Neviim & Ktuvim

Backround: Since there are many different ways to present and teach this Perek and so many different things to focus on, I included a lot, but you guys can choose which of these aspects you want to discuss in your shiur.

Goals: Chanichim will understand the messages and the various themes in Shirat Devorah, why Devorah sings Shirah after this battle, and why we should sing Shirah in general.

Goals:

The chanichim should analyze the leadership skills of Devorah and Yael versus Barak. Devorah and Yael  step up to the challenge and provide leadership from the side, when no leadership is coming from the men.

The chanichim should start to see the instability of the Shoftim cycle – there is no one clear leader (Devorah, Barak or Yael?) and the disunity of the Shevatim (only the ones in danger come to fight).

Goal: The chanichim will discuss the downfall of Yiftach, though debating the issue of whether or not he sacrificed his daughter (and why!) and the massacre of Bnei Efrayim.

Goals:

The chanichim will see the creative measures with which Gidon fights, and how he has progressed as a leader.

The chanichim will discuss why Gidon refuses to accept the offer to become King, and how if he had accepted, he might have ended the Shoftim cycle for good.

Goal: The chanichim should see the irony in the Am Israel going to war against Shevet Binyamin, and how in this civil war, they accomplish everything that they were not able to accomplish when attempting to conquer the land in the 1st perek. This ends the Sefer on an extremely depressing note, stressing again that Am Israel need strong moral leaders in order that anarchy and events like this civil war, do not happen again.