Tiny Stars, Everlasting Light: The Essence of Chinuch 

Rabbi Dovid Breslauer

(From a speech at shalosh seudos at the CoJDS Chinuch Conference in April 2026) 

Those who teach Torah to children are engaged in such a valuable endeavor, yet they seem to be unappreciated. The Gemara in בבא בתרא (8b) applies the pasuk from Daniel (12:3), which says, ומצדיקי הרבים ככוכבים לעולם ועד״,” that those who make the masses righteous are like everlasting stars, to the מלמדי תינוקות, people who teach Torah to children.  

The בן יהוידע explains that stars are an apt comparison for teachers. When one looks into the sky, the sun and the moon dominate, and the stars are only visible as tiny pricks of light. In truth, though, many of the stars are much larger and brighter than the sun, and certainly the moon. They just appear smaller and fainter because they are so high in the sky. Teachers of children are similar. They’re easy to overlook and don’t stand out, but they are engaged in the loftiest pursuit.  

אילו ידע: Teaching Torah 

The Torah says that Reuven saved Yosef’s life, “וישמע ראובן ויצלהו מידם” (Bereishis 37:21), convincing his brothers to throw Yosef in the pit rather than kill him. It praises Aharon for his unselfish gladness when his brother Moshe was appointed to be the leader: “וראך ושמח בלבו” (Shemos 4:14). And Boaz is celebrated for giving food to Rus: “ויצבט לה קלי ותאכל ותשבע ותתר” (Rus 2:14). The well-known Midrash says that אילו ידע, had these great people known their actions would be recorded in the Torah, they would have done them with even greater enthusiasm.  

But why? They determined what was right to do and did so with conviction. Why would they have done these things with a greater לב שמח because they would be recorded in the Torah? Rav Aharon Kotler explained that the greatest thing someone can do is teach Torah. If one can do something great and it is recorded in the Torah, teaching בני ישראל forever how to act, he has taught Torah. Without realizing it, Reuven was doing more than saving Yosef’s life; he was teaching us all the right way to live. Likewise, Aharon was teaching us how to be gracious and unenvious of others’ success, and Boaz was demonstrating how to treat the poor and needy. Their actions went from being stories in their lives to divreiTorah; now we need to say ברכות התורה before relating them! 

I knew an old Russian Jew, R’ Meir, who lived in Russia under Communist rule for many, many years; after the Iron Curtain fell, he moved to Cleveland. He lived with his non-religious sister, but he used to come to the Telshe yeshiva for the ימים טובים. We were always inspired to see how a man who lived for decades without any opportunity to live as a Jew and who never got a proper Jewish education could be such an example of אמונה פשוטה. I recall that the last song we danced to on Simchas Torah each year was זאל שוין זיין די גאולה, and we would continue dancing long after the הקפות were over, but the one who danced the longest was the elderly R’ Meir. I always wondered where his אמונה came from.  

One year, we heard that R’ Meir was sick in the hospital, and I went to visit him. The nurse brought him a piping-hot cup of tea. R’ Meir was surprised by how hot it was, and said to me, “עס איז זייער הייס”! I offered to add some cold water to his cup, but he didn’t want it to be cooled off. R’ Meir asked me if I had heard of Chaim Nachman Bialik, the well-known poet. I told him I had heard of him, and R’ Meir told me he had gone to cheder with him and that they had the same מלמד. Then he said to me, “I remember that the מלמד taught us the pasuk regarding Amalek that says, ‘אשר קרך בדרך’. He told us that Amalek cools us off, אבער א איד דארף זיך האלטן ווארעם, but a Jew needs to stay warm!” 

I realized that the words of this מלמד were R’ Meir’s secret, how he had kept the flame of אמונה burning inside him all those decades in the Soviet Union. But did the מלמד ever know? Did he have any inkling how one line he taught in cheder was going to sustain this child for a lifetime, so that he would be able to dance to זאל שוין זיין די גאולה with more energy than the bachurim in Telshe decades later? This is what someone who teaches Torah to children can do. 

ואת עמלינו: אלו הבנים 

In the הגדה של פסח, we say that when the pasuk uses the words “ואת עמלנו” it refers to the sons בני ישראל had in Mitzrayim. עמל refers to hard work that fails to produce results. Children are always hard work, but in Mitzrayim it was particularly painful, because though they worked to care for their sons, it was all for naught when the children were brutally killed. מחנכים all have their “ואת עמלינו אלו הבנים” moments, and these frustrations can really drain a person.  

When the Chofetz Chaim wrote his great work, the משנה ברורה, he would learn the סוגיות with a חברותא, often his son-in-law, Rav Hirsch Levinson. There was one complicated סוגיא that they spent several weeks on, and all that work ended up as just three lines in the משנה ברורה. Rav Hirsch asked his father-in-law whether anyone would appreciate how much work went into those few lines. The Chofetz Chaim answered him with a story. He had been traveling and passed a construction site where they were building the great Trans-Siberian Railway, which stretches over 5,000 miles from Moscow to Vladivostok. Building it was a monumental feat, and many Russian peasants were conscripted as laborers. The Chofetz Chaim overheard a father and son who were working together. The son asked his father, “Will anyone ever know how much we sacrificed to lay a few meters of track?” The father turned to his son and said, “The Czar, our father, knows. We’re working for him.” The Chofetz Chaim told Rav Levinson, “Those poor Russian men were working for the wicked czar, but we’re working for our real אבינו שבשמים. He knows the work we’re doing, and that’s what’simportant.” 

ותן חלקינו בתורתך 

Sometimes, though, it can still be demoralizing. We’re trying, but the talmidim don’t seem to be growing. It’s very important for teachers of Torah to understand that every Jewish person has a חלק in Torah. The Chofetz Chaim writes something astounding in ספר שמירת הלשון. He says that Moshe Rabbeinu was, to an extent, at fault for Korach’s rebellion, since when Hashem told him to go to בני ישראל with the message of גאולה, he said, “והן לא יאמינו לי,” they won’tbelieve me. The Chofetz Chaim explains that this was considered לשון הרע against בני ישראל, and that the צרעת that Moshe was afflicted with a few pesukim later was a punishment for it. But the declaration of והן לא יאמינו לי ended up coming true with the rebellion of Korach. Had he not said that, perhaps the entire nation would have believed him.  

The Chofetz Chaim said, in the name of the Vilna Gaon, that every individual has a חלק in Torah that is unique and that no one else can access. We need to be so careful to remember that everyone has a חלק in Torah and not write anyone off.  

There was a secular Jew who lived in Tel Aviv, and he worked in the furniture and décor business. He had heard that the Ponovezh Yeshiva had a beautiful ארון קדש, and he wanted to see it for himself. Not wanting to disturb a school day in session, he decided to visit Ponovezh at night. He came in the evening and looked inside, but he saw it was full of people so he decided to walk around the neighborhood a bit until the room cleared out. It was getting late, past 11:00 p.m., when he came back to Ponovezh, and the room was still full of people learning. He was surprised because it was getting pretty late. He went over to a young man and asked him, “Is there a big test tomorrow that everyone is studying for?” The man looked at him for a moment and then replied, “We’re all preparing for the big test after 120 years!” The furniture maker was so inspired by the devotion he saw to studying Torah that he was חוזר בתשובה. He had his חלק in Torah, too.  

This is what it means to be ככוכבים לעולם ועד, to be stars that don’t seem to shine so bright. Teaching Torah can be a thankless task. We sometimes ask ourselves, why should we do it? Does anyone know how much effort and patience we’re exerting? Does anyone recognize the late nights preparing lessons? We need to remember the lesson of the Chofetz Chaim. We’re working for Hashem, and He knows. We might not sense that what we’re saying is sinking in, and we certainly have no way of knowing the long-term impact of our messages, but we can be certain that the Torah we teach is reaching the neshamah. When we teach Torah, it’s our moment of אילו ידע. Let’s try to teach with the full לב שמח, as if we know the impact our efforts will produce.  

Rabbi Dovid Breslauer is the rosh kollel of Yeshiva Gedolah Zichron Moshe in South Fallsburg, NY.  

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