Based on [Daniel 1:4], describe the kinds of Israelites the king ordered Ashpenaz to bring to Babylon according to the following categories:
Family background: “royal family, nobility”
Age and appearance: “young men without any physical defect, handsome”
Intellectual capacities: “showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand”
How long were they to be trained before entering the king’s service? “3 years”
In a couple of sentences, give a general description of what you were like [when you were between 15 and 18 years old].
“I was awkward, quirky, and nerdy. I loved pleasing my teachers (I was Hermione Granger with short hair). My hair right now is as long as my mom would let it get. I wore some of her hand-me-downs, happily. I also felt more confident for test-taking in my best dress, hose, heels, and hat. (I still wear that dress and hat, but not together, as their shades of purple are very different.)”
In your opinion, how easily influenced our boys of this age?
“I think it depends on the boy: most, maybe” might follow for a while if it’s enough fun, while “my Daniel, I think” is more likely for his mind to be made up and not be swayed, although not completely.
Based on our synopsis, picture the culture that surrounded the Hebrew boys in Babylon. What kinds of things do you imagine boys that age would have found impressive in such a rich, indulgent environment?
“These boys were from nobility, so they had seen riches and splendor – though perhaps not so opulent or ostentatious. I suspect the newest, most enticing would have [been] foreign beauties in harem outfits; I bet they hadn’t seen anything like that in Jerusalem.”
I felt like my bird dog Beanie did when a whole box of Meaty Bones fell on the kitchen floor 
What about you? Describe your most extreme experience of culture shock.
“Japan – reading about it beforehand can’t prepare you for toilets in the floor – sometimes pit! – soup and rice with all three meals, shoes off or drama and trauma, extremely hot baths, and, in our case, a week far apart [from each other] and lavish, opulent, pampering at the end. Oh, and don’t forget still-moving sushi!”
Check which of these cultural premiums presents the biggest personal challenge or bothers you the most and tell why. Put another way, in what areas has our culture most successfully trained or indoctrinated you?
“must be young” Why? “I feel young, I love games and childlike fun, and I just eat it up when people are aghast that Daniel is 18 or is my son. I dread going gray, but don’t really want to mess with pretending not to, so I’m contemplating going purple instead.”
Read 1 Timothy 4:7-8. List everything these verses tell you about training.
“Godly training is better than secular study or even physical training; it holds promise for both the present life and the life to come.”
Dearest Rachel –
There are a lot more personal notes here than in the first two lessons, and while I know it’s the Bible stories themselves I ought to be unpacking (I suppose you would have done well as one of the trainees, apart from being female – a big strike in those days – and not of noble birth – most Americans literally can’t fathom a non-meritocratic hierarchy, but that was the exception rather than the rule throughout much of history, which might partially explain why civilizational progress has been so slow up until the last couple of centuries), you’ll forgive me for focusing more on your responses than the lesson itself. The fact that these particular anecdotes refer to your youth and childhood (times before I even met you – and wouldn’t know about if you hadn’t told me – so at least I wouldn’t have to fear about having forgotten) just make them that much more attention-grabbing, in my opinion.
Of course, I knew the mousey, intellectual girl that you were when you first showed up at university, so your self-description checks out in my limited memory. I can’t say that I can recall your specific “test-taking outfit,” but it sounds vaguely familiar, especially with the wide-brimmed hats you would wear on what you considered to be special occasions like that. As for your hair length, I remember that being an interesting generational story; your mom resented having to wear her hair long at her parents’ insistence (I guess they wanted her to look more ‘feminine’ or something), and so she resolved that her daughter wouldn’t have to be subject to that rule, but in the process, she subjected you to the very opposite rule wherein you never let it grow even to your shoulders. You being you, it never crossed your mind to object (and I think you thought that it might pull the natural curl out of your hair, at any rate) until I came along and suggested that you would look nice with longer hair, and decided to grow it out a bit more. Granted, it never fell past your shoulder blades (let alone to your waist and beyond, like some of your peers then and now), but you literally grew out of that restriction from time to time. And, of course, you did go purple, even enduring regular cold showers to keep the dye from rinsing out when you washed your hair; something that I couldn’t bring myself to do.
As far as your reference to culture shock, it’s one of those things that I wish we’d had the opportunity to share; we’d both planned on getting “our” Daniel (yes, it’s weird having to make that distinction in the midst of this study, isn’ it?) over there to see what we had seen back when we were so much younger, and get his take on it all. But we had to deal with Chompers’ declining health – and even worse, the Covid restrictions – so we were confined from doing so until after those were out of the way… and, of course, you never saw the day. For what it’s worth, it appears to be his favorite foreign country (with Israel taking a close second, for very different reasons, of course), and he’s looking forward to getting back. Maybe he’d be interested in the JR Pass plan I have in mind for what I hope to be the near future; we’ll have to see. Of course, we rarely saw any of those pit toilets (Japan’s restroom facilities at this point have generally advanced to where they are a source of justified national pride), and we weren’t separated for a home stay like you and your folks; we simply spent our time in the luxury of top-tier hotels and cruise ships, so we didn’t endure the worst of the shock from there.
And since I’ve already gone into detail about my own travels, I won’t focus on what I thought of as my own most significant examples of culture shock here; I’ll just say that there’s plenty of it out there yet to be encountered, I suppose. I wish you and I could experience it together. To be honest, that’s been a cultural shock in its own right, but I’m doing my best to adjust to it. For now, though, if you could keep an eye on me, and wish me luck, it would be most appreciated, as I’m sure I’ll need it no matter what.
Letters to Rachel 