| If the saying that says that a picture is worth a | | | | incident. The element of Shimush (serving Torah |
| thousand words has any real meaning, can one | | | | scholars) was missing! While he had learnt about the |
| imagine the value of the original item contained in the | | | | importance of giving honour to a dead body (which he |
| picture itself?! | | | | did with excellence!) he did not actually see how others |
| We live in a world of sight (amongst our other senses.) | | | | before him had treated such a situation. Had he seen it, |
| When it comes to pedagogic teaching methods, if | | | | he would have realised that the Mitzvah that he had, |
| we're going to really succeed in teaching someone | | | | had nothing to do with honouring the body by burying it |
| else about something, there is simply no better way of | | | | in the graveyard, but in fact by honouring it more by |
| doing it than by actually showing them what it's all | | | | burying it exactly where it was! |
| about. | | | | If a picture is worth 1000 words, then the actual |
| It brings to mind the strangeness experienced by so | | | | implementation of seeing something being done in |
| many at school level - and higher education, where the | | | | person must be far beyond this. Such is the way that |
| professor walks into the room, rambles off the biggest | | | | Torah must be taught always. |
| words they can think of, then gives the students a | | | | Learning the laws of the prohibitive mixing of milk and |
| thick textbook to read, and not only expects them to | | | | meat is fine. But if the Rabbi will never actually |
| have understood all the terms, but to actually practise | | | | demonstrate to the student what can be (at least with |
| what they were supposed to have learned. | | | | very good diagrams!) or second best to allow the |
| The Torah is not a text book - though many "greats" | | | | student to ask - and ask and ask, and if the rabbi will |
| apparently think it is. The Torah is a code of rules of | | | | not have patience to deal with the student's constant |
| living life. It's filled with such practises as wearing Tefillin | | | | queries and difficulties, then the teaching he will be |
| and Tzizit, setting up Mezuzot on doorposts and a | | | | doing to his student will be more of an intellectual |
| variety of other special commandments such as how | | | | exercise, which may simply be a waste of time. |
| to immerse vessels in a Mikvah for "koshering" | | | | If the student learns about the laws of cleaning |
| purposes, or for that matter - how to even build the | | | | vegetables for kosher purposes but never actually |
| Mikvah to begin with! What of the laws of killing an | | | | cleans them himself, he will be about as smart as he |
| animal before being permitted to eat it?! In fact, the | | | | was before he had learnt the material! And while |
| majority of Torah law is based upon real physical | | | | regurgitating the laws of slaughtering an animal - or |
| things - that require sight in order to know what it's all | | | | building a kosher Mikvah may make the student smart... |
| about. | | | | they will go nowhere if the teacher is not ready and |
| Let's take the keen Talmudic student. He is ready to | | | | prepared to actually show the student what it's all |
| become a rabbi. He works through some serious | | | | about. |
| material, learning about the laws of meat and milk for | | | | He may ask a variety of questions to the student, |
| example - and then some laws dealing with how to | | | | challenging him with rhetoric and logic, but without the |
| kosher meat by salting it. He may also learn the laws | | | | student actually seeing the law in action - the student |
| for Shechting (slaughtering) an animal too - and a | | | | will remain forever lost, never having understood one |
| variety of other important laws related to ritual law. | | | | word of Torah. |
| After all, if he is going to be a rabbi of a community - | | | | But don't be surprised. These ideas were not my own. |
| he might need to know how to rule in these matters to | | | | In Parshat Shemini, Moses is commanded by G-d to |
| help the community fulfil Jewish law correctly! Eating is | | | | teach the Jewish people the laws of which animals |
| going to be a big concern of the community - so he'll | | | | are fitting for kosher consumption and which are not. |
| really have to know everything from how to slaughter | | | | Moses - the humblest and greatest of all men - does |
| an animal - to salting the meat - to a variety of | | | | not simply inform the Jewish people by naming the |
| problems that may arise through people accidentally | | | | animals... he takes things one step further. How many |
| finding themselves in the situation where some milk | | | | animals could there be in the world? How many birds |
| splattered on top of the meat (or was accidentally | | | | in the sky, fish in the sea, and creepy crawly creatures |
| cooked with it - a prohibition of the Torah.) | | | | upon the Earth?! Wouldn't it just be good enough for |
| Does the student actually know anything about the | | | | Moses to list them all?! |
| problems of milk and meat mixing? What of salting the | | | | In Parshat Shemini - Leviticus 11:1 and onwards, G-d |
| meat? And what of slaughtering the animal?! He may | | | | commands Moses to speak to the Children of Israel |
| well be able to recite completely off by heart the | | | | and tell them that *this* is the Chaya (animal) that you |
| Talmud folio he is currently on... the commentaries | | | | may eat. Rashi (the famous commentator on Torah) |
| written about it and have a clear grasp of the | | | | points out: This is in the language of "life" (i.e. the word |
| language used to describe how to kill an animal. Does | | | | Chaya is related to the word Chayim meaning life) - |
| he however actually know anything about the | | | | for if not for this, the text could have said "Behema" - |
| practical? Does he even know what the different | | | | which also means animal (Mizrachi.) Since the Jewish |
| parts of the animal are? Has he *seen* the animal | | | | people cleave to G-d and are fitting to be living, |
| even?! Or has he simply recited by rote - everything | | | | therefore separate them from the impurity and decree |
| dealing with the animal? | | | | upon them commandments...) |
| In fact, while the student may be considered a learned | | | | Rashi then continues to point out: This teaches us (i.e. |
| scholar, it would be the rare individual to think of such a | | | | from the fact that the verse says clearly that "this" is |
| student as a real expert in Jewish law - without | | | | the animal that you may eat, it implies an action of |
| knowing if the student has actually practised anything | | | | pointing to something) - that Moses held the animal and |
| he has learned. | | | | showed it to the Jewish people (saying) this you may |
| Sadly in our day and age, there is simply a lack of | | | | eat, and this you may not eat. Even all the swarming |
| qualified people ready and available to teach these | | | | fish in the sea, he held up every single specimen and |
| things on a practical level. Most teaching is done via a | | | | he showed them. And so too with the birds... and so |
| Talmud page with the student attaining his certification | | | | too with the creepy crawly creatures. |
| and qualification from simply regurgitating the material | | | | Rashi points out clearly that the directive to Moses |
| off by heart. In the eyes of the teacher - he is truly a | | | | was not simply to *tell* the Jewish people what they |
| Talmid Chacham - a wise and learned student. One | | | | may or may not eat. It was not good enough to simply |
| may even wonder if he is really honest enough with | | | | let them know the names of the animals. The reason |
| himself to realise that with all his knowledge - he may | | | | is obvious. It may well be that Moses knew the names |
| know very little! | | | | of every animal, what they looked like and why they |
| Life is about doing, about seeing and knowing how | | | | were Kosher or not, but not every single person was |
| things work. Not simply by reading a text book and | | | | able to simply know via intuition which animal Moses |
| being qualified to deal with life from whatever is | | | | was talking about. Better for Moses to actually point to |
| learned from it. | | | | the animals individually and show them exactly what |
| The famous story is told concerning the great Rabbi | | | | was kosher and what was not, and in this way teach |
| Akiva who began learning Torah at the age of 40 to | | | | the Jewish people exactly what was permitted and |
| become the greatest of Torah giants. All Torah that | | | | what was not. |
| we have today - both revealed and hidden - have as | | | | Moses teaches us all an important lesson - especially |
| their roots - the teachings taught by this very special | | | | when it comes to teaching Torah (if not everything |
| giant of a man. Yet at 40, he knew almost nothing of | | | | else in life as well.) It is not enough to debate for hours |
| what Torah was all about. So much so, that this story | | | | on end over texts wondering if one has grasped the |
| is even more worthy of being recorded. | | | | material well enough to pass a written exam. Rather |
| Rabbi Akiva found himself in a deserted area one day. | | | | the teachers must teach the student well enough - and |
| As he was travelling, he noticed a body lying on the | | | | clearly enough, so that the student does not only know |
| ground. Upon closer inspection, he realised there was | | | | the material in his head (like a walking encyclopaedia), |
| no life in it. A dead body... in need of burial. Rabbi Akiva | | | | but rather that he actually grasps the physical aspect |
| was no fool when it came to the laws of burial. He | | | | of the concept as well, so that when it comes to |
| also valued the honour of the body. After all, what kind | | | | implementing a law (or the like) the student will actually |
| of honour would it be to bury a body in the middle of | | | | know what to do. |
| nowhere? It was bad enough that the body had ended | | | | Learning how to slaughter an animal through one |
| up here all by itself. The best would be to take it | | | | thousand pages of text may be beneficial. But it does |
| immediately to an honourable graveyard and bury it | | | | not compare to the reality of actually seeing a qualified |
| with the honour due it. | | | | slaughterer perform the slaughter. Learning how to salt |
| And so, Rabbi Akiva took the body himself to the | | | | meat to make it kosher through another thousand |
| nearest graveyard and began to bury the body, giving | | | | pages of text and a confusing exam, may well test |
| it the honour due it. On doing so, he was berated by his | | | | the students intellectual abilities, but it compares as |
| teachers. "Do you not know about the Meit Mitzvah?" | | | | nothing when placed with the real situation of finding |
| they asked him. A Meit Mitzvah is a body that has died | | | | meat waiting to be salted and not actually knowing |
| somewhere with nobody there to take care of it and | | | | how to handle it and just how much physical salt to |
| where nobody knows anything about it. The law is that | | | | actually use (how to wash the meat, how to soak it |
| it must be buried at the very point that it is found. Of | | | | and how to clean it afterwards etc.) Learning how to |
| course, Rabbi Akiva - being especially feeling towards | | | | build a kosher Mikva via thousands of pages of text |
| others, a man of kindness, realised though that this | | | | may do well for implanting in the student the ability to |
| simply was not honourable and so did the very next | | | | know the basic ideas of the structure of a kosher |
| best thing by taking it to a proper graveyard for burial. | | | | Mikvah - but does it compare at all to the teacher |
| The truth is that on the surface, Rabbi Akiva did | | | | physically showing the student what a Mikvah looks |
| nothing less than the best for this body. Yet, something | | | | like, the pipes used and how the water is actually |
| was missing. As Rabbi Akiva himself testified after this | | | | brought into the Mikvah?! |