Moses ben Aaron Morawczyk and his Treatise ‘On the System of Education’ (1634/1635)
Moses ben Aaron Morawczyk and his Treatise ‘On the System of Education’ (1634/1635)

Summary/Abstract: Moses ben Aaron Morawczyk was a Jewish educator, active in the first half of the seventeenth century. This study collects the available information about his life, from the Moravian town of Bzenec (Bisenz) to Lublin. His two published books, namely, Ketzad seder mishnah (Lublin 1634/1635) and Ketzad seder avodah (1638/1639?) are shown to form one entity. The former represents the unique autonomous educational treatise in Hebrew from the period, during which East-Central European Jewish scholars manifested heightened interest in curricular issues. Morawczyk cited Judah Leva ben Bezalel, ‘the Maharal’, and Salomon Ephraim Luntschitz, and was influenced by their own criticism of Jewish education. A close analysis of the text of the Ketzad seder mishnah enables to identify the parts of the text which Morawczyk borrowed from other works. Nevertheless, Morawczyk’s tract Ketzad seder mishnah shows the originality of its author. Morawczyk systematically described the problems of Jewish education and formulated a proposal for an educational reform. Two little booklets about the special fasts and liturgy for the leap years, edited by Morawczyk, document the actual hatching out of a religious confraternity, and implementation of a religious practice in a specific time and locale.

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