Educational Insights from Parashat Acharei Mot — The Tremendous Power of Illustration, for Better or for Worse

I became aware of the following incident some time ago, and since I was strengthened by it, I said to myself that I would not withhold something good
from the readers, and I will publish it as it is, without an introduction and without concluding words or a summary, for the words
themselves are exceedingly enlightening without any addition.
This took place about 20 years ago. On a bright morning, the Rosh Yeshivah of Hebron Yeshivah, HaGaon Rabbi Simcha
Zissel Broide zatzal, entered the yeshivah hall, visibly shaken.
“I had an awe-inspiring, terrible dream last night,” the Rosh Yeshivah said, “and I feel that it was a true dream!”
The students immediately understood that this was not an ordinary dream, since the Rosh Yeshivah was not accustomed to dealing
with dreams and stories, and therefore they listened closely to his astonishing account.
“In my dream, I saw one of the mashgichim from whom I had acquired wisdom and mussar in my youth. The mashgiach
asked what I was engaged in, and I answered that today I am a Rosh Yeshivah.
‘You must speak words of admonition and awaken the young men,’ the mashgiach told me. ‘You have no idea what
you can accomplish and bring about with your words.’
And here my mashgiach began to describe what he experienced when he arrived at the Heavenly Court after his passing:
When I arrived above, I saw around me a dark street, and on both sides of it were long rows upon rows of
houses from which a wondrous precious light emanated. It was an endless street, and no matter how I tried to estimate the number
of houses standing there, I could not.
‘What are these houses?’ I asked the entourage that accompanied me.
‘These are the houses that you built!’ they answered me. ‘The time has come for you to receive reward for them...’
‘Me? I built houses???’ I wondered. ‘When did I build houses? True, I delivered mussar lectures
in the yeshivah, but when did I build houses?’
‘Do you remember how you would wear out your feet going from place to place in order to deliver mussar talks?’ they asked
me.
‘Indeed,’ I replied. ‘But how is that connected? The public hardly came to hear me. They were mostly elderly people
or unemployed people, half of whom dozed through most of the talk, while as for the rest — it is doubtful whether they understood the content
of what was said...’

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‘Do you remember the talk you delivered in the synagogue in Vilna?’ they asked me in Heaven.
‘Indeed, I remember it well. At that time there were perhaps six or seven people in the beit midrash. I even remember
what I spoke about there...’
‘What did you speak about?’
‘I spoke very sharply about the phenomenon of the youth movements that had spread, such as the Haskalah, for example,
which brought with them foreign winds of heresy and swept along multitudes of European Jews, especially
the youth.
In my words, I aroused awareness of the need to draw the young people closer, especially the girls, who in those days had
no educational framework at all, to give them warmth and love, to instill Torah and mussar in them, so that
they would not go grazing in foreign fields.
‘Indeed, that was the situation,’ I was told in Heaven. ‘But what you did not see was that you had additional listeners,
or more accurately — female listeners. They were in the women’s section, and one of them was a seamstress.
Your stirring words entered her heart, and she decided to carry them out in practice. She
went and gathered several girls who lived in her area, and began delivering lessons to them in halachot,
mussar, and fear of Heaven.
The initiative grew and expanded; more and more girls joined the circle of participants, and the continuation is known to all
— thus the “Beit Yaakov” network was established.
This was Mrs. Sarah Schenirer, may she rest in peace.
These, then, are the houses you see here. These are the houses established by all those tens of thousands of girls
who studied in “Beit Yaakov” throughout the generations; all of them are credited to your merit.
Because of that talk you gave before seven sleepy people in the synagogue in Vilna!
‘And therefore, my dear Simcha Zissel,’ the mashgiach concluded his words in the dream, ‘do not belittle any lesson.
Try as much as possible to awaken and ignite the hearts of your students with words of admonition and inspiration. For you do not know
what can emerge from a simple, ordinary talk...’” Rabbi Simcha Zissel zatzal concluded his astonishing story
before his students.

***

Without a doubt, this incident teaches us about the greatness of the mission that every person has here in this world, and about the power contained
in a single sentence.

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In addition, we have observed the tremendous power and force of illustration, when in his dream he was shown rows
of houses that were actually the fruit of his labor.
And this is what we learn in our parashah.
“And Hashem spoke to Moshe after the death of the two sons of Aharon, etc.”
Rashi cites the words of Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah, who offered a parable about a sick person to whom a doctor came, examined
him and said: “Do not eat cold foods and do not lie in a damp place.” Afterward, a second doctor came and warned him: “Do not eat
cold foods and do not lie in a damp place, so that you will not die as so-and-so died.” This one urged him more than the first; therefore it says
“after the death of the two sons of Aharon.” That is, the warning of the second doctor is more effective because it
illustrates the danger that will result from violating the instructions.
Why, specifically with this command, did Aharon need an illustration of the danger? This emerges from the parable itself.
A sick person who has a high fever wants to lower his temperature by drinking cold water and lying in a
cool place. An ordinary warning may be insufficiently effective here, because it lacks the power to overcome the sick person’s desire
to reduce his fever. It is precisely a warning accompanied by an illustration of the danger that will overcome
the sick person’s desire and prevent him from endangering his health.

So too with Aharon the Kohen. He possessed an immense longing for attachment to the Holy One, blessed be He, which drew him to enter
the Holy of Holies. There was concern that, despite the command “he shall not come at all times into the Sanctuary,” he would not have the strength
to restrain himself from entering inside. Therefore, precisely here, the Torah mentions the death of his sons, “when they drew near before
Hashem,” in order to illustrate before him the great danger involved.
From here we learn an approach in education called “illustration.”
When the great good that emerges and rises from every good deed of a Jew is illustrated for him, in every
possible way, then these matters are engraved and established in his soul, and in addition they cause him to cleave to good. On the other hand,
of course, it is also appropriate to illustrate what one must be careful about and guard against, and the consequences that may result from it.
For better and for worse.
And in education, through demonstration and illustration, one can improve the effectiveness of learning, strengthen long-term
memory, and achieve better internalization of knowledge. This is one of our great challenges as educators:
to awaken interest and advance understanding so that learning will be meaningful.
However, an educator who illustrates messages for his students is obligated not to do so in a way that is
disproportionate or immoral, for then it has the opposite effect, Heaven forbid, as we learn from the following incident.

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Distributing sweets to students that destroyed a soul
A young man in a yeshivah ketanah told me:
“There is one event that I cannot forget, which placed hatred for teachers in my heart. It was the day when
I forgot to bring food to the Talmud Torah and asked permission to go out during recess to buy something to satisfy my hunger.
The rabbi did not agree, and since my hunger overpowered me, I went out without permission and bought several snacks.
At the entrance to the Talmud Torah, the rabbi saw me and took the bag from me. But it still did not end there. When
I entered the classroom, the rabbi announced to all the students, ‘Your friend decided today to “treat” you
to snacks’... And while I stared at him in disbelief, he distributed the snacks to all the friends, while I remained
hungry... and angry...
“I cannot describe the anger I felt then toward that teacher.”
What is interesting is that the same young man did not notice that over the course of several years (during which I was in contact with him), he told
me this at least three times!
From this I learned how deeply it “sits” inside him and gives him no rest.
The student did indeed learn the lesson, but the illustration caused him negative feelings and revulsion toward
the educator.
What a pity!

Rabbi Michael Zecharyahu

Spiritual Director at the Torat David Yeshivah Gedolah and Chairman of the Legion of the King organization