Moab Rebels!

A WebQuest for ספר מלכים ב פרק ג

Introduction

As we know the Navi is not a history book. It is written to teach us important lessons. But wouldn’t we like to know how the events in the Navi compare with other historical sources from that time? ספר מלכים ב פרק ג is one example where we have a stone tablet called the Mesha Stele which is written by the people of Moav describing the same events recorded in the Navi but from a different perspective. We will utilize the many resources available to us online to deeply understand these events in the נביא both from the Israelite and Moabite perspectives.

Task

· Write 2 diaries/ scrapbooks containing pictures and text both describing the events in this chapter. One written by a Moabite (a member of Moav's royal family, a Moabite soldier, or a regular civilian of Moav), and the other written by an Israelite (a member of Israel's royal family, an Israelite soldier, or a regular citizen of Israel).

· Create 2 newspapers or news websites, one Israelite and the other Moabite describing the events in this chapter from 2 different perspectives.

Process

1. Divide into groups of 2. Decide on what role you would like to play in your group.

a. You can be the Biblical scholar who specializes in the Jewish sources from the Tanach and its commentaries.

b. You can be the Archeologist/ Historian who specializes in the Moabite sources taken from the Mesha Stele and its commentaries.

2. The Biblical scholar should do the following:

a. Learn through מלכים ב פרק ג, and fill in the questions in this worksheet. Click here for the Navi worksheet.

· You may use the following resources to help you learn through the chapter.

o Here is the נביא with translation: http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt09b03.htm.

o Here is another easier translation: http://www.chabad.org/library/article.asp?AID=15909

b. Add 3 commentaries on מלכים ב פרק ג. Click here for Commentaries Worksheet.

· You may use the following resources to help you find commentaries on the Navi.

o This site has an anthology of commentaries: http://www.613.org/melachim2/3.htm.

o Rabbinic sources about Elisha: http://www.normativejewishthought.com/Elisha.html

3. The Archeologist/ Historian should do the following:

a. Read through the text of the Mesha Stele and fill in the questions in this worksheet. Click here for the Mesha Stele worksheet.

· You may use the following resource to find the text of the Mesha Stele. Click here for a text of the Mesha Stele in English.

b. Add 3 commentaries on the Mesha Stele. Click here for Mesha Commentaries Worksheet.

· You may use the following resources to help you find commentaries on the Mesha Stele.

o http://jewishhistory.com/jh.php?id=Assyrian&content=content/moabite.

o http://www.jordanjubilee.com/history/mesha.htm

o http://www.kchanson.com/ANCDOCS/westsem/mesha.html

o http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Post/60034

4. Come together and share what you've learned. Click here to compare and contrast the information in Tanach with the information in the Mesha Stele.

5. Only after all of your research sheets have been approved by Rabbi Pittinsky (Navi worksheet, Navi Commentaries, Mesha worksheet, Mesha commentaries, and Compare and Contrast), should you then work together to design your final product.

Evaluation

You will be each be graded based on the following rubric:

CATEGORY	4	3	2	1	Score
Historical Accuracy	All historical information appeared to be accurate and in chronological order.	Almost all historical information appeared to be accurate and in chronological order.	Most of the historical information was accurate and in chronological order.	Very little of the historical information was accurate and/or in chronological order.
Reading of Primary sources	Reading of primary source material was thorough.	Reading of primary source material was fairly thorough.	Reading of primary source material was incomplete.	Reading of primary source material was not done.
Knowledge Gained	Clearly explain several ways in which his characters "saw" things differently than other characters and clearly explains why.	Clearly explain several ways in which his characters "saw" things differently than other characters.	Clearly explains one way in which his characters "saw" things differently than other characters.	Cannot explain one way in which his characters "saw" things differently than other characters.
Visual Presentation	Graphics are in focus, are well-cropped and are clearly related to the ideas they accompany.	Graphics are in focus and are clearly related to the ideas they accompany.	80-100% of the graphics are clearly related to the ideas they accompany.	More than 20% of the graphics are not clearly related to the ideas OR no graphics were used

Conclusion

Through this project you will have gained a deep knowledge of the Navi both from traditional Jewish sources and from archeological and historical sources. This should give us a greater appreciation of the timeless ideas expressed in the Tanach.

Credits & References

This webquest was created with the help of the The WebQuest Page and the Design Patterns page.

We all benefit by being generous with our work. Permission is hereby granted for other educators to copy this WebQuest, update or otherwise modify it, and post it elsewhere provided that the original author's name is retained along with a link back to the original URL of this WebQuest. On the line after the original author's name, you may add Modified by (your name) on (date). If you do modify it, please let me know and provide the new URL.

Click here to go to a Y9 WebQuest created by Rabbi Tzvi Pittinsky titled: Jewish Wedding Guide.

Click here to go to a Y7 WebQuest created by Rabbi Tzvi Pittinsky titled: Jewish Wedding Guide.