On Teaching: A Jewish Learning Thru Art Text Study

Consider the following texts on teaching and teachers. Create a piece of art that represents your own teaching as reflected through one of these texts. Use the materials provided to create a ripped paper midrash, water color resist or micrography.

Abraham Joshua Heschel, I Asked for Wonder: A Spiritual Anthology

Original
Everything depends on the person who stands in front of the classroom. The teacher is not an automatic fountain from which intellectual beverages may be obtained. The teacher is either a witness or a stranger. To guide a pupil into the promised land, the teacher must have been there themselves. When asking themselves: Do I stand for what I teach? Do I believe what I say?, the teacher must be able to answer in the affirmative. What we need more than anything else is not textbooks, but textpeople. It is the personality of the teacher which is the text that the pupils read: the text that they will never forget. [Edited for gender neutrality]

Original

Everything depends on the person who stands in front of the classroom. The teacher is not an automatic fountain from which intellectual beverages may be obtained. The teacher is either a witness or a stranger. To guide a pupil into the promised land, the teacher must have been there themselves. When asking themselves: Do I stand for what I teach? Do I believe what I say?, the teacher must be able to answer in the affirmative. What we need more than anything else is not textbooks, but textpeople. It is the personality of the teacher which is the text that the pupils read: the text that they will never forget. [Edited for gender neutrality]

Suggested Discussion Questions

1. According to Heschel, what are the most effective means of education?
2. Who is the ideal teacher? Why?
3. What is the goal of education?

Mishna, Pirkei Avot, 1:6

יהושע בן פרחיה אומר עשה לך רב וקנה לך חבר והוי דן את כל האדם לכף זכות

Pirkei_Avot.1.6

Joshua ben Perahia would say: Make for yourself a Rav (teacher), and acquire for yourself a colleague, and give all individuals the benefit of the doubt. [Translation by CAJE]

Suggested Discussion Questions

1. Why are we told to make for ourselves a Rav? How is a Rav different than a colleague?
2. What is the connection between these two and giving all individuals the benefit of the doubt?

Rambam, Mishneh Torah, The Laws of Torah Study 5:12

Translation	Original
Just as the pupils are required to honor the teacher, so the teacher out to be courteous and friendly towards their pupils. The sages said: “Let the honor of your student be as dear to you as your own” (Pirkei Avot, 4:15). One should be interested in their pupils and love them, for they are the spiritual children who give pleasure in this world and in the world to come. [Translation by CAJE. Edited for gender neutrality]	כשם שהתלמידים חייבין בכבוד הרב כך הרב צריך לכבד את תלמידיו ולקרבן, כך אמרו חכמים יהי כבוד תלמידך חביב עליך כשלך, וצריך אדם להזהר בתלמידיו ולאוהבם שהם הבנים המהנים לעולם הזה ולעולם הבא

Translation

Original

Just as the pupils are required to honor the teacher, so the teacher out to be courteous and friendly towards their pupils. The sages said: “Let the honor of your student be as dear to you as your own” (Pirkei Avot, 4:15). One should be interested in their pupils and love them, for they are the spiritual children who give pleasure in this world and in the world to come. [Translation by CAJE. Edited for gender neutrality]

כשם שהתלמידים חייבין בכבוד הרב כך הרב צריך לכבד את תלמידיו ולקרבן, כך אמרו חכמים יהי כבוד תלמידך חביב עליך כשלך, וצריך אדם להזהר בתלמידיו ולאוהבם שהם הבנים המהנים לעולם הזה ולעולם הבא

Suggested Discussion Questions

1. Why must a teacher honor their students?
2. How do students provide benefit to the teacher in both this world and the next?
3. What should a teacher’s overall approach to their students be?

Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Torah Study 1:2

כשם שחייב אדם ללמד את בנו, כך הוא חייב ללמד את בן בנו, שנאמר: והודעתם לבניך ולבני בניך. ולא בנו ובן בנו בלבד, אלא מצוה על כל חכם וחכם מישראל ללמד את כל התלמידים אף על פי שאינם בניו, שנאמר: ושננתם לבניך – מפי השמועה למדו, "בניך" אלו תלמידיך, שהתלמידים קרוים בנים, שנאמר: ויצאו בני הנביאים.

Mishneh_Torah,_Torah_Study.1.2

Just as it is a person’s duty to teach their child, so it is their duty to teach their grandchild, as it is written: “Make them known to your children and your children’s children” (Deuteronomy 4:9). This obligation does not refer only to one’s child and grandchild, but it is a duty resting upon every Jewish scholar to teach all those who seek to be their students, even though they are not that scholar’s own children, for it is written: “You shall teach them diligently to your children” (Deuteronomy 6:7). On traditional authority, the term “your children” in this verse has been interpreted to mean that your pupils are likewise called children, for it is written: “And the sons of the prophets came out” (II Kings 2:3). [CAJE translation. Edited for gender neutrality]

Suggested Discussion Questions

1. According to the Rambam, who is a teacher?
2. What is the obligation of a teacher?
3. How does treating your students as your children transform your responsibility to them?