired is not the same thing as learning Torah, and a fluffy "Hashem loves you!" speech does not merit the status of "dvar Torah" in my judgment.
Tier #4: Dvar Torah of Stupidity / B.S. (Note: I don't use the term "B.S." with my students)
The second-worst type of dvar Torah that a person can give is one that conveys stupidity, nonsense, absurdity, and all of the other species of foolishness. Fluff, at its very worst, is neutral. But a Tier #4 dvar Torah is a bizui (degradation) to the Torah itself.
I recently came across a dvar Torah which is a perfect representative of this category. The author raised a very good question: Why do we say the tefilah for the nullification of bad dreams during Birkas Kohanim? What does one have to do with the other. His answer? Because Birkas Kohanim is from the Torah, which is nevuah, and since a dream is one sixtieth of nevuah, then it's batel b'shishim (nullified in sixty)! And a further "support" for this answer is that there are sixty letters in the pesukim of Birkas Kohanim!
You can see how this goes beyond the level of fluff. The answer is not only useless, but it's also laughably inane!
One of the most popular kinds of divrei Torah in this category are the midrash-based divrei Torah given by the members of the Rambam's "First Group" - those who expound on the literal reading of midrashim, even if this leads them to believe absurdities and impossibilities.
Other sub-types include: divrei Torah which misrepresent the facts, divrei Torah which feature wildly undisciplined speculation and bad methodology to arrive at spurious conclusions, divrei Torah which showcase frivolous gematrias, divrei Torah in which a person force-reads his political views into the text, divrei Torah which are merely "fronts" for conspiracy theories, divrei Torah which promote ideas that are contrary to Judaism, and so on.
Needless to say, there is a tremendous range within this tier, ranging from the innocuous "dumb pshat" all the way to the borderline of Tier #5. Speaking of which ...
You can see how this goes beyond the level of fluff. The answer is not only useless, but it's also laughably inane!
One of the most popular kinds of divrei Torah in this category are the midrash-based divrei Torah given by the members of the Rambam's "First Group" - those who expound on the literal reading of midrashim, even if this leads them to believe absurdities and impossibilities.
Other sub-types include: divrei Torah which misrepresent the facts, divrei Torah which feature wildly undisciplined speculation and bad methodology to arrive at spurious conclusions, divrei Torah which showcase frivolous gematrias, divrei Torah in which a person force-reads his political views into the text, divrei Torah which are merely "fronts" for conspiracy theories, divrei Torah which promote ideas that are contrary to Judaism, and so on.
Needless to say, there is a tremendous range within this tier, ranging from the innocuous "dumb pshat" all the way to the borderline of Tier #5. Speaking of which ...
Tier #5: Dvar Torah of Heresy / Poison
In most cases these divrei Torah are given by people who don't know any better. They'll ascribe physical qualities to Hashem, or promulgate a warped understanding of reward and punishment, or present an idea as Torah which is actually some form of avodah zarah. When I was in high school a speaker from Israel came to recruit students to his yeshiva. He gave a dvar Torah about how the Torah's statement that Hashem took us out from Egypt "with a strong hand" should be taken literally. The students in the class weren't sure they understood what he was saying, so they asked him. He clarified his meaning: Hashem actually has a hand, mamash, and it's not a mashal. This might seem like a gross form of anthropomorphism, but it's no different than those who teach that there is a piece of God in all of us, or that God is in everything.
Another category of "poison divrei Torah" are those ideas which can harm a person's relationship with Judaism. When I first converted to Judaism I asked a rabbi what it means to learn Torah lishmah (for its own sake). He answered by telling me a story of a rebbe who wanted to learn Torah lishmah, so he only chose areas of Torah to learn which he hated, and which made him miserable, so that his motive for learning would be "pure" and "untainted" by his own enjoyment. Thank God I rejected this rabbi's answer at the time. If I had embraced "learning in order to suffer" as my ideal of Torah lishmah, that could have really messed up my love of learning.
The aforementioned example is quite tame compared to other examples I've heard. A very tragic example comes to mind. One of my students was told by her 4th rabbi that the reason why her classmate died of cancer was because she and her friends didn't daven hard enough. Whether this teacher intended to or not, my student got the message loud and clear: this death was YOUR fault. As a result, she was flooded with terrible feelings of guilt and trauma, and her relationship with Hashem and with Judaism suffered irreparable harm. Sadly, I'm sure there are many other cases of such educational abuse which go unreported.
