I would like to share some lessons that Rav Meir Chodosh, the legendary Mashgiach of Yeshivat Hevron, gave to his Yeshiva boys, as they apply to us as well.
He quoted the Chazal that says,
“I have learned much from my teachers,
And from my friends, more than my teachers,
And from my students, most of all.“
He said that every yeshiva boy should fulfill these three things at the same time.
To do so, you could take a learning partner to learn from- Somebody who is better than you is like a rabbi.
Then take a second learning partner, who is equal to you, so he is like your friend.
Then, take a third learning partner whom you can teach. And if the students protested that they needed acquire firmer ground for themselves before beginning to help others, he would reply, “Anyone who knows the aleph bet is ready to teach others.“
This is a very important line. Many people have the attitude of, “Who am I to teach anybody else?“ We spoke about this a few years ago when Havruta night was more popular in our community ( after Covid, many people moved on to longer-term learning programs).
But it’s important to know that you can teach somebody else. That has in it Ahavat Yisrael.
And as we have said earlier, “You gain more from your students than from anybody else.”
People that have tried this see that it is true, and I have seen it in our Torah center. When someone starts teaching someone that is weaker than them, they understand they Gemara much better than if they had just listened to a class. Giving causes you yourself to gain. People make a mistake in thinking that they have to be worried about their own learning. That is selfish, and as we said, being selfish backfires.When you start caring about somebody else’s learning, you will end up benefiting as well.
The Mashgiach made another important point, about greeting new people in the Yeshiva, and this applies to greeting new people in Shul as well. The first hello that a person receives is his entry pass, and it stays with him. He says that you have to pay attention to everything that is happening to the people around you, in shul or in school.
We should not be like the Egyptians, about whom it was said, “Whoever did not heed Hashem’s word left his cattle in the field.”
It wasn’t a purposeful decision that the Egyptians made, to leave their cattle to get decimated. Rather, it was through their inattention that the Egyptians lost entire herds. A person has to be aware and attentive to what is going on around him. Sometimes we walk by people and don’t say hello, not purposely, but because we weren’t paying attention.
But we have to work on that. We have to pay attention to the people around us.
Look around. There are people that can gain from you. There are people that you can help. There are people that you can teach.. Keep your eyes open and find them.
Have a wonderful day.