When Carol Hoffberg (name changed) asked to interview me for her doctoral thesis I was intrigued.

Carol explained that she had to interview three educators each with at least 30 years experience. She asked if I could be one of her research subjects. Although this forced me to come to grips with my own age I agreed.

The first thing Carol asked me was to recall two individuals instrumental in molding me as a teacher.

The first person who came to mind was an older European rebbi who barely spoke English. In the late 1970s when the majority of the boys no longer understood Yiddish he switched to lashon hakodesh. When we asked him why he didn’t teach in English he replied “You are my talmidim and you must strive to understand me. Although you have an excuse for not understanding Yiddish you certainly can struggle and persevere to understand lashon hakodesh!”

Perhaps the rebbi also had an aversion to being part of the American scene. Whatever the case I recall the day when a mother of one of the boys came to speak to him about her son. We were shocked to hear the rebbi speak to her in English. After she left one of the boys asked the rebbi why he’d spoken to her in “the treife loshon.”

“The woman lost her husband” the rebbi said. “She’s not my student. It was difficult enough for her to come speak to me. It is not my job to cause her to struggle as it is with you. My job is to make her feel as comfortable as possible. She was a guest in my yeshivah.”

I learned from him the importance of assessing every situation and realizing that different situations require different responses.

Before I could go on to the next rebbi Carol said “Rabbi I know you had good rebbeim. However was there someone who was not a rebbi who had an influence on you as a teacher?”

I thought for a moment and then said “Yes there was. In fact this next influential person is not a rebbi and what’s more is not even Jewish nor a man!”

Her curiosity sparked she asked for more details.

“One of the most influential people in my teaching career was a JFK airport guard.

“It was 1983 and I’d just landed at JFK. I was exhausted and as I joined the hundreds of people from all over the world approaching passport control I got confused. I thought I was in the correct line but I soon realized I was the only one in my line speaking English. One burly guard seemed adept at making sure everyone was in the right line so I timidly approached her and asked ‘Is this the line for US passports?’ She looked at me and hollered ‘How many times do I have to tell you people that American passports go to the right?!’

“I thought perhaps she was anti-Semitic; however it soon became clear that her tirades had nothing to do with religion skin color or nationality. No they were doled out equally to all.

“From this guard I learned the valuable teaching lesson that irrespective of how many times you may be asked the same question you can never forget that for the person in front of you it is their first time asking.

“I’ve tried to remember this lesson in all aspects of my life. After all that which is simple to me today was once a mystery to me as well.”

“So a paunchy patrolwoman could be considered one of your mentors?”

“Yes; perhaps that’s what David HaMelech meant when he said: ‘I gained insight from all my teachers’ [Tehillim 119:99].”