Half an Hour - Episode 1 - The Shlichus of Education - Rabbi Zev Reitman

00:00 Speaker 1 Hello, and welcome to Half an Hour, a program about education for shluchim in education and for people who want to learn more about education in general—educating ourselves and educating our children. Before we talk about the name, which really is a bit unusual, my name is Yosef Harkash. Nice to meet you. I was born in Argentina, and today I have the privilege of being part of the army of shluchim in education here in the Holy Land and throughout the world. I’m also currently studying in the training program for shluchim in education run by Reshet Oholei Yosef Yitzchak, which also produces this program. Back to the original question: Why do we call this program Half an Hour? Where does the name come from? In the Hayom Yom entry for 2 Teves, the Rebbe quotes his father-in-law, the Frierdiker Rebbe, who relates that his father, the Rebbe Rashab, said at a farbrengen that just as it is a mitzvah to put on tefillin every day, a Jew should devote half an hour each day to thinking about his children’s education and how to do it in the best possible way. So we’ve come together for this program to give a platform to educators, shluchim in education and professionals. We can simply talk about education, bring their ideas forward and start a conversation about educating ourselves, our children and our students. I’m excited, and I hope you are too. With Hashem’s help, we’ll meet again in future episodes. Thank you very much, and with Hashem’s help, we’ll do this and succeed. Half an Hour begins now. Hello, everyone. Here with me is Rabbi Zev Roitman, principal of the Talmud Torah in Kfar Chabad. Rabbi Roitman, please introduce yourself so we can get to know you. Tell us a little about yourself.

02:04 Speaker 2 I had the privilege of receiving this holy shlichus to lead the school, the long-established Talmud Torah in Kfar Chabad. This is my second year as its principal. I came to it after many years of shlichus in education. At first I worked as a mashpia at the Tomchei Temimim yeshiva in Lod, then as a supervisor at the Tomchei Temimim yeshiva gedolah in Or Yehuda. In recent years, alongside my work at the yeshiva, I also taught at the Talmud Torah, until I had the privilege of receiving this appointment from above, from the Rebbe, baruch Hashem. On the one hand, the work is very hard, very challenging and very demanding. On the other hand, when you work with genuine commitment and a sense of shlichus, your impact on the students is different. Then you succeed, and with Hashem’s help we’ll continue to succeed in carrying out this shlichus as the Rebbe wishes—to “carry out the intent,” as chassidim say.

03:25 Speaker 1 Amen, amen. With Hashem’s help. Actually, in the interest of full disclosure, we worked together last year. Rabbi Roitman, you’re one of the main people who opened the doors for me to the world of education—Chabad education and shlichus in education. So thank you very much for that. We’ve come a long way. I wanted to mention something: This week is 27 Adar. We’re recording today, 24 Adar I, and 27 Adar is coming up this week.

03:58 Speaker 2 Thursday, yes.

03:59 Speaker 1 Thursday, yes, this very week. There are famous stories, accounts and rumors about what happened that day. There are many stories—what the Rebbe said to the secretaries, what happened on the way to the Ohel, all sorts of things. One significant story concerns the book—the books that remained in the Rebbe’s room. As is well known, the Rebbe had put things in order. One of those books is a very significant one that you mentioned earlier: Sefer Hashluchim. What was so special about that book in relation to shluchim in education? We know something special happened there. What exactly was the major development?

04:39 Speaker 3 As the story goes, the new development was that all the shluchim working in education were included in the book too. Behind the scenes, some people had considered not including the staff working in Chabad educational institutions around the world. But in the end, the Rebbe wanted them included, and they were included. I remember, as a child, that my father—may he live many long years—had worked for many years in education at the Chabad cheder in Rechovot. I remember when the decision was made to include all the educational staff, and how quickly it was done. The Rebbe truly wanted those working in Chabad-Lubavitch educational institutions around the world included in that book, and for good reason. Even a brief look through Shaarei Chinuch reveals dozens, even hundreds, of letters about the tremendous importance of work in education, its impact for generations, and the profound influence you can have on a student, on a child, while they’re still a tender sapling, still young. It’s a shlichus no less than any other. You might not receive the same title or the same recognition as a shliach working in a city and the like, but a shliach working in education truly touches young souls and, through his actions, shapes their entire lives.

06:40 Speaker 1 The esteem the Rebbe had for shluchim in education and for educational work is truly extraordinary. Earlier you mentioned a letter the Rebbe wrote to an educator who wanted to change roles. In fact, this is a recurring theme in many of the Rebbe’s letters: “Wait, you’re an educator. It’s not easy to release an educator.” There’s even a striking expression—you quoted it exactly earlier—where the Rebbe tells an educator, a shliach in education, who wanted to leave his position: “No, releasing an educator from his role in our generation is a difficult matter. I’m not sure I can be the one to do it, or whether anyone can release an educator from his role at all.”

