The Second Conversation: Interpretive Authority in the Bible Classroom

In The Second Conversation, Ziva R. Hassenfeld examines how students develop interpretations of the Hebrew Bible, applying lessons from qualitative literacy studies to Jewish education. Teachers, she argues, have a responsibility to develop a shared literacy practice within Tanakh classrooms and explain a sacred text's interpretive rules.

Hassenfeld looks at specific case studies to understand how teachers can encourage dynamic and informed scriptural readings among their students. She highlights the importance of two conversations about interpretive rules within the classroom, the first about the text's meaning, and the second about competing conventions for determining its meaning. Instructors of any type of literature will benefit from Hassenfeld's study, which offers rich ideas about when and how teachers enforce a classroom's way of reading or follow a student's line of inquiry toward more flexible interpretation.