[Avodah] Some Thoughts

[Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer]

Last Thursday night, I attended my daughter's graduation from the Azrieli
Graduate School. The guest speaker was the always inspiring Rabbi Abraham
J. Twerski <http://www.abrahamtwerski.com/>. I would like to share some
specific points that he elaborated, as well as my own ruminations during
his presentation.

1. He cited the Gemara (Sanhedrin 19b) that anyone who teaches his
friend's child Torah, Scripture "places upon him" (ma'aleh alav ha'kasuv)
as if he brought this child into the world (k'illu yelado). He explained
that once a person accepts upon himself the mission of teaching Torah
to the children of his fellow Jews, he bears the same responsibility
for them that a father bears for his own child. The statement is thus
not just a promise of reward (as it is customarily understood), but an
assignment of acharayus.

2. Accordingly, he asserted, just as the main role of a parent in
imparting the legacy of Torah to his or her children is the instruction
of the message of the ultimate Simchas Ha'Chaim that is inherent in
a life of Torah and mitzvos, so too the Mechanech's main role is the
instruction of the message of the ultimate Simchas Ha'Chaim that is
inherent in Talmud Torah.

3. He expounded upon the level of that simchah. He based it upon the
phrase in davening that we frequently recite but rarely consider:
Ashreinu mah tov chelkeinu u'mah na'im goraleinu. He highlighted the
term goraleinu, and its intrinsic connection to the word goral and its
permutation as hagralah - a lottery. The Simchah of a Torah life and
of Talmud Torah must be at least on a par with the Simchah of winning
a lottery! Anything less than that level of Simchah falls short of the
acharayus of both parents and Mechanchim.

4. He bemoaned the prevalent lack of such Simchah and the accompanying
lack of Mechanchim who impart such Simchah. He identified the following
specific phenomenon as a manifestation of this problem: Seventy years
ago, when his brothers were learning in Torah Vodaas, were you to ask
them where they were learning, they would reply, "by Reb Shlomo
[Heiman]." Similarly, were you to ask a bachur learning in Lakewood
where he was learning, he would reply, "by Reb Aharon [Kotler]; a
bachur learning in Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan would answer,
"by the Rov." Today, the same bachurim would answer, "in Torah Vodaas,"
"in Lakewood" and "in YU." Teaching and learning was once personal and
experiential, whereas today it is largely impersonal and institutional.
This change is reflected in the "by-in" change in expression. The
Simchah that is generated by, inherent in, and imparted by Hiskashrus
is no longer prevalent. Yet that is the core of Chinuch and of our role
as Mechanchim.

5. Although the connection may not be obvious, as he was speaking there
flashed in my own mind the derivation of the term chinuch. The shoresh
of chinuch is ches-nun-chaf. The ches-nun is the word chen. It seems to
me that this refers to the chen that Torah imparts to those who learn it
(Eruvin 54a; Kesuvos 77b). Much more important than imparting the data,
and perhaps even the skills, of Torah is the imparting of the chen of
Torah - the same essence that is at the core of the Simchah of Talmud
Torah. This is accomplished by the Chaf Ha'Dimayon - the Mechanech
modeling that Chen and that Simchah, for the Talmid to acquire by Hisdamus
- assimilation and emulation.

[6. I think that many three-letter shorashim that are built on the
ches-nun combination can be explained in a similar vein. Just one example:
ches-nun-peh, chanef, a sycophant is someone whose chen is only b'peh
and not b'lev.]

7. In a search for sources, I came across this beautiful passage in the
Kav HaYashar (Chap. 58) that expresses these ideas succinctly:

ספר קב הישר - פרק נח

והנה ישכיל הנבון איך הקדמונים היו פנוים לשמוע דברי תורה אפילו מן התינוק
מאהבת התורה כדי לקבל חידושי התורה שהוא אורך ימינו והיא אילת אהבים ויעלת
חן על לומדיה, ועל כל אדם מישראל מוטל לאהוב התורה ולחבב התורה בפני בני
ביתו ובניו ולהזהירם תמיד על קיום התורה ומצוותיה
יתן הי"ת שנזכה לקחת את הדברים אל לבנו, לחיות אותם ולהחיות על ידם,
וכשיצאו בהדברים מלבנו באמת בעז"ה יכנסו ללבות תלמידינו