“When I’m learning with talmidim who are learning for the first time, I have to read it on their level”

Photo Credit: Avraham Elbaz-AEGedolimphotos.com

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a two-day trip to America last week, Rav Yitzchok Soloveitchik visited the Sephardic community in New York. While visiting Flatbush’s Yeshivat Darche Eres, Rav Soloveitchik was honored with giving a class of fifth-grade boys their first Gemaras.

After being introduced to the talmidim, Rav Soloveitchik shared a story with the boys. The Chasam Sofer had once been invited to a local cheder to give the inaugural shiur to a group of young boys about to start learning Gemara. He opened his Gemara and in a deliberately slow, cautious tone, starting reading the first words of Eilu Metzios. Here, Rav Soloveitchik paused, intoning the words “Ei-luu Metziot,” using the pronunciation that the young Sephardi boys were accustomed to.

Continuing the story, he relayed that the older folk present at the shiur were taken aback at the Chasam Sofer’s enunciation, and looked at him quizzically. The Chasam Sofer explained: “When I’m learning with talmidim who are learning for the first time, I have to read it on their level — even pronouncing the words as if I never learned them before. If I read on the level that I’m used to, I would have nothing to offer. That is how we can teach talmidim!”

With a renewed appreciation for how Torah is lovingly taught from one generation to the next, the boys lined up to receive their Gemaras.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 951)