Who Wants to be a Teacher?

I had the honor and joy of attending the Kinnus Hashluchim this past Sunday. Once a year, every single Chabad rabbi from all over the world come together to learn from one another, to gain some chizuk, and to celebrate their collective accomplishments.

Their collective accomplishments are immense. Who here has not benefited from a Chabad rabbi in their lifetime? They are the fastest growing Jewish group in the world. Despite having lost their leader more than three decades ago, they are growing in leaps and bounds.

The event itself consists of a lot of socializing, fewer l’chaims than I expected, a couple of speeches from people in the field, and at the end, a very much on-brand, chaotic and energy-packed dance. In my circle were two brothers, one from Ukraine, and one from Russia… [redacted]

I was blown away by their self-sacrifice. And not just them. It was all of them. The room is packed with thousands of men, representing thousands of families who are not only willing, they are eager, they are literally waiting in line, to be sent to the boondocks to teach Torah.

In our community, if someone lives in Mt. Washington that is a big deal. These people are lining up to be sent to Africa, to Arab countries that cannot be mentioned, they are sent with no money, just go and figure it out. And they do. In droves. With tremendous simcha and drive.

And it’s not just the shluchim, the men and women appointed to teach, it’s all of them. I spent a Shabbos once in Postville, Iowa, and spent a few minutes talking to a random Chabad chossid. He got my number and called me incessantly until I agreed to learn Chassidus with him, which we did until I blocked his number… Where does that drive come from?

And it’s not just adults. Go to the Greenspring Shopping Center every Friday. While most of ‘our’ teens are inside eating sushi and milkshakes, the Chabad teens are outside putting tefilin on strangers.

Where does Chabad’s level of self-sacrifice come from? Where does their drive come from? On my drive home from the Kinnus all I could think about was how I desperately want a piece of it.

As a community, we desperately need some of Chabad’s drive and self-sacrifice. Go ask the local heads of school how many quality Judaic teachers they have. Modern Orthodox schools are mostly turning to more Yeshivish-educated teachers because the Modern Orthodox world is not producing teachers of their own. And the yeshivas are also struggling filling these roles, certainly in small communities but even here.

How is it that Chabad has young men and women lining up for teaching roles in war zones and we can’t fill teaching roles in Baltimore?!

There are books and countless articles written on the success of Chabad, there are undoubtedly many reasons they are so successful. But I think part of the answer is the Kinnus Shluchim itself and what it represents.

This event, attended by 7,000 and livestreamed to thousands more is THE event of the year in Chabad. In attendance at this gathering there were major politicians and no shortage of millionaires and billionaires. There is a man there who has given over a billion dollars to Chabad. He was not even acknowledged. The celebration honored the shluchim and them alone; they are the stars of their community. They are the community’s heroes, and who doesn’t dream of being a hero?

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks once wrote: “I believe that Judaism made an extraordinarily wise decision when it made teachers its heroes and lifelong education its passion. We don’t worship power or wealth. These things have their place, but not at the top of the hierarchy of values. Power forces us. Wealth induces us. But teachers develop us. They open us to the wisdom of the ages, helping us to see the world more clearly, think more deeply, argue more cogently, and decide more wisely.”

Rabbi Sacks was describing an ideal, one that Chabad clearly holds dear, as exemplified at the Kinnus shluchim. It’s a value which I think we, in the rest of the Jewish world, need to strengthen.

There is a sketch made by two comedians in which they imagine a world where teachers take the place of professional sports players. The scene begins with two broadcasters passionately discussing the latest ‘signing’ of a teacher who left one school for the other and how this move will affect her new school’s standings. They then cut to the ‘teachers draft’ where some dorky guy is chosen as the #1 pick by the school that had the lowest math scores the year before. They talk about his humble upbringing as the son of a starting quarterback and how he will use the millions of dollars he’ll be receiving on signing to buy his mother a home. And finally, they dissect one teacher’s brilliance in engaging the introvert in the back of the classroom using a play-by-play slow-motion analysis. They call the show ‘Teacher-Centre’ in place of the widely-watched Sports Centre.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYOg8EON29Y)

It’s a brilliant and hilarious sketch but it’s also a gut punch. Because let’s be honest – for those who are blessed with children, how would we react if our son or daughter came home and said they got into Harvard medical school and were going to be a brain surgeon? Now imagine how we would react if they came home and said they were going to YU or Stern to become a second-grade Judaics teacher?

Something tells me our response will be a little less enthusiastic.

There is a verse in Mishlei, ish l’fi m’hal’lo, a person according to their praise. The simple meaning of this verse is that if you want to know who a person is, find out what people are saying about them. But Rabbeinu Yonah, a medieval commentator, in his commentary to Pirkei Avos, shares a brilliantly insightful explanation: ish l’fi m’hal’lo means a person according to what they praise. Meaning, listen closely to what excites a person, watch carefully who and what they respect, what gets them going, that is how you know who a person is.

Are we awed by overpaid, scandal-riddled, sports players or by men and women who give up so much to teach our boys and girls? Whose pictures do we have on our wall? Who receives our respect? Our Torah teachers need to be our heroes. The future of Judaism is in their precious hands.

One of the speakers at the Kinnus was a boy named Nosson Schlanger. He described how when he was ten years old, he decided to raise money to buy 120 mezuzas that he would then give out to Jewish business owners who did not have a mezuza on their store. 10 years old!

But that is not the end of the story. You see, Nosson Schlanger, who is now 15, is the son of Rabbi Eli Schlanger of Australia, who was murdered just under a year ago on Bondi Beach. His speech was a D’var Torah about how Yitzchak dug the same exact wells as his father, which represented Yitzchak perpetuating the legacy of his father, Avraham, by continuing his work as a teacher of Torah and spirituality. And then Nosson, the sweet 15-year-old boy concluded, “Abba, I will keep on digging your wells.” And to a standing ovation he declared, “I too plan on being a shaliach.”
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I hope and pray that one boy or one girl who hears this speech will think twice about their career paths and the incredible impact they can have on the Jewish future. Or even better, I hope and pray that a boy or girl who at their dinner table hears their parents rave about their amazing teacher, will think twice before choosing what profession to go into, knowing that their parents will be filled with such immense pride when he or she comes home one day and says, I want to be just like my Morah, I want to be just like my Rebbe. I want to be a hero of the Jewish People.

Delivered as a sermon at Ner Tamid Baltimore on November 14, 2026