Goals
Ethics students gain more experience reading classical Jewish texts and uncovering the key ideas of the texts. They also gain appreciation for the workings of Jewish law. In addition they begin to broaden their views on how Jewish tradition speaks to all aspects of their lives, beyond ritual.
Ethics was written as part of the second generation of Melton’s attempt to respond to requests for more depth and increased number of texts. It was really the first piece conceived in this new model of havruta for the teacher. The curriculum sets out to accomplish three major objectives:

1. To study texts related to Jewish values. These core Jewish values, rooted in Biblical and rabbinic texts, represent the inner thoughts and feelings that Jews have traditionally manifest throughout the centuries, and have served to impact on the ethical choices Jews have made.

2. To study texts related to ethical dilemmas, with an appreciation for the conflicting Jewish values involved and the underlying paradigms at work in the decision-making process.

3. To highlight the complexities or subtleties which lie behind most moral concepts. There are few Jewish ethical statements which cannot be supplemented or enriched with some qualification, conflicting opinion or opposite tendency in the sources.

Lesson Outline: Concentric Circles
This revised edition of the Ethics of Jewish Living Curriculum has been organized according to a concentric circles model. The lessons begin with a look at values and ethics related to oneself. Then, the curriculum proceeds to consider those values and ethics related to family, followed by community and finally, those that relate to the world at large. The objective of this organizational structure is to seek to emphasize the far-reaching interest of our tradition in giving direction to our lives on all levels. In addition, the curriculum attempts to convey the sense that there are ethical decisions that need to be faced on all levels, and that our textual tradition includes a world of stories and legal precedents that can be accessed and considered when doing so.