The peak of the inauguration of the
miskan – tabernacle was fire coming down from heaven as a pillar into the holy
of holies, golden altar and then the outer altar causing the incense and
sacrificial parts to go up in smoke. The fire
represented God's love and approval of
the children of Israel in the context of strictest form of justice – midat
ha'din, not out of midat ha'rachamim – attribute of mercy. In response to God's display of Love, the
sons of Aaron, Nadav and Avihu acting out of a great love and closeness to God,
brought what the Torah calls an alien fire into the mishkan- tabernacle. There are differences of opinion as to what
their sin was that caused their death by a fire from heaven. Their sin was that
they brought their own incense into the Holy of Holies or they offered the
regular daily incense upon the inner altar though they had not been commanded
to do so. They acted on their own accord without consulting with their father
Aaron or Moshe and did not even discuss the issue amongst themselves. They were
also guilty of rendering a decision, making a halachik decision in the presence
of Moses their teacher which showed contempt for the Torah learning of the
former generation and eroded the authority of the leadership. The Medrash
suggests that they had a touch of arrogance - when walking behind Moses and Aaron, Nadav
remarked to Avihu – when will these two elders depart from this world that we
may assume the leadership of the community? When people act out of a great
love, even if it is a love of God and spirituality, there is often a touch
of arrogance, a love for oneself and relying only on their own thinking and
wisdom. Leaders act out love but also out of a fear of heaven because of the
responsibility they have for the community. Because of this, they experience
God's help – 'si'ata de'sha'maya ' in their decision making.
. The root of the sins of Nadav and Avihu could be their lack of
understanding about the learning process.
Educators today understand that in order to promote student engagement
in learning, learning has to be a partnership between teachers and students. In
the process of learning students can question and challenge teachers while
still appreciating their teacher's exceptional wisdom, knowledge and practical
experience and see them as mentors and guides. From these discussions come
clarity and new perceptions. In this way teachers can proclaim that they have learned
a lot from their teachers but have learned the most from their students. In the
learning process, everybody is a student – Talmid. The teacher is considered a Talmid
Chacham, a wise student who is always learning. When learning is a partnership,
there is no generation gap there is no conflict between the present leadership
and the younger generation. And this
also applies to Psak, rendering Halachik decisions and law. It is the questions
that people – students ask and the discussions that lead to the making of law
and practical halachik decisions. So people participate in the process of
deciding the Halacha-law by virtue of their questions and input.
The Seider experience where we relate
the story of the Exodus from Egypt is based on the idea, that learning is a
partnership. It is the questions of children and their natural curiosity that
drive the discussions and the acquisition of knowledge. We encourage them to
suggest answers and the values associated with them. We focus on listening,
using dialog questions to promote discussion. Deborah Meier, the American
educationalist says that ' teaching is essentially listening and learning is
essentially talking.' In this way we meet kids' needs for autonomy, competence
and relatedness and support kids' love of learning, their intrinsic motivation
and feeling self-determined and self-directed. There is no generation gap because they have a
voice, feel a sense of belonging, acceptance and are respected and cared about.
This is because we have made learning a partnership. And a kid in school can
become a learning partner not only with peers and people from other
generations, but with the greatest Rabbis and teachers of the generation. An
American Rabbi and educator at a girls school – Rabbi Shapiro encourages and
helps his students share their learning and ask questions from the leading Rosh
Yeshivas and outstanding Torah scholars. They are very willing to listen to
kids share their learning and explore ideas with them. When children are given
the chance they can construct meaning, share their own perspectives and use
their own experiences as learning resources. Because learning is a partnership,
the learning of each individual and each child is important. We pray that God
will support our learning and give us a share in his Torah. Each child can find
his place in the Beit Hamidrash – study halls of Torah. What gets in the way ,
is our focus on how well kids learn, ranking students, on testing how much they
remember and give the answers we want
and using grades - extrinsic
motivation to drive learning. Instead the focus should be on ' what we are
learning ', connecting to the learning and not how we are learning. Success and
failure should not be experienced as reward or punishment but as neutral
information and feedback. When learning is a partnership we encourage student engagement
because learning itself becomes important, relevant and we so promote a love of
learning.
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