Abstract
Why would middle-school students want to learn Mishnah? Why would teachers want to teach it? In this paper,
the author presents her method of teaching Torah She-ba’al Peh in a pluralistic middle school, emphasizing ethics
and experiential learning, towards three pedagogic goals: giving the students (a) a grounding in ethical behavior
based on Jewish practice (b) the basic skills to continue the study of Mishnah, and later Gemara (c) a sense of
rabbinic Judaism as a complex system with contemporary relevance.