The Mindset of a Mechanech

Based on a shiur delivered by Rav Ahron Lopiansky to mechanchim on 11/10/22

 Those who have chosen the profession of chinuch understand it is important, but it can be challenging in many ways, so it’s crucial that they have the correct mindset regarding what they’re doing. Without a doubt, mechanchim are doing חסד. They’re teaching תורה and helping kids, but if they understand the big picture better, it can afford strength to withstand the taxing situations. Let’s explore this big picture by looking at three places teaching תורה is mentioned, to understand what chinuch really is.

Hashem says about אברהם, “כי ידעתיו למען אשר יצוה את בניו ואת ביתו אחריו ושמרו דרך ה’ לעשות צדקה ומשפט למען הביא ה’ על אברהם את אשר דבר עליו” (בראשית יח יט) – “I have known him (רש”י says ידעתיו is an expression of love) that he instructs his children and his household who come after him to keep the way of Hashem… so that Hashem could bring upon אברהם all that he said.” רש”י points out that Hashem didn’t promise the ברכה to the בית אברהם – his descendants – but to אברהם himself. Based on the מדרש רבה, he says that we see from here that כל המעמיד בן צדיק כאלו אינו מת. In other words, Hashem is saying that He chose to partner with אברהם because Heאברהם could get שכר! And what is the מדרש that Rashi brings – כל המעמיד בן צדיק כאלו אינו מת? Was אברהם teaching his descendants for his own good? And it’s this merit that the choice of אברהם stands on! This needs further explanation.

If we look at the mitzvah of teaching our children תורה, the פסוק is ושננתם לבניך. The פסוק then continues, ודברת בם בשבתך בביתך ובלכתך בדרך…. The order of this פסוק needs explanation. One would expect the mitzvah of ושננתם לבניך to be after the personal obligation of לימוד התורה – ודברת בם. First should come the mitzvos that relate to an individual’s Torah study and then the mitzva to teach the next generation. Yet we have ושננתם לבניך first and afterward ודברת בם. Why is it this way? Why is teaching our children the first חיוב of תורה study?

Regarding the mitzvah of הקהל, (as well as at the כרתות ברית in the beginning of פרשת נצבים,) חז”ל ask:אם אנשים באים ללמוד, נשים באות לשמוע, טף למה באין?  – The men come to learn, the women to listen, but the children – why do they need to come? The Gemara (חגיגה דף ג.) answers, כדי ליתן שכר למביאיהן – that the children are brought along to earn שכר for those who bring them. It seems that the children really have no innate reason to be there. How do we understand the שכר their parents earn for bringing them? If the children had a מצוה or a reason to be there then whoever brought them should be rewarded for helping achieve this מצוה. But if they have no reason to be there, why would bringing them along generate שכר?

A New Understanding of the Concept of כלל ישראל

To explain this and answer these questions, we need to develop a deeper understanding of the idea of כלל ישראל and how Hashem relates to this כלל. הקב”ה entered into a bris with a כלל. There is no single person who can fulfill the role Hashem had in mind. The אבות were the שרשים, the basis of the accomplishment of the mission, but they were not enough to fulfill the totality of what was intended by the ברית. This would require all the שבטי ישראל, all of כלל ישראל. Each שבט and individual within that שבט would play a role, and if any individual or segment were missing, the כלל is incomplete.

We understand today that in addition to the three dimensions of space, there is an additional dimension of time. In a similar way, each generation of כלל ישראל is an integral part of the whole of the כלל. Just like we say that שבט זבולון engaged in trade, יששכר learned, and יהודה led, each contributing to the כלל in their own critical way, each generation has that same sense of being part of a whole. The דור המדבר had a role, the דור of כיבוש הארץ had a role, the דור of דוד המלך had a role, and the דור of חורבן הבית had a role. Every generation has its challenges, its accomplishments, and whatever character and historical events define it. There’s a reason why the ראשונים had a certain חלק in תורה, while אחרונים had another חלק. Each and every דור contributes a חלק to כלל ישראל, just like each member of כלל ישראל at any given time contributes a part of the whole. This can help us understand what is meant by יפתח בדורו כשמואל בדורו: שמואל contributed, and יפתח, though he was no שמואל, likewise contributed a crucial part during his generation.

