פרשת ראה
ראה אנכי נתן לפניכם ביום ברכה וקללה | דברים י"א, כ"ו
See, I present you today a blessing and a curse
R’ Shlomo Wolbe zt”l (in Alei Shur) would say:
In Birchas HaTorah we say: ‘Who has given us the Torah of truth and implanted within us eternal life.’ Where there is truth, there must necessarily be life, and truth that is not living is not truth. The Torah is a Torah of life, and its study must be genuine.
How much responsibility does this place upon a teacher? One can teach a posuk from the Torah and give his students numerous explanations for it and yet the posuk remains dry to them. The students may know the posuk, but they will not sense the truth that is hidden within it.
Yet sometimes a teacher will provide one simple explanation for a posuk, but his students will sense the enthusiasm within their Rebbi. When that happens, things will become clear to them and they will sense the truth the posuk.
About the Author: Rabbi Yisroel Meir Rubinfeld
Rabbi Rubinfeld has been in the field of Torah education for over 3 decades and serves as an Executive School Consultant for Torah Umesorah. He provides an array of services to schools across North America, including teacher and principal mentorship, school and curricula evaluations, professional development and parent education.
Rabbi Rubinfeld's expertise includes classroom management and discipline, effective instruction, bullying, cultivating sensitivity in the classroom, impulse disorders (such as ADHD and ODD), and balancing the educational needs of mainstream and special needs children in the classroom.
Rabbi Rubinfeld is the also the founder and director of Torah Umesorah's Lilmod U'Lilamed department which provides professional development for teachers and principals throughout the year.
Rabbi Rubinfeld is a talmid of the distinguished Yeshivos of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, the Mirrer Yeshiva in Yerushalayim and Bais Medrash Govoha in Lakewood.