The Rabbi's Column

The Rabbi’s Desk: “As You Teach, You Learn”

The Midrash on Psalms teaches us that we learn as we teach. What an amazing concept! There are several ways we can apply the text. “As you teach, you learn”: as we teach, we learn more about ourselves, our teaching methods and their effectiveness; we learn more about our  students, who  they are, what they think, and how they learn; and we learn  more about the subject matter we are teaching, especially as we are exposed to responses and attitudes that may be different from our own understanding.

Over the last couple of years, I have come to regard OJC more and more as a teaching institution. “Of course, Rabbi Scheff,” you say? I mean more, however, than the fact that we teach Torah through our sermons, adult education, Religious School and other programs. That goes without saying. I mean that I believe it is our synagogue’s responsibility to teach Torah in everything that we do, and to create teachers of Torah in everything that we do.

Rabbi Drill and I have been blessed with the opportunity to serve as mentors to the Jewish Theological Seminary’s rabbinical students through the Rabbinical School’s and the Davidson School of Education’s internship programs. Mentoring future rabbis provides us with the opportunity to help shape the future of Conservative Judaism, and to share the OJC’s model of success with other communities. More importantly, mentoring and teaching allow us to see ourselves anew every year. I always say that it is the job of the intern to hold up a mirror to my work, so that I can constantly examine my methods, question my choices and explain my thinking. Students are encouraged to ask why we do the things we do, and to ask whether alternatives might be considered. We hope our interns will be better rabbis in the future for the experience and supervision they receive at the OJC. We know that we will be better rabbis for the opportunity to have someone watch us work and force us to reflect on our practice.

Each of us should be regarded no differently than our interns. We teach and learn from each other, whether that teaching/learning is taking place around the table in the library or amidst the way we conduct ourselves at a kiddush or social event. We model behavior as clergy, as board members, and even as volunteers or participants, and all the while we represent the OJC through our actions to the larger community.

Rabbi Drill and I thank Yoni Warren and Jesse Olitzky for being our teachers and students. On behalf of the OJC, we wish them success as they head into their last year of studies at JTS. They have helped us continue to improve upon ourselves, and in the process they have solidified themselves as our chaverim—partners and friends. We are also excited to introduce you to Amiel Hersh, our rabbinic intern for the year ahead (who introduces himself within the pages of this bulletin). As Rabbi Drill and I are well acquainted with Ami, we know he will bring wonderful learning opportunities for all of us in the year ahead.

In the Psalms it is written, “I became wiser from every teacher.” I hope and pray that we can see the teacher in every person we encounter, and the teacher within each of us, and only grow wiser from the experience.

Rabbi Craig Scheff