Revelation, knowledge, and ethics: A working theory for Jewish education

The aim of this thesis is to describe a working theory for Jewish education that explores the relationship between Jewish epistemology and ethics. This involves a philosophical examination of the concept of revelation in order to explicate the epistemological and ethical structures implicit in this concept. Particular reference is made to Emmanuel Levinas' understanding of the concept of revelation as it relates to an ethical relationship with the other. Lawrence Kohlberg's formalist method and cognitive, stage-based theory of moral development is used comparatively to help elucidate and differentiate specifically Jewish structures of epistemological and moral development. Biblical and rabbinic sources explored at all stages of the theory: to identify a Jewish mode of philosophical reasoning; to clarify the purpose of Jewish education as ethics; to explicate how the structures of revelation operate through halakhah; and as an allegory for a stage-based model of Jewish moral development.