Peak Justice or Cognitive Disaster? Vayelech

Ignorance of the law is no excuse

While a Torah Portion Vayelech Commandment is symbolically magnificent, in modernity it presents as a pedagogical disaster.

The utopian directive, on paper, delivers knowledge of the law to the entire populace. From a cognitive science perspective, however, the commandment is a failure.

Can this problematic teaching methodology explain some of the Israelites’ scriptural shortcomings?

The Commandment

Vayelech’s commandment of interest is as follows:

“And Moses wrote this instruction [Torah] and gave it to the priests, sons of Levi, who were carrying the ark of the Lord’s covenant and to all of Israel’s elders. And Moses commanded them, saying, ‘At the end of seven years, at the appointed time of the year of remission, on the Festival of Booths [Sukkot], when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord, your God, in the place that He will choose, you shall read this instruction in front of all Israel in their ears. Assemble the people- the men and the women and the infants and the alien who is in your gates.” Deuteronomy 31:9-11.

[Note: the word “instruction” in Hebrew is Torah. As to what particular instruction was written by Moses is subject to query. Some opine that it was the Book of Deuteronomy. See Rashi.]

On Law

Vayelech’s Commandment sets the Pentateuch’s laws apart from all others.

While other nation’s legal systems employ the maxim that “ignorance of the law is no excuse”, the Torah doesn’t. All residents were required to, at minimum, have “heard” the law.

Essentially, Vayelech’s commandment attempts to guarantee that all of the nation’s residents were cognizant of the law.

This “legal education” eliminated the need for any maxim concerning ignorance of the law. Rather than relying on a “legal principle” or “legal fiction,” the Torah created a “legal fact.” The populace knew the law.

On Learning

The Vayelech commandment, however, is severely flawed from a modern educational standpoint. The reality is that literacy was arguably in its infancy at the time.

At the time that the commandment was issued, oral communication was the most effective means of communication. In present times, available means of communication is far more abundant. If present day tools were available when Moses gave this speech, perhaps the directive would have been quite different. Current cognitive educational concepts may explain why the Israelites struggled with their compliance with both the Torah’s law and theology.

On Literacy

For this analysis, it is necessary to appreciate the Israelite Tribes’ literacy in antiquity.

During the periods of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judge and Kings, there was limited literacy. Writing systems were emerging. For the most part, scribes and elites were the literate.

From an archaeological standpoint, the exact literacy rate for the Israelites around 1200 BCE is speculative. Thus, an assumption can be made that literacy was not widespread.

This assertion is supported by other realities. Publication in antiquity required a heightened level of sophistication. Mass text publication would require an abundance of scribes and writing materials. Traditional writing material in antiquity- parchment or papyrus- was expensive.

In search of literacy, archaeological discoveries have revealed that the populace used other modes of writing materials. In antiquity, broken pottery shards were often used for a variety of writings. These shards are known as ostraca.

In antiquity, the record shows that otracon were used for many purposes. This included administrative records, commercial activity, receipts, tax collection, letters, writing practice sheets, and art all used this writing surface.

Thus, it is unlikely that there was any mass publication of scripture during this time period.

The Bottom Line

Thus, Vayelech’s Commandment ‘s product was reading the Torah [Book of Deuteronomy most likely] to a mostly illiterate crowd. To compound it, this event occurred only once every seven years.

Given this assumption, the sense of “hearing” was the only cognitive approach used to transmit the material. Further, this act was rarely done.

Thus, we are left with a query. Were people sufficiently “Torah educated” listening to a complex document once every seven years?

Modernity

In modernity, the act of learning is scientifically studied. The field of Cognitive Science, my undergraduate area of study, studied human in a unique way. Essentially, the area of study views the Human Brain as an information processing unit. Thus, the discipline studies effective ways of that Humans obtain, retain and employ information.

One lesson with respect to this concept is the multi-sensorial approach. The pedagogy is to improve the ability to both intake and perform the material by stimulating multiple senses.

By employing multiple senses through as reading, writing, and seeing the material, one’s ability utilize material is increased. These activities create more stimulation than the mere “hearing” of the materials. Further, discussing the material, is also a great means of increasing one’s ability to retain and employ the material.

Beyond the transmission mode, there was no reinforcement plan laid out within the statute. There was a lack of repetition or practicing of the material.

Thus, one looking at Vayelech’s commandment in isolation would likely form an opinion that the plan was not pedagogically sound.

Could this pedagogy explain the lack of Torah compliance throughout scripture?

The Change?

In Yonatan Adler’s The Origin’s of Judaism, he sought to find when societal Torah law compliance emerged. He placed it about the time of the Hasmoneans- the Maccabees.

In the Book of Maccabees, there is the following passage: “[t]he books of the law that they found they tore to pieces and burned with fire. Anyone found possessing the book of the covenant…was condemned to death by decree of the king.” 1 Maccabees 57.

This passage suggests that, at the time of the book’s composition, that literacy had improved. Books (or scrolls) were in circulation.

One could posit that this increased literacy contributed to this greater compliance with the law. This adherence, per Dr. Alder, is found in the archaeological record.

Conclusion

Sometimes, to explore the past, we must look to the present. One can take advantage of present day knowledge and history in an attempt to understand the past. Arguably, literacy played a huge role in solidifying religious practices and scriptural knowledge.

While Torah educating an entire populace once every seven years was a wonderful idea, it was a doomed. Standing alone, it was not going to be successful.

The realities of the time, the literacy rate, and the pedagogy suggest that the project likely would have failed. Perhaps this analysis brings some validity to Dr. Adler’s theory of the rise of Torah compliance. Per the archaeological record, this rise occurred during a period upon which there was improved literacy. Further, the apocryphal text of the Maccabees’ references the proliferation of scriptural material within communities. Thus, when literacy improved- reading, writing, and accessibility to texts- the population absorbed and appreciated the material en masse.

Be well!!

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