07:20 Speaker 3 Yes. First of all, the Rebbe points out that all our Rebbeim were involved in education. The example the Rebbe gives is very interesting: the well-known story of the Alter Rebbe going to cook for a woman who had given birth on Yom Kippur. The Rebbe says that this is an example of education. He explains that education has two paths. One is education through speaking and teaching, and the other is education through actions. The Rebbe says we see both among our Rebbeim. For a particular Rebbe, one may have been primary, but the other was there too. The Rebbe gives this example: The Alter Rebbe could have gone to one of the people praying in that shul on Yom Kippur and said, “Go prepare food for that woman who has given birth.”

08:21 Speaker 1 Send someone else.

08:22 Speaker 3 Send someone else. But the Alter Rebbe went himself. The Rebbe says that this is education: he himself went and did what needed to be done. The Rebbe drew the lesson that just as our Rebbeim were involved in education both through speaking and through actions, we too must learn from them and work in education through both teaching and action.

08:51 Speaker 1 Nu. Actually, I have to take a moment—I’ll tell a story from last year, when we were working together. It’s a bit of praise for you, but I think it will also benefit the people listening to us. It’s a story that left a deep impression on me. One evening, you called me in for a meeting at the office after school hours. I saw that an educator’s work extends beyond formal hours, too—that’s another subject we could talk about. Anyway, I came to your office at the Talmud Torah in Kfar Chabad. I remember walking in and seeing two or three of your children sitting in the library next to the office, preparing bags for some kind of kit. I don’t remember what it was. It was before Yud Shvat or one of the other yomim depagra. I came into your office and said, “Wow, your children are here next door? What are they doing here?” And you simply said, “What do you mean? The children are helping with the shlichus. They’re preparing bags.” I remember that suddenly, in an instant, something shifted in the way I saw things. Wait—Rabbi Roitman sees himself as the shliach of the Talmud Torah, and the boys, the children here, are the people he’s reaching. So why not? A shliach in Thailand has his children peel potatoes; a shliach in a Talmud Torah has his children prepare kits for the yomim depagra. Suddenly I saw it differently: this isn’t just the principal. It’s something else entirely. It’s a shliach in education. Since we’re talking about setting a living example, I had to bring up that story. I tell it often, by the way, though it is a bit of praise for you. I think it really captures this idea of a living example and shlichus—a shliach in education. Do you

10:36 Speaker 1 remember that?

10:37 Speaker 3 I don’t remember the story. You’re so busy there’s almost no time to remember, so sometimes you forget all the little stories. But I can say that, boruch Hashem, I see dedicated teachers in our Talmud Torah, and when a teacher is dedicated, the impact is enormous. It shows up in little things. I can tell you about students I taught in yeshivos in the past. Sometimes you did something small that you didn’t think was a big deal, but that student remembers it for the rest of his life. He doesn’t forget it. Over the years, there was one student who, when he finished studying there, came up to me and gave me a book as a gift, with a little note he’d written. I remember that note—a little colored piece of paper, I think. He wrote a few words on it, and it was very moving for me, because in education there are many difficult, challenging moments.

11:50 Speaker 1 Absolutely.

11:50 Speaker 3 It takes a great deal out of you. You have a family, too, and sometimes you need some quiet to unwind and have the strength for the next day. All the more so as a principal.

12:03 Speaker 1 You’re dealing with souls.

12:05 Speaker 3 You have so many things going on, so many events, a staff to look after, and suddenly someone isn’t feeling well, and you’re dealing with a thousand and one things. Where does the strength come from? You can ask yourself that. It’s a challenge, and not an easy one. First of all, you draw strength from knowing that everything is by hashgachah pratis. The Gemara says that even a reish gargusa—the person appointed over the water pits—is appointed from Heaven. So first of all, you know that if everything is by hashgachah pratis, and you were given this role from Above, it doesn’t matter what the role is. It might be teaching first grade, or eighth grade with all its difficulties, or seventh grade with the challenges of bar mitzvah age, or just fourth grade—I say “just,” but every age has its challenges and difficulties, and every one is a shlichus. And there are always moments when you ask yourself, “What am I doing here?”

13:07 Speaker 1 How did I end up here?

13:08 Speaker 3 How did I end up here? Because there are always children—you know, one child is enough, a child who comes in, as they say, not quite as...

13:17 Speaker 1 One word at a particular moment.

