Teaching Materials
11 Insights of Highly Successful Individuals
Teaching Materials11 Insights of Highly Successful Individuals: Introduction
If you appreciate Torah wisdom, you have to share it.
Most people are familiar with the national best-seller, the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Steven Covey produced a book that gives people advice on how to become a highly effective person in life. Many people have benefited from his wisdom.
As we know, our Holy Torah is "the" guidebook for life - Instructions for effective living from the Ribono Shel Olam Himself. Steven Covey is good, but the Ribono Shel Olam is certainly a lot better!
What I have done is cull some of the most fundamental Torah concepts that will help people lead happy, sensible, meaningful and... highly effective lives. These concepts are derived from Rav Noach Weinberg Shlit''a's teachings and understanding of the Torah.
All of these ideas would significantly change people's lives if they understood them and took them seriously. In my opinion, most non-religious people do not have a good grasp of these basic concepts with often dire consequences on the way they lead their lives. Being that these ideas are a basic part of our Torah, it is certainly our opportunity as well as responsibility to share these ideas with those who do not know them.
It is also true that we need to know these ideas for ourselves. By learning and sharing, we are able to understand and internalize these ideas for ourselves.
The programme is as follows:
Read the following ideas, (perhaps one a week) and share each concept with three other people who are less affiliated with Judaism - e.g. a friend, a co-worker, a relative, a neighbour, or someone you happen to meet that week.
If you are unable to find three people in this category, try to at least find one. Minimally, share the concept with anyone else - so long as you shared it three times during the week.
The key is to get into the habit of sharing. This gets us over our block of being afraid of going up to people and sharing Torah ideas. Once you've done it 30 times you'll be able to do it with anyone!
In addition, sharing helps you become comfortable with the material yourself. After sharing three times, you understand it better and can present it better.
I wish you hatzlacha in your learning, knowing, caring and sharing.
1. Judaism teaches that knowledge is responsibility
(i) If you knew someone who had a cure for cancer and kept it to himself, wouldn't that be crazy? If you have the understanding of what it means to be happy, wouldn't it be crazy if you kept it to yourself?
If you have an insight into life, it's your responsibility to share it with others.
(ii) People in our society often lack some of the most essential wisdom that would enable them to live effective, successful, and happy lives. Some of the most basic concepts in Judaism provide the knowledge and understanding that is so crucially needed for successful living. It's our responsibility to learn it, understand it and share it.
2. The mitzvah of learning is in order to teach
(i) In fact, the source for studying Torah is the verse 'veshinantam levaneicha' - you shall teach it to your children. From here we can see that the whole point of learning is to share that knowledge with those you care about most.
(ii) The Rabbis include in this mitzvah the obligation to share your knowledge with others - students (apart from your children). The implication is that we are supposed to feel that it's up to us to learn and share knowledge that will help others live their lives more fully.
3. You learn most by teaching
It is also true that the process of sharing your knowledge with others helps you clarify and deepen your own understanding. The Rabbis said: 'I learned much from my teachers, more from my friends, but most of all from my students.
4. Blocks
(a) We often feel - how can I teach when I know so little myself?
(i) If you understood the cure for cancer, but not for aids, should that stop you telling people about the cure for cancer? The principle is the same here: whatever you really do understand, share. Don't let what you don't understand undermine that which you do.
(ii) Of course the deeper your understanding the more effective you will be in sharing your ideas with others. For example, if you are teaching the definition of happiness, the more you are living with the concept yourself, the more you will make an emotional impact on the person you are speaking to. The Rabbis say: 'd'varim yotsim min halev nichnassim l'lev' - words that come from the heart penetrate the heart. This isn't to say the information isn't valuable and worth sharing even if your not so happy yourself. The understanding can still be communicated. It's just that the extent to which you will inspire will be less.
When learning Torah, one is supposed to 'learn in order to do' as well as 'learn in order to teach.' When you hear a valuable idea, you should firstly apply it to yourself - what should I do about this? Once you've made a decision to incorporate it into your life, you'll be more effective in putting it across to others.
(b) We also feel: aren't I invading someone else's privacy by forcing my ideas on someone else?
If someone is about to jump out the window and end it all, should we just let him or her get on with it? Would a loving parent let his children go off the rails and not try to put them right?
The answer is no. We would not sit passively when somebody else was taking his own life because the negative consequences are clear. Parents do not stand by and allow their children to ruin themselves because parents really care. These principles are always true. The fact that we don't share our insight into life is because we're not seeing the consequences of not sharing it, and also because we don't necessarily care deeply enough. The discomfort involved in the process of sharing can blind us to the reality of the benefits that would result.
5. Teach, don't preach
It also helps to think in terms of sharing rather than teaching. When thinking of yourself as a teacher you envisage yourself as having to be greater and more knowledgeable than your 'student' who sits at your feet. When 'sharing', you don't have to see yourself this way. You're simply communicating what you know with an equal, who may have many things to share with you too.
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