(ה) לֹא הַבַּיְשָׁן לָמֵד, וְלֹא הַקַּפְּדָן מְלַמֵּד
(5) An ashamed person cannot learn. An impatient person cannot teach.
(ד) הָרַב שֶׁלִּמֵּד וְלֹא הֵבִינוּ הַתַּלְמִידִים לֹא יִכְעֹס עֲלֵיהֶם וְיִרְגַּז אֶלָּא חוֹזֵר וְשׁוֹנֶה הַדָּבָר אֲפִלּוּ כַּמָּה פְּעָמִים עַד שֶׁיָּבִינוּ עֹמֶק הַהֲלָכָה. וְכֵן לֹא יֹאמַר הַתַּלְמִיד הֵבַנְתִּי וְהוּא לֹא הֵבִין אֶלָּא חוֹזֵר וְשׁוֹאֵל אֲפִלּוּ כַּמָּה פְּעָמִים. וְאִם כָּעַס עָלָיו רַבּוֹ וְרָגַז יֹאמַר לוֹ רַבִּי תּוֹרָה הִיא וְלִלְמֹד אֲנִי צָרִיךְ וְדַעְתִּי קְצָרָה:
(4) When a master gave a lesson which the disciples did not understand, he should not get angry at them and be moody, but go over it again and repeat it even many times, until they will understand the depth of the treatise. Likewise, a disciple shall not say, I understood, and he did not understand; but he should repeat and ask even many times. If the master angers at him and becomes moody, he may say to him: "Master, it is Torah, and I need instruction, but my mind is short of understanding"!
Understanding is always more than merely re-creating someone else’s meaning. Questioning opens up possibilities of meaning, and thus what is meaningful passes into one’s own thinking on the subject. Only in an inauthentic sense can we talk about understanding questions that one does not pose oneself—e.g., questions that are outdated or empty… To understand a question means to ask it. To understand meaning is to understand it as the answer to a question…
This is not an external matter of simply adjusting our tools; nor is it even right to say that the partners adapt themselves to one another but, rather, in a successful conversation they both come under the influence of the truth of the object and are thus bound to one another in a new community. To reach an understanding in a dialogue is not merely a matter of putting oneself forward and successfully asserting one’s own point of view, but being transformed into a communion in which we do not remain what we were.