I’m sitting with about 50 other men listening to a class by the head of my ordination program HaRav Yitzchak Berkovitz. He’s talking about how Tznius really has to do with self-respect, not just some archaic form of modesty. It’s a class I’ve heard from him at least 3 times before (5 if you count his mp3s that I listen to on the bus). ‘Well,’ I think to myself, ‘should I pull out something else to read so I won’t be bored? Should I go grab a drink?’ It’s really a fight between my good inclination and my evil inclination. I decide to listen to the good one. It pays off.
I’ll tell you why it was a good decision. Though I think I know the class by heart, Rav Berkovitz brings up a source that I didn’t remember from the previous classes. He also builds up the class in a new way that I can imitate when I go out and give the class when I myself am teaching out there one day. But the decision was good for an even more exciting reason; a Seven Ways Netzach reason.
Though Rav Berkovitz has given this class dozens of times—well it’s probably in the hundreds now—he still has the same excitement and fervor as if he is giving it for the first time. When I heard the class as a rookie in my Kollel I though he was giving it for the first time for sure because he had so much enthusiasm. Then I heard it over and over and I can see that he doesn’t get bored and he patiently answers the same questions (often by the same people—go figure that, at least they are consistent in their opinions I guess!). The same class, the same questions. That’s a real teacher. He cares about the students. That’s a true Netzach for you.
I respect my teacher especially because I once had a teacher who was quite the opposite and it irked me a bit. We had a weekly question and answer session with this teacher. I thoroughly enjoyed his answers but, as time went on I noticed something. When we asked questions that people had asked in that class years ago he would say, “Get the tape from 3 years ago I answered it then” or “Get the mini-disc, someone must have it.” (I guess I’m dating myself with the tapes and mini-discs.) What good is a weekly question and answer session without questions and answers? Okay maybe if someone had a new or better question the teacher could pick *that* one and then tell me to listen to the tape from 3 years ago, but sometimes we wouldn’t even have a new question and he’d cancel the class! And aren’t some classes so essential that each new incoming class just *has* to hear them? Well to the head of my ordination program, some topics are really essential and he keeps on teaching them year after year after year. I admire that.
And it’s a great lesson for us, too. Whether we are teachers or parents; whether we are teaching students the same lesson for 50 years or children the same lesson for 50 weeks in a row we must be patient. Education’s primary concern is for the recipient. Like the Gemara in Eruvin 54b with R' Pereida who had a student who needed to have a lesson repeated 400 times in order for him to learn it properly. Just when you thought *that* was patience the Gemara brings another story.
Once, the student still didn't understand after the 400th time, and the student explained it was because he had heard R' Pereida say that he would have to leave for a Mitzvah sometime in the middle of the class, so the student had his mind on R' Pereida having to leave and couldn’t concentrate on the lesson. R' Pereida then sat and taught him the lesson 400 more times. A divine voice emerged and offered R' Pereida 400 years of extra life, or merit for the next world for his generation. R' Pereida took the latter, and so G-d gave him both. (Okay maybe you'll say that the 400 is hyperbole, but at least the Gemara means *a lot*.)
And the staying excited part of teaching comes from Rashi on “And it will be if you listen to my Mitzvos that I command you *today* ” in the Shema, “[The commandments] should be new to you as if you heard them *today*” (Devarim 11:13). Give over the lesson as if you just heard it and it's still fresh and electrifying.
Each and every student has gained from hearing this class from the head of my Kollel and I’m benefiting from hearing it a sixth time. I’m also glad that Rav Berkovitz will be patient enough to teach me one day for my seventh. Until then, we should try and emulate the Netzach’s patience and keep the electricity flowing through your veins. That way your students will be enlightened.