Viewed this way, if there is ever a breakdown of המשך in כלל ישראל, if any generation misses an opportunity, that’s a piece that is forever missing from the greater כלל. This changes the way we think about ourselves as individuals. A Jew needs to think about himself in terms of how he is achieving his own שלימות, and beyond himself how he affects others, in terms ofכל ישראל ערבים זה לזה, but even beyond that, how he is responsible to see to it that there is a המשך, that there is a legacy that continues from him, to contribute his part to the שלימות of כלל ישראל.

יידישע נחת – Jewish Parenthood

It’s hard to translate the Yiddish word נחת, which seems to be a uniquely Jewish idea. A non-Jew who has children obviously wishes for his children to be successful, and there is disappointment if they’re not, but there is no concept that his children should be continuing a chain. Some people maybe be more opinionated or have a strong identity and really care that their children align with certain beliefs or causes, but the idea that their child is continuing or bringing out a fuller realization of themselves doesn’t exist. For Jews, we start with this idea, that our children are our continuity. An individual understands that his עבודה is to accomplish something personally, and that that accomplishment will also have a המשך, because that is what it’s about – that’s the understanding of כלל ישראל. This is the uniquely Jewish idea of נחת.

When Hashem was choosing someone to start this nation, the choice obviously needed to be a צדיק and a שלם, and He also needed to be someone who would make sure that his children would do the same, but it’s more than that. His choice needed to be someone who would make sure that his children would be able to continue the process that their father began. Hashem said to אברהם, כי ידעתיו למען אשר יצוה את בניו ואת ביתו אחריו ושמרו דרך ה’ לעשות צדקה ומשפט. It was important that אברהם teach the next generation, but we know that he taught many people besides for his children, so it’s not just about teaching. למען הביא ה’ על אברהם את אשר דבר עליו signals that creating a המשך was part of the plan Hashem had for אברהם. He wanted אברהם to bring a certain light into the world, and it couldn’t be accomplished just by אברהם, but by all the collective generations of his descendants. אברהם אבינו threaded a needle with the understanding that the job of the next generation was going to be to pull that thread a bit more, and their children a bit more, for דורי דורות. למען הביא ה’ על אברהם את אשר דבר עליו wasn’t just a fulfillment of a promise, but it was itself the plan, that the generations that come out would be the entity that הקב”ה had in mind.

Let’s go back to the חז”ל by הקהל and פרשת נצבים. When all of כלל ישראל gathered for הקהל, this includes the טף and the מביאהן. Not that the children are per se getting anything from the experience, but because it’s critical for the parents to bring them, making these parents into ones who are threading the needle and pulling כלל ישראל ahead. If one generation sees the next as something ancillary, just something that comes after, that’s not a המשך. The next generation has to be there because if their parents don’t bring them, they’re missing the understanding of הקהל, of gathering all of the כלל. And when they do bring them, what שכר they get for doing so!

We find a similar thing by מעמד הר סיני, that all the נשמות of the future generations had to be present. This is because the תורה was given to כלל ישראל – כלל ישראל was them and all the future generations that would follow. One of the most moving moments of the year is כל הנערים, when we take a huge טלית and bring all the children under it. It’s so meaningful because we’re making a statement that we are who we are, plus a future that follows.

This idea is born out further if we look more closely at the Gemara we’ve been speaking about (חגיגה דף ג.):

תנו רבנן: מעשה ברבי יוחנן בן ברוקה ורבי אלעזר [בן] חסמא שהלכו להקביל פני רבי יהושע בפקיעין. אמר להם: מה חידוש היה בבית המדרש היום? אמרו לו: תלמידיך אנו ומימיך אנו שותין. אמר להם: אף על פי כן, אי אפשר לבית המדרש בלא חידוש.

