Lessons From Sinai: An Eternal Paradigm - Part 2

The Ramban in his commentary on Chumash explains that the laws recorded in Parashas Mishpatim were also given at Har Sinai at the time the Aseres HaDibros were given to the nation of Israel. In the opening verse, “And these are the Laws that you shall place before them”, Chazal glean keen insights for Torah learning and chinuch.

To begin, let’s understand what HaShem had in mind when he told Moshe Rabeinu, “…That you shall place before them”. Although He didn’t say it, it’s obvious that HaShem wanted Moshe Rabeinu to teach the nation the list of Mishpatim. Instead of saying,  “teach” He said, “Place before them”.  In fact, Chazal provide imagery, “…like a set table prepared for consumption in front of a person”. In keeping with the imagery, instead of directly feeding the person by putting the food into his mouth, lay out the food and let him engage in the process of looking at the choices, making the decision to eat and then what to eat, and then to eat it. Rashi comments that Moshe Rabeinu was charged with the responsibility of providing excellent chinuch. He shouldn’t just teach a halacha or a perek two or three times to be satisfied that his students can repeat it easily, rather he should include in his lessons reasons and deeper understandings that will require greater toil and effort. This approach by the Rebbe will ensure that his students will grow to be talmidei chachamim.

HaRav Moshe Feinstein, ZT”L suggests a negative side affect.  By not encouraging and facilitating students to toil and make a greater effort in their learning in order to find greater meaning and understanding, students may find the learning burdensome. He said, as a general rule, whenever a person is assigned a task that lacks clarity of purpose and meaning the student is likely to be disconnected from it and he will find it hard. However, when there are clear reasons given for the concept and it has meaning to the person it makes his toil all the worthwhile and the task does not feel like a burden. In fact, the expended effort will likely bring joy to the person because of his accomplishment.   

Upon reflection on the words, “with some effort and toil”, one can come to understand the relationship between these two perspectives and better understand the notion that Moshe Rabeinu was charged with the responsibility of providing excellent chinuch and a formula for success in Chinuch for all generations. Otherwise, the extent of the message that people may receive maybe nothing more than “hard work breeds success”. Now, by synthesizing these two ideas there is much clarity for how hard work promotes success and accomplishment. Hard work, effort and toil in learning for example, lead to greater understanding and the reasons behind a concept. This in turn provides greater meaning and clarity of purpose, which leads to joy and satisfaction from the effort and the accomplishment.   

Chazal’s insight according to both perspectives provides greater clarity on another statement that They made.  “Bechukosai Teileichu-In My laws you shall go”; Chazal tell us that HaShem is requesting “t’hiu Ameilim BaTorah- you shall toil in Torah. On one level, we are told that HaShem places great value in the process of learning something more so than the accomplishment. Toiling connotes effort and desire to achieve. Now, from the words, “that you shall place before them”, we understand that the hard work invested in learning will promote an internal joy and satisfaction both from the effort made and the results. Because Ameilos fosters joy and satisfaction, there is a greater chance that the learners who experience it will want to experience it again and again. We can conclude that one of the reasons, and maybe the main reason that HaShem places so strong an emphasis on Ameilos is because it builds true cheshek-desire. We call this intrinsic motivation.

To apply this idea to a school environment, the imagery of the set table can provide an approach and strategies for the classroom.  At the youngest ages children need to train in Ameilus. To that end, teachers and Rebeyiim need to be careful not to spoon-feed the students. “You shall place it before them” means to set up the learning by providing them with the basic information they need and let them engage in the work of figuring things out. It means, what they can’t figure out on their own the teacher needs to gift it to them. What they can come to know and understand even with significant effort let them.  

The Torah is prescribing an approach to chinuch that emphasizes simultaneously growth in Torah and growth in character.