We, the teachers

RABBI RAMON WIDMONTE

We all beat our breasts now with equal amounts of fervent prayer and humility: “Oh, how we have wronged you, O teacher of my child! How wondrous are your deeds! How much we need you and appreciate the eight hours of bliss we used to enjoy from 07:30 each morning. And, how we wish to return to those times!”

We speak in jest, but the pressure exerted on parents who are now expected to eke out a living in disastrous economic environs as well as be teachers is enormous, and for most of us, they aren’t pressures we are embracing.

I’d like to suggest a slight paradigm shift as we approach Shavuot.

The famous Beit Halevi makes a powerful observation about the two experiences Jews had at Mount Sinai. The first, with which we are all familiar, is the sound and light, Spielberg production, with lightning, thunder, and special effects. However, the Beit Halevi points out that the effect of this experience was short lived – 40 days later, the Jews were worshipping the Golden Calf.

Forty days after that, however, Moshe ascended Mount Sinai for the third time, and the Torah emphasises that this time, he had to do all the work. Instead of receiving a pre-carved set of tablets, he had to make his own. Also, the Torah tells us that for the first time that he didn’t eat or drink for 40 days and nights, he suffered thirst and hunger (which isn’t mentioned in the first experience).

But that second experience lasted. It made an impression because the individual played the primary, active role in the education process. In a metaphoric and literal act, Moshe had to carve out the space in himself to receive Hashem’s word. Moshe had to sweat to learn.

And unsurprisingly, this second Sinai experience became the core of what it meant to be a Jew – we invested the effort, time, and resources into educating ourselves. We toiled. In fact, that became the term for learning – we didn’t want to “learn” Torah, but to “toil in Torah”. We valued the effort, as we learn in the Ethics of the Fathers, “no pain, no gain”. And we valued the toil because it was transformative. We realised that learning is redemptive, that the give and take of an active mind changes the whole personality.

We wanted to be active learners. We wanted to activate ourselves.

And we wanted our children, families, friends, and communities to be active learners. We wanted them all to activate themselves.

How much has changed!

Over the past 150 years, the patterns of Jewish education have shifted from parents setting the standard as models of self-education and constant effort and growth, to a new outsourced model. The saintly Chofetz Chaim noted in the early 1900s that the old parental model had simply evaporated, and we now outsource our own inspiration to a “good speaker in shul” (read entertaining, eloquent, diverting) and our children’s “education” to teachers and schools.

Our kids are unable to model their growth and learning on ours, so none of this is redemptive, none of it is transformational, none of it is real, toiling, self-growth, and change.

Until now. Until COVID-19.

Now, we have no shul, no thundering orator, enlightening and lightening our mood.

Now, we are toiling with our kids, and for the first time in ages, we have the potential to let it change us, let them see that change, and learn that it can be done.

This is the paradigm shift we can choose to embrace this year – to become, “we, the teachers”. First of ourselves, then of others.

For this reason, this Shavuot, the academy is offering a transformative process. Instead of a passive, sit-back experience, we would like to recreate that original, long-lasting Sinai experience: the empowerment of each individual to teach.

Please join us in deciding the topics you wish to share with your family, and we will co-create the material and coach you in a pre-Shavuot tikkun leil experience (learning Torah all night on Shavuot) on Saturday evening, 23 May, from 20:00 until 24:00 on Zoom and Facebook, so that come Shavuot night, you can embrace yourself as teacher-learner-grower.

Please suggest the topics for our final session that night – the Great Debate – where you set the agenda. Afterwards, a full downloadable guide will be available to help you share, discuss, debate, teach, learn, and grow with your family.

Because, strangely, at least in this respect, this is how things are supposed to be. Join us!

• Send your suggested topics to info@theacademy.org.za
• Rabbi Ramon Widmonte is the dean of the Academy of Jewish Thought & Learning.