Becoming a Soulful Educator: How to Bring Jewish Learning from Our Minds, to Our Hearts, to Our Souls?and Into Our Lives

The time has come for a new GPS in education. The goal is no longer to teach a good class, to convey information or even to have the students enjoy the learning. Soulful education is about enabling another—child, adolescent, adult—to discover how to become his or her best self through learning. In this bold revisioning of effective education, renowned educator Rabbi Aryeh Ben David recalibrates the focus of teaching from the acquisition of knowledge to the transformation of the soul. He presents six steps to help educators of all kinds teach to the heart, engage students in knowledge gathering without preaching or controlling, and enable students to authentically and personally integrate Jewish wisdom into their lives. He offers guidance for how teachers can share their own vulnerabilities and yearnings to become a better force of harmony to help students gain new clarity on their own infinite potential for positive change. This is the essential guidebook for everyone from educators and rabbis to parents and grandparents—anyone working in formal or informal education, whether for children, teens, emerging adults, adults or seniors.

Rabbi Aryeh Ben David, a world-renowned educator, is committed to plucking the soul strings of teachers and students alike in order to transform how we learn and grow. He is the founder of Ayeka: Center for Soulful Jewish Education, which trains educators of all denominations, campus professionals, and staff of middle and high schools how to teach Jewish subjects with more soulfulness, personal meaning and impact on life. Formerly he was a senior faculty member and director of spiritual education at the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem. He has been the keynote speaker for national conferences of Reform, Conservative and Orthodox rabbis, and has served as the educational consultant for Hillel International for three years.