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4 Min Rambam — 18 Adar (Shabbos) - Talmud Torah 4. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.
In Al-Khustamma Taira Paragdala, the Ramam discusses how the teaching of Taira was done. The Ramam begins by saying that we should only teach a fitting student Taira or someone who's neutral. But if there's a student who is sowered or someone who is sowered and doesn't go into proper path, we should first get them to Ducuva and then we should teach them. Similarly, by a teacher who has sowered and doesn't go in the right way, we even if he's a very great khaham and everyone needs to learn from him Taira, we nevertheless wait for him to return to his good ways. Then the Ramam continues by saying how they would teach. Dharav would sit at the head, the teacher would sit at the head, and the students would surround them like a crown and a circle, in order that everyone would be able to see the teacher and hear his words. The teacher should not sit on a chair and the students on the ground, or rather, either everyone's on the ground or everyone's on chairs. Originally, the teacher would sit and the students would stand, but before the destruction of the second basic miktosh, they already changed that so that they all do the same.
If the teacher was teaching directly to students, that's how it would work. But in some cases, they would have a mitorgamon, a translator, and the translator should not speak higher than the teacher, and the teacher shouldn't speak higher than the translator, when teaching. And the translator should not change any of the words that the teacher says, except for a situation where the teacher quotes his father and says, my father, my master, then a translator would actually see the name of the ravency, rabbi so and so, such and such. A teacher who teaches his students and his students didn't understand, he should not get upset at them, rather he should repeat it many, many times until they can understand it properly. And similarly, the students shouldn't say I understood when he didn't, rather he should ask many times, and if his teacher gets upset at him, he should see my teacher, it's terror, and I need to learn this, and I'm not as smart to understand it right away. The Ramon continues with saying that a student should not be embarrassed from his friends, that they catch on things very, very quickly, and he doesn't, rather he should do it again and again until he understands it. And therefore, the first Khacham said that a person who's embarrassed doesn't learn,
because they're embarrassed to say that they don't know, and someone who's strict is not able to teach, because they make the person feel that they're not able to learn. But this is all talking about a situation where the student is trying to understand, trying to learn, and is not able to understand it, but if the teacher notices that the students are being distracted, then he should put pressure on them that they should focus to be able to learn. When a teacher enters the classroom or the big smadrish, we do not ask the teacher any questions until he had some time to focus his mind. And a student also shouldn't ask a question until he's sat down also. Two students should not ask as one at the same time, and we also don't ask the teacher from a different topic than what they're learning in or not to embarrass them. But the teacher is allowed to do things that seem like mistakes, so that the student should see and ask them questions and to try to sharpen their minds, and or to see if they remember what he taught them. And also he's a lot of asked them about other topics in order to encourage them to learn more.
We don't ask questions while we're standing, and we don't answer while we're standing, and not from up high or not from far away. And we only ask the teacher about the topic that they're learning about, and like we said before in or not to embarrass them. Two people that asked a question here, there's some prioritization. So if one asked a question that's on point and someone that asked not, we address first the one that's on point. If it's about practical application of the halacha, and not a practical application, a practical application comes first. If it's halacha or a medrish, halacha comes first, with medrish and agada, and agada medrish comes first, and agada kahvachama kahvachama comes first. Similarly, depending on the people who asked of two, if one person was a hacham or one person, was a tam al hacham, the hacham comes first, and similarly a hacham and agama arts, the tam al comes first. We do not sleep in the beta medrish, and additionally there's a lot of respect we need to have for the beta medrish. Even if someone sneezes, we don't see it sick as unt.
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