The Menorah’s Powerful Chinuch Message
This week’s Parasha opens with a discussion of the Menorah. Consistently throughout the Torah, we find the word עליה used for the act of lighting rather than the more common term הדלקה. Rashi explains that the word makes sense because a flame goes upward. However, Chazal find deeper reasons for the Torah’s choice of language since it’s the less common term. Rashi brings two of the explanations. Firstly, the word עליה teaches that the Cohain is required to hold the fire to the unlit lamp until it remains lit by itself. Otherwise, it’s not considered an acceptable lighting. Alternatively, Chazal darshan the word עולה to mean מעלה-steps. We are taught that a small set of steps was located in front of the Menorah so the Cohain could ascend it when performing the service.
HaRav Moshe Feinstein, זצ״ל, finds in these Chazal’s a powerful Chinuch message. He sees in the requirement of holding the fire to the unlit lamp until it remains lit by itself, the definition of successful instruction. Rebeyiim and teachers need to make sure that before a lesson is completed the students have achieved a level of mastery-a thorough understanding and knowledge of the topic or skill in order to independently and confidently demonstrate their learning.
The other message, the symbolism of the steps in the Chinuch process, requires an understanding that the Cohain didn’t need the steps to light the Menorah, as its height was 18 tefachim or approximately 6 feet high. The lesson is, in the same way the Cohain ascended the steps to enable himself to do a superior job of lighting by looking down on the Menorah to ensure that the lamp would remain lit after he removed the flame, so to, when Rebeyiim and Moros instruct their students, they need be able to properly assess mastery. In other words, the symbolism of “standing on the steps” in the chinuch realm is the notion of quality student assessment as a major component of teaching and instruction. As if to say, by not “standing on the steps”, at best, the assessment process is cursory, and cursory is not sufficient.
Research in the field of education supports the insight of HaRav Moshe, (not that his insight needs the support). It tells us that assessments serve as a powerful tool to drive up student achievement and motivation. As well, the inverse is true. Instructors who are not employing accurate assessment strategies for each student are likely to be negatively and even in some cases severely impacting student motivation and growth. Either as we said above, a lack of accurate assessment can lead to not providing the needed instruction before the students reach mastery, thereby leaving many confused and lost in their learning. As well, as is the case all too often, students who have mastered the material of the lesson are still required to continue sitting through repetitions of the same lesson until a certain percentage of the class reaches mastery. We all know that subjecting students to this practice either because the teacher does not know well where the students are holding because of a lack of proper assessment strategies or because of not wanting to differentiate instruction to accommodate student differences, all types of negative classroom side effects occur both in the short term and long term.
In our Yeshiva, the combination of on going assessments-to know where the students are holding, and tailoring instruction for each student based on those assessments, fosters student happiness, motivation and academic success for every child.