Beit Midrash - DevTech Research Group

DevTech Beit Midrash: A House of Learning about Formation, Judaism and Innovation

Boston College is a leader in formative education, with a longstanding commitment to educating students as whole persons who can lead lives of meaning and purpose. As stated in its mission, as a Catholic and Jesuit university, BC “regards the contribution of different religious traditions and value systems as essential to the fullness of its intellectual life and to the continuous development of its distinctive intellectual heritage”.

Aligned with this mission, the DevTech Beit Midrash project is informed by the concept of the Jewish Beit Midrash (בית מדרש), a house of learning dedicated to the study of texts. The Hebrew root R-SH-D (דרש) means to seek knowledge, to expound, to derive meaning and interpretation, and to demand from the “text”. In the traditional Beit Midrash, students work together to study the first hypertext in history: the Talmud, a 2nd to 6th centuries compiled-masterpiece of Jewish literature and law. Similarly, in the DevTech Beit Midrash, people work with other innovative “texts” such as virtual reality, coding apps, robotics, electronic textiles, maker spaces, and others.

This notion of “text” draws on the discipline of semiotics which studies any system of signs, whether linguistic or non-linguistic, that can be interpreted to convey meaning and to reveal a broader message or cultural understanding. This includes anything from literature to visual images, interactive objects, or even social interactions.

The DevTech Beit Midrash hosts different projects, workshops and symposia to explore how new technological “texts” can help us become more human by enhancing the intellectual life of all members of the university. Through an interdisciplinary approach, grounded in the Jewish tradition, the DevTech Beit Midrash playfully uses both natural and artificial languages to learn with and about others, by promoting a sense of shared human universality through religious diversity. Furthermore, in this exploration, the DevTech Beit Midrash seeks to extend the impact of the concept of formation beyond the Jesuit context.