13:19 Speaker 3 And suddenly you’ve got yourself into a tangle, and you know you’ll be spending another two hours that evening talking with the parents, because they won’t like it. They won’t just let it pass. And you ask yourself, “Wait, what am I doing here?” The answer is that we didn’t put ourselves here. As the Rebbe says in his first maamar, Basi Legani, we are here to make a dwelling for Hashem in the lower realms. It wasn’t our choice, and perhaps it wasn’t even what we wanted, but we were placed here from Above. So the One who placed us here gave us the strength, and that strength isn’t our own—it’s the strength of the one who sent us. When you live with that awareness of the one who sent you, when you reflect on it, and from time to time stop and write a report to the Rebbe, you don’t think about your own position in the matter, but about what is required of you. It’s like the well-known story of the chossid who came to the Alter Rebbe and told him about all his difficulties. The Alter Rebbe said to him, “What do you need? Have you thought about what is needed of you?” I don’t remember the exact wording, but that was the point.

14:21 Speaker 1 Yes.

14:21 Speaker 3 And then he collapsed and fainted. In the same way, when you think in terms of shlichus—who placed you here, and whose strength you’re going with—it gives you the strength to face the difficulties and challenges.

14:33 Speaker 1 [unclear]

14:35 Speaker 3 And then you also merit to have your family and everyone else share in your shlichus, in your great shlichus. With Hashem’s help, may we succeed—it’s a great shlichus—and may we overcome the challenges before us. Each person, wherever they work in education, needs to remember that no one else in the world can do what you can do, because you’re the only one in that place. If you were given the shlichus to teach a particular class, or you’re a subject teacher who goes into several classes, or you’re a mashpia in a yeshiva, or a teacher of Gemara in a yeshiva—anyone who touches those tender young plants—it doesn’t matter what age they are or what educational institution it is. Everyone given this shlichus received it from Above, and they’re the only one who can do it. Always try to be the best you can be at what you have to give. How do people put it nowadays? Update your version. So, in Chassidic terms—everything, after all, comes from holiness—

15:44 Speaker 1 Yes.

15:45 Speaker 3 Nothing comes from—everything comes from holiness. So what does it mean to “update your version” in holiness? Hashem gives you [unclear] every single day, and each day you have a new shlichus. Hashem “renews in His goodness” and gives you new life every day, so each day you have a new shlichus. Update your version anew every day.

16:06 Speaker 1 Every single day.

16:06 Speaker 3 Now, where does the strength come from? The One who gives you back your soul in the morning, who restores souls, also gives you the strength to come back with renewed energy.

16:15 Speaker 1 Wow. That puts my mind at ease. The truth is, I think students ultimately know how to recognize what’s real. We tend to think so much about those moments of supposed confrontation—when, in the moment, you feel you’re handling it right or you’re not, and so on. I’ll admit, I’m an educator at heart, with my own concerns. But ultimately, a child knows how to recognize authenticity. He knows whether his teacher cares about him or not. Behind all the masks—that’s a hard point. It’s hard to digest, because what are you really saying here? You’re saying, “Listen, it’s hard.” Okay, you’ve just had a difficult experience, especially if you’re a new teacher, right? Especially a new teacher. I’m personally part of a new program for shluchim in education, run by the network. We meet once a week and study education together. So I get to talk with them about the difficulties they’re experiencing, each in the kind of educational work he does. And it’s hard to explain to someone going through that difficulty—again, especially in the first few years—“Listen, you may see a lot of noise and disorder. You may interpret the situation as somehow reflecting badly on you, as though you’re doing something wrong. But once the storm dies down, suddenly only the truth remains. And if the truth was there all along, it wins. In the end, it wins.” Because I really think we need to talk about what remains at the end. What happens when the storm dies down, when the lights go out and the truth remains. So I’d really love to hear from you, because I definitely got the inspiration for this within the walls of the Talmud Torah. So you’re the—

17:53 Speaker 1 You’re the person to explain this to me.

17:55 Speaker 3 First of all, the difficulty you’re talking about is a very real one. A teacher who enters a classroom at a young age—a young married man who has only recently married—usually doesn’t yet have children that age. And even if he does, that doesn’t mean he knows how to manage a classroom. You have to deal with so many challenges at once. First, establish proper discipline in the classroom. Second, be engaging, teach well, explain things, and deal with all kinds of discipline problems that crop up. Today, it’s enough to have one student a day whose difficulties come to the surface, and you’re occupied for a month. Dealing with parents is difficult too, especially in the first few years. I’ll never forget when I began serving as a mashpia in a yeshivah and, at the