D'var Torah at Mini-CAJE Conference
February 19, 2006
Rabbi Bruce Kadden

One of the first things that each of us did this morning when we arrived here was to sign in so that Barbara and the other organizers of this event would know who was here.  One of the first things that we do when we arrive at our schools where we teach on a daily or weekly basis is to sign in so that our Principal or Education Director knows who is present.  And one of the first things we do at the beginning of class is to take roll, so that we know which students are present and which are absent.

In each case, we know who is physically present, but do we know who is really, fully present?  The great Jewish theologian Woody Allen once said that “seventy percent of life is showing up,” but to be an effective teacher, for real learning to take place in the classroom, the teacher and the students have to do more than just show up.

In this week’s parasha, Mishpatim, God says to Moses,

“Come up to me, to the mountain, and be there, and I will give you the stone tablets, and the Torah and the mitzvah that I have inscribed to teach them.” (Exodus 24:12) 

Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotsk was puzzled by this verse. “If Moses ascended the mountain, of course he would be there!  Why does the text explicitly say, ‘be there?’ What is the purpose of this emphasis?”  He explains:  “even someone who climbs to the summit, can truly arrive, and not be there.  Surely, he stands on the mountain, but his head is elsewhere.  What is essential is not the ascent, but to be there, and only there, not to be above and below at the same time.” 

How often in our hectic lives do we realize that though we are physically in a certain place, we are not really there?  How often are we thinking about what happened last night or a few days ago?  How often are we worried about what is going to happen tomorrow or the next day?  How often is our body in one place, but our mind somewhere else? 

As Rabbi Amy Eilberg has observed, “We are so hurried, so worried about not getting everything done, so busy trying to complete all of our tasks, that we are often everywhere and nowhere…. We have forgotten how to be just where we are….”

It is not enough just to be physically present; we also have to “be there.”  What does it mean to “be there,” to be fully present, as a teacher?  Rabbi Sam Joseph suggests that “Teaching is an art form—an art made up of caring, sharing, and listening.”

To be there as a teacher, we have to care about our students.  It is not enough to know who is physically present; we also need to know who is fully present.  We need to know who is thinking about his or her parents’ separation, who is dealing with the emotional baggage that comes with puberty, who lost a grandparent, who is anxious about the upcoming birth of a new sibling.  This is true for all teachers, but even more important for those of us who teach in Jewish schools.

Rabbi Moshe Leib of Sassov said he learned about love from a peasant in an inn.  After a few drinks, the peasant turned to his friend and asked, “Do you love me?”  The friend replied, “Of course, I love you.”  But the first responded, “How can you say that you love me if you don’t know what hurts me?”

We cannot care for our students if we don’t know what is hurting them. We cannot care for our students if we don’t know what is exciting them.

To be there as a teacher, we also have to share with our students.  We have to share who we are and why we are teaching.  We have to share our excitement about what we are teaching, for if we aren’t excited about it then why should our students be?  Most importantly, we have to share our passion for Judaism and the Jewish people. 

When Rabbi Moshe of Kobrin died, the Rabbi of Kotzk asked one of the Kobriner’s disciples what things the master had considered to be most important.  He answered, “Always just what he was engaged in at the moment.”  When we are teaching, we need to share our passion and excitement with our students so that they understand how important it is to us.

Finally, to be there as a teacher, we have to listen to our students.  They have to know that their voices are heard, that we really care about what they have to say.  We have to listen to the words our students say and what they don’t so, to the feelings they convey when they speak and to the feelings that are hidden behind their words.  In order to really be there, we need to listen.

It was not enough for Moses to ascend the mountain; he also had to be there.  It is not enough for us to enter the classroom; we also have to be there for our students.  We can be there for our students by truly caring for them by knowing what is hurting them and what is exciting them.  We can be there for our students by sharing of ourselves, particularly our passion for Judaism and the Jewish people.  And we can be there for our students by truly listening to what they say.

And when we are able to be there for our students, that is the best way to assure that they will be there for us.

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