Boulder Aish Kodesh

The relationship to teachers and leadership has always been troubled – even back to the days of Korach. Korach stood apart from the rest of the Jewish people and said to Moshe, essentially, ‘You have no right to lead us, as we are all holy.’ He was right about all of us being holy, but he was wrong about Moshe not having a right, and a responsibility, to lead the Jewish people.

Having holiness within is not the same as being able to lead, or even to decide for one’s self the healthiest path. For holiness within must be realized. It must be recognized, nourished, and brought to light. It must be constantly tested and pushed to grow. We must constantly make room for it to express itself amid the many confusing voices that cloud our minds. Not all of us have done this work, or even recognize that it is necessary.

Then again, many ‘teachers’ really have no right to present themselves as teachers worthy of respect. There are many people who teach hatred instead of love, who teach racism and sexism in the name of Judaism, or who teach the way of the mind as the only path to G-d. Such teachers should be avoided at all costs.

To further complicate matters, some people are teachers in one subject, and students in others. In almost any given relationship or situation, each person has something to teach the other.

So how do we know when to teach and when to learn? How do we find a teacher that will truly take us toward realizing our inner holiness? My answer is what I call spiritual osmosis.

Osmosis is the process by which content from a high-pressure area will flow to a lower pressure area. This is true also of spiritual knowledge. Torah naturally seeks to expand into wherever it can take hold. If there is space for Torah to enter a person’s life, assuming there are no strong barriers, it will enter. So if two people can truly open to each other, without pretense, then the Torah of the moment will flow from where it is toward where it needs to be. If both people are open, then the proper learning will occur.

The mark of an effective teacher, then, is someone who does not carry around the pretense of teaching, but carries around the pretense of listening, of opening, of being able to learn when necessary. An unhealthy teacher is one who, by hiding behind his or her ‘position’, avoids having to be open to learning from others.