Talmudic law restricts permissible school striking to the strap of a shoe

Evidence

Ki maket le-yanuka, lo timchei ela be-arketa de-msaena. … When you strike the child, strike him only with the strap of a shoe. … This is the operational rule. Teachers may, in operational practice, strike children. The Talmud is not, in this passage, abolishing corporal correction. But the rule specifies, with substantial precision, what the implement may be. Arketa de-msaena — the strap of a shoe. This is, in the operational vocabulary of the rabbinic tradition, the smallest, lightest, most flexible piece of leather available in an ordinary household. It is, deliberately, an implement that can sting but cannot bruise, that can produce noise but cannot draw blood. The implement is bracketed. And the bracket is specific, operational, and legally binding on Jewish teachers across the rabbinic tradition. — , The Rod and the Child, 2430

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Episode 31’s treatment of the stubborn and rebellious son and the general rabbinic bracketing of corporal punishment. — connects to: The Mussar yeshivot expressly prohibited corporal punishment of students — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 2677; Rabbinic tradition is structurally biased against applying severe corporal punishments — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 2438

Related

• The Mussar yeshivot expressly prohibited corporal punishment of students (similarity 0.84)
• Rabbinic tradition is structurally biased against applying severe corporal punishments (similarity 0.82)
• Nineteenth-century Lithuanian Jewish schooling exceeded medieval rabbinic limits on corporal punishment (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• The Mussar yeshivot expressly prohibited corporal punishment of students #corroborates (0.60) — , The Rod and the Child, 2677
• Rabbinic tradition is structurally biased against applying severe corporal punishments #expands (0.55) — , The Rod and the Child, 2438