The Most Important Pasuk (Teacher’s Edition)

There is a famous (but difficult to locate [1]) Midrash that discusses The Most Important Pasuk in the Torah. Ben Zoma says, “Shema Yisrael.” (Very easy to understand. A reasonable choice.) Ben Nanas says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Very Rabbi Akiva-ish. We get that.) And as if the Medrash knew about the Comedic Rule of Three, it concludes by saying that Ben Pazi says the most important verse is “One sheep in the morning and one in the afternoon.”

Many a fine dvar Torah has been written about Ben Pazi’s message of consistency and how we change and we change the world through daily, incremental actions over the long term. And while, that’s fine, it’s not what I want to talk about.

For a whole bunch of reasons, I found myself thinking about the nature of education and what we really want for our kids and students, and I thought of that Midrash, and I wondered – what is The Most Important Pasuk For Education? Meaning, what pasuk in Tanach is the one that gives us the deepest insight into how to educate our children and students?

I imagine the Vilna Gaon would say, “Train a child according to his way and when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Mishlei 22:6) And I recently came across a Meshech Chochmah that says it’s something Hashem says about Avraham, “Because I know about him that he will instruct his children and his household after him that to guard the way of Hashem to do justice and righteousness.”  (Bereishit 18:19) And with the most sincere apologies for including myself alongside the Vilna Gaon and the Meshech Chochmah, and with full understanding of Comedic Rule of Three, I wonder if the most important pasuk on Jewish education is in this week’s Parsha, “Moses chose capable individuals out of all Israel, and appointed them heads over the people—chiefs of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens; and they judged the people at all times: the difficult matters they would bring to Moses, and all the minor matters they would decide themselves.”  (Shemot 18:25-16)

Since I’ve quoted two great influences on my educational philosophy, let me just add a third. Because the great Inigo Montoya once said, “Lemme explain. No there is too much. Let me sum up.”

In this week’s Parsha Moshe’s Father-in-Law Yitro arrives to the Jewish people with Tzipora (Mrs. Moshe) and their children. Upon seeing Moshe’s overwhelming workload, he advises Moshe to appoint others to help with the judging. The Rishonim debate when this story took place. Rashi says this story is not in chronological order – it actually happened AFTER The Revelation at Sinai, after the Sin of the Golden Calf, after Moshe’s 3^rd trip to the top of the mountain, and after the giving of the second tablets.

If that’s true, then why is the story here?

Rashi quotes our sages saying that there is no [definitive] chronological order in the Torah. We assume the Torah’s stories follow a chronological order, but if exegetical analysis suggests otherwise, meh, that’s no problem. Put simply, the Torah is not a history book. Its mission is not for you to satisfy your curiosity about how things were in olden times. The Torah is there to teach us what the Creator wants us to know, do, and believe. If that mission is accomplished by chronological connections between episodes, great. But if that mission is furthered by some thematic connection between vignettes, that’s fine too. By Rashi saying that a close reading of the text makes it hard to believe that this story is happening BEFORE the Revelation, then that’s the same thing as Rashi saying that the Torah put this story here for some other reason. What’s that other reason?

This is a moment when Moshe chooses people for leadership based on the content of their character and not fidelity to their fathers. And while the priesthood and the monarchy remain that hereditary, Moshe is teaching that leadership in Torah is based on merit and middot. To my thinking, this is the reason the story of Yitro is here. It’s the perfect preamble to the Revelation because it means that this gift of Torah is not for the elite and the well connected. It’s for everyone. Greatness in Torah is earned by merit.

The crux of that lesson is the Pasuk I’m suggesting as the key to Jewish education. “Moshe chose capable individuals of all of Israel and appointed them . . .” Not for being the eldest and not because of who their Zaydie was, but rather because of their own wisdom and trustworthiness.

Last week I was blessed to be with around 1500 other members of the Jewish Day School community at the semi-annual Prizmah Conference. (Prizmah is a network for Jewish Day Schools – basically for any school that’s not a cheder, yeshivah or bais Yaakov type school.) For the most part it was very good. It was great to what other schools are doing, to share our successes, and maybe inspire others. It’s true that my experience was a little manic in I kinda ping-ponged between imposter syndrome and thinking I was definitely the smartest and most experienced person in the room. (Not sure if that says more about the conference or about my own mental health, but oh well.) My highlight was being in a session on teacher supervision and evaluation with KIM. MARSHALL. (IYKYK.) The only thing I really didn’t like was a particular panel discussion on Monday night.

The panel was asked to talk about the future of Jewish Day Schools. What will they look like and what do they need to be 2-5 years from now?  10-15 years from now? My main issue is that none of the people on the panel about the future of Jewish Day School ever taught in a Jewish Day School. Perhaps for some the rhetoric was inspiring, but to me their ivory tower pontificating was just agitating. Just fluffy, goofball nonsense oblivious to the day-to-day stresses on students, teachers and administrators.

But imagine with me a panel that would have asked, “What verse in Tanach most embodies, to you, the essence of Jewish education?”

Imagine the Vilna Gaon sitting there and he says, “Teach each child according to his way and even when he is old he will not depart from it. This requires of the teacher and parent to understand the strengths and weakness of the child. What are the middot that come naturally? What is a challenge? How can we leverage both of them to help this child achieve?”

Rav Meir Simcha of Dvinsk, adjusts his hat, strokes his beard closes his eyes and says thoughtfully – “‘Because I know about him that he will instruct his children and his household after him that to guard the way of Hashem to do justice and righteousness.’ We need shape our curricula to help students understand that Torah is relevant and rich with ways to apply it in our world. We have to teach Torah so that we and the world understand that life is about Justice balanced with that which is Right and Good.”

And then an impertinent high school rebbe and principal – from Baltimore of all places- raises his hand to the shock of everyone (except maybe his wife) “What verse in Tanach most embodies to you the essence of Jewish education?” “Moses chose capable individuals out of all Israel, and appointed them heads over the people . . .”  Every student needs to know that they matter. They are capable of greatness, that they might be the one we need to lead.

Hashem ordered our Parsha this way just so you should know that.

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• The Eyn Yaakov mentions it in his introduction as “from the Medrash” but I haven’t found anyone that has definitely identified the source for this text. I kinda thought it was in Avos Drav Nasan, but so far the computer tells me I’m not right. One of my colleagues, Rabbi Yosef Furman שליט”א showed me the Maharal quotes in Nesivos Ahava with a slightly different nusach. And I found a version that was quoted from the Sifra, but when I looked it up, I didn’t see it.