There is another category of poisonous divrei Torah: those which are the result of deliberate lies. One example of this that sticks out in my mind is a dvar Torah I once heard in a popular Chasidishe style shtiebel in Brooklyn between minchah and maariv on Shabbos. and I had just learned through the Ramban on the mitzvah to obey the words of a navi. Lo and behold, during seudah shlishis, the rebbe of that shtiebel gave a dvar Torah on that Ramban. At first I was happy that he actually grabbed a Mikraos Gedolos off of the shelf and read and translated the Ramban aloud to his congregants. But then I heard something that horrified me: whenever the Ramban spoke of our Torah obligation "to obey the navi," this rebbe added in the words "to obey the navi and your rebbe." I couldn't believe my ears! Here was a man in a position of leadership pretending to read from the Ramban, distorting the yesode of nevuah, and inserting a self-serving message to boost his own authority!
One of the oldest categories of poisonous divrei Torah are those which are used as propaganda-tools to promote bastardizations of Judaism, such as Reform, Conservative, Karaite, Jews for Jesus, etc. Same goes for Christian and Muslim interpretations of our sources - at least, those interpretations which tamper with the fundamentals.
Concluding Thoughts
I'm not claiming that this taxonomy reflects anything other than the way my mind sees things. I'm sure there are others who view things differently, and who would object to my classification. That's totally fine. In fact, I would be interested in hearing your system of evaluating divrei Torah - especially if it helps my students to be able to distinguish between different grades of divrei Torah.
I'm not saying it's a good thing to say Hashem has a literal hand. But Rashi on Shmos 7:5 says "yad mamash" so it seems the person giving that dvar torah was simply giving over what Rashi says on a literal level.
ReplyDeleteAlso, i've been misquoted too many times by my own students to be certain that this girl's rabbi actually said her friend died of cancer because they didn't daven hard enough.
Whenever I teach, I think of Pirkei Avos 1:11
אבטליון אומר:
חכמים, הזהרו בדבריכם,
שמא תחובו חובת גלות ותגלו למקום מים הרעים,
וישתו התלמידים הבאים אחריכם וימותו,
ונמצא שם שמים מתחלל.
It's always a risk that when I teach, I will teach with poisoned waters and those who drink from it will suffer, and the Torah will be distorted.
I appreciate the classifications. It's useful.
Quoting a Rashi isn't an excuse for kefira. The person should realize that he is misunderstanding it. That it isn't a literal translation of rashi, it is a mistranslation. If only such a person would remain silent. (Unless this person also holds that rivers have literal hands see rashi on shemot 2:5 :-))
Delete(For a possible interpretation of rashi see here: http://ishimshitos.blogspot.com/2009/01/blog-post_22.html which quotes rashi on 14:31)
While I agree with Yaakov's response, it just so happens that this person wasn't quoting Rashi. He was quoting Akiva Tatz's Worldmask, which has a whole doctrine about God's relationship to the world. I haven't read it recently enough to remember the details, but when I got home I'll try to find the exact passage, if I can track down the book.
DeleteI, too, have been misquoted by my students. I heard this from the student's mother, who is also an educator, which leads me to lend more weight to the account that I heard.
Good call with the mishnah from Pirkei Avos. I believe we've discussed this mishnah before. I forgot what we said.
Perhaps another category would be mussar schmuze, which is not necessarily giving new insight, but rather reminding the listener of an uncomfortable truth, which they knew before but don't want to think about. Therefore it is similar to fluff in that it is having an emotional impact, but instead of making a person feel good about their predetermined beliefs it helps shake a person from complacency and challenges them to grow.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think the first category can be usefully subdivided in two ways.
First, the new insight can be a new idea or it can be a new application of an idea which was known but not recognized in a specific area.
Second, the new insight can be a chidush of the person giving the dvar torah or it can be quoting a (classical) authority. (this is often correlated with different experiences as a listener since the first will lend itself to a feeling of joint exploration and insight, whereas the second will feel more like receiving a new authoritative concept)
Interesting categorization. To my mind, this would fall into the first category, since it is a type of insight. But I can see how this might warrant its own category.
DeleteGood subdivisions. I approve.