Abstract
Academic scholarship can serve the endeavor of teaching rabbinic texts by providing both selections of texts and
approaches to them that address questions of interest to students. Using a variety of examples, the author argues
that what we teach is less important than finding what students are willing to learn, and that Jewish students of
almost all types can easily become interested and invested in learning about the world of the Rabbis. This paper
explores ways that academic articles (and even works of fiction) can provide comfortable points of entry into
what otherwise might seem a completely foreign culture, strengthening students’ anthropologist-like immersion
in that culture.