רבי יוחנן בן ברוקא and רבי אלעזר בן חסמא went to visit רבי יהושע. רבי יהושע asked them what new תורה idea was said in the bais medrash that day. They responded that they were his students and they hoped to hear דברי תורה from him and not say דברי תורה in front of him (out of respect.) He said, “Still, there must have been a new תורה idea in the bais medrash today,” and asked them to tell him.

שבת של מי היתה? שבת של רבי אלעזר בן עזריה היתה. ובמה היתה הגדה היום? אמרו לו: בפרשת הקהל. ומה דרש בה?

He asked them, “Whose week was it to give the תורה presentation?” They told him that it was רבי אלעזר בן עזריה’s week. He asked, “What did he speak about?” They responded that the topic was the mitzvah of הקהל, and that רבי אלעזר בן עזריה taught the following דרשה:

״הקהל את העם האנשים והנשים והטף״. אם אנשים באים ללמוד, נשים באות לשמוע, טף למה באין? כדי ליתן שכר למביאיהן.

The pasuk says that all the men, women, and children should gather at הקהל. He said, “The men come to learn, and the women come to hear, but why should the children come?” And he answered that the children are brought to give reward to those who brought them.

The Gemara continues with the rest of the story and at the end it says,

 “בלשון הזה אמר להם: אין דור יתום שרבי אלעזר בן עזריה שרוי בתוכו.”ֹ

When they were done telling him what רבי אלעזר בן עזריה had said, רבי יהושע declared, “A generation with רבי אלעזר בן עזריה living in it cannot be considered orphaned;” such a generation has a father.

It’s notable that רבי אלעזר בן עזריה was the one made this דרשה. When רבן גמליאל headed the yeshiva they allowed in only the elite, which makes sense because such תלמידים were cut out to be the future leaders. רבי אלעזר בן עזריה opened the yeshiva up to everyone when he took over. Why? What was this policy disagreement with רבן גמליאל about? It wasn’t because he thought that the weaker talmidim would be able to be leaders and רבנים. רבי אלעזר בן עזריה’s insight was this idea of ליתן שכר למביאיהן. He opened the yeshiva even to those who perhaps couldn’t gain from it personally because he was focused on the crucial idea of building all of כלל ישראל. רבי יהושע, understanding this goal, and having heard his application to the situation of הקהל was moved to declare that a generation whose leader has this attitude, אין דור יתום שרבי אלעזר בן עזריה שרוי בתוכו.

This also explains why ושננתם לבניך comes before ודברת בם. The most significant obligation a person has regarding his תורה is to teach it to his children and to ensure there will be a המשך. ודברת בם is a broadening of תורה – speak about it at all these different times – but continuing the chain to the next generation comes before broadening your own לימוד התורה because if the המשך is cut in any place, it’s incomplete. Only once the תורה is complete, only then can you work on making it wider.

The Mindset of a Mechanech

This helps clarify for us the mindset of a mechanech. As we stated at the beginning, a basic level of understanding chinuch is that when a rebbi teaches his students he is helping them, so it’s חסד. It’s like whenever someone needs help with something, and you help them. Additionally, תלמוד תורה is more significant than a regular חסד because תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם, and teaching a student תורה is the highest form of תלמוד תורה (like we discussed last time we addressed this topic.) But even this falls short of capturing what a mechanech is doing, when viewed through the lens of the building the totality of כלל ישראל.

כלל ישראל is not just the sum total of all of the people in כלל ישראל; it’s the sum total of the people and the המשך, layer after layer, and wherever there is something missing, it’s a חסרון בעצם. One of the most profound stories in all of Tanach is פלגש בגבעה. During that time, there was a chance that an entire שבט would be cut off from כלל ישראל. It’s unthinkable! Just like having 11 שבטים is not כלל ישראל, having 19 out of 20 generations fulfilled but one generation missing something is not כלל ישראל. And the fact that a later generation may recover and seem to make up for lost time never makes up for the unique role that that generation needed to play to complete the כלל.

Regarding a mechanech, חז”ל say כל המלמד בן חבירו תורה מעלה עליו הכתוב כאילו יולדו. But what does it mean to be a father? The Gemara says in Bava Kama, אבות – מכלל דאיכא תולדות”.” You can’t have an אב without the children. For someone who is just mating, and a child comes along, it is just a מקרה – something that happened, but it doesn’t define him. אברהם אבינו is called a “father” because he had the mentality that he was there to produce children who would continue to build כלל ישראל. אברהם was an אב – he recognized that his job was to bring out תורה in a way that it will unfold in its totality, דור after דור. A mechanech, likewise, is creating the opportunity for תורה to continue to unfold, דור after דור.

The idea of having children isn’t just that a large population keeps us strong and secure. Having children means that we’re bringing out the שלימות of כלל ישראל. All the נשמות that exist are there in us and bringing them into the world is unfolding כלל ישראל. But even once they’re in the world, they need to למען אשר יצוה את בניו ואת ביתו אחריו ושמרו דרך ה’ לעשות צדקה ומשפט. That’s why we say that כל המלמד בן חבירו תורה מעלה עליו הכתוב כאילו יולדו – if you teach someone else’s children תורה it’s like you gave birth to them. You are the one who allows that part of the כלל to be unfolded. It’s the father-ness of אברהם.

This is what to think about when you go into chinuch. It’s extremely challenging in so many ways, and unless we think about it in the right way, it’s hard to overcome these challenges. חסדים are nice, but חסד has a limitation. עד כאן. Teaching תורה also has a limit – we would close the Gemara to earn a living if we had to. The one thing that has no limit, in a certain sense, is fatherhood. Every time you are מלמד בן חבירו תורה you are pulling the thread a little farther. You’re engaged in the core עבודה of כלל ישראל, the עבודה of אברהם אבינו.

The Message of שכר מביאהן

This message goes even beyond the Torah you actually teach. When you’re teaching and the students see that the continuity of כלל ישראל is what you stand for and who you are, this is an extraordinary message that theypick up. Sometimes you’re not successful at teaching Torah in a specific situation – let’s say there is a child whose ability to learn is limited – but the mere fact that the child sees his rebbi bringing him into the כלל plants in his mind that it is his life’s mission to be ממשיך with his own children.

There was a גר צדק in my community named Dr. Price and when he passed away, his son told a story that was one of the most striking things I ever heard. The son is now a principal of a yeshiva in New Jersey but as a young boy he wasn’t doing so well in his learning. He did, however, love playing basketball, and he approached his father with a proposal. “Why don’t I leave yeshiva and go to public school? Then I can play more basketball and you can save all that money you pay for tuition!” His father turned to him and said, “Son – I would work for 24 hours a day so that my children will get a Yiddishe chinuch!” Perhaps at the time the son didn’t find success in learning, but the message made an impact and now he is a wonderful מרביץ תורה himself. This is theשכר מביאיהן, getting passed along.

Those engaged in the עבודת הקדש of חינוך are the אבות of the דור and of all the דורות. You are the ones who not only mold the next generation, but who pass along the understanding that this is what כלל ישראל is all about. If this is your approach, you’re part of the team of אין הדור יתום. Having this attitude means the דור has fathers. There is no greater title for a person, no greater crown to wear than to be the בעלי ברית of אברהם אבינו, one of the fathers continuing the work of אברהם. Everyone who is מרביץ תורה should merit למען הביא ה’ על אברהם את אשר דבר עליו because Hashem can declare about you, כי ידעתיו למען אשר יצוה את בניו ואת ביתו אחריו ושמרו דרך ה’ לעשות צדקה ומשפט.

Rabbi Ahron Lopiansky is the Rosh Yeshiva of the Yeshiva of Greater Washington. He is the author of numerous scholarly works in Hebrew and English. Rabbi Lopiansky has a unique teaching ability that lures one into the depths of Chazal, pulling out profound messages as well as inspirational and practical lesson for life. His depth of understanding and broad application of the sugyos provides new clarity and insight into the many facets of Torah.

• Print
• Email