Rabbi Josh Zweiback

January 7, 2006

Blessing for Teachers
Kol HaKavod 5766

Parashat Vayigash

Above all else in our tradition, we value our teachers. Our greatest leader and prophet is called Mosheh Rabbeinu--Moses, our teacher.

Teaching was always valued as a profession as well. For millennia, our communities have hired knowledgeable Jews to help us learn Torah so that together we could pass it on to the next generation, thus assuring the continuity of our people.

It wasn’t always or even often a full-time job--the tradition a vocational m’lamed is an old one as well. This reality is captured in an old yiddish joke: Shmuel says to Itik, “If I were Rothschild, I’d be even richer than Rothschild.” Says Itzik, “Nu, explain? How would you be richer than Rothschild?” Says Shmuel, “I’d teach a little on the side.”

Seems like a good idea, a nice way to help the Jewish people and maybe even earn a little something extra, on the side. Except that it’s hard to do and even harder to do well. And if you’ve never done it--if you’ve never tried to light up a young person’s heart with the glorious texts of our tradition--you haven’t the slightest idea of how hard it is to teach.

And so, for you, our teachers, we offer our thanks.

We send your our children at the most challenging times. Early on Sunday mornings when they’d rather be sleeping. In the weekday afternoons, tired, hungry, spent from a long day of school with homework waiting for them when they return home. Or on Shabbat afternoons when little ones are just waking from their naps.

And it’s not just when we ask you to do this, it’s what we ask you to do. Teach them Hebrew in a mono-lingual country that doesn’t much care for the square letters written right to left. Teach them values that sometimes go against the grain of American popular culture. Teach them prayer when they’re not sure yet what they believe. Teach them to care for Israel , a place most of them have not yet been. Oh, and by the way, you get--at most--about 5 hours per week, about 25 weeks per year, to accomplish it all. It’s not so simple.

So for meeting this challenge head on, with enthusiasm, with creativity, and with love, we say, “Todah Rabbah.”

You know this week’s Torah portion offers some intriguing insights about the profession of teaching. Parashat Vayigash--the parasha that describes Judah ’s moving speech to his brother Joseph. “Vayigash” is an interesting word with a variety of meanings. What might it teach us about what you do?

The Midrash teaches us that the word “vayigash” introduces 3 different kinds of actions in the Bible: to pray, to win over, and to do battle. The midrash tells us that people are usually ready to do any one of these.

There must be days when prayer seems like the only option in the classroom. “Dear God, help me get these 7th graders, for just a few minutes, to pay attention, to open their hearts and minds to me, to take that giant middle-school risk of saying what they really think!”

And sometimes we make every effort to win them over. We stay up late constructing engaging activities and games that teach them while they’re having fun. We hand out prizes and throw parties and do whatever we can to convince them that this matters, that it’s fun, that it makes our lives better.

From time to time, teaching even feels like going out to do battle. Classroom management is no simple matter at 5:15 on a Monday afternoon. And you teachers have to know how to firm but fair, how to discipline with dignity and love.

But this Hebrew root, nun, gimmel, shin, suggest a few more things about teaching. It can mean to meet. And that’s what you try to do--meet your students where they are. So you bring in analogies about karate and soccer, ballet and Harry Potter.

And it also means to move aside. Which sometimes you have to do. You change your lesson plan in mid-course and let curriculum emerge. You remember that at the end of the day, it’s all about what they learn and not necessarily about what you teach.

And finally, and maybe best, it means--to draw near. Just like Judah does to Joseph. You get close to your students. You come to know them. They come to trust you. And then a world of meaning opens up. And Torah passes between you. And the Shechinah, God’s presence, is felt.

It doesn’t happen very often. But when it does, all of the preparation, all of the hard work, the frustration, the despair melts away and you know once again why you keep coming back.

We offer you our thanks. We hope that you will continue--va’yig’shu--to draw near to this community and to draw us near to Torah.

May you and we go from hayil to hayil--from strength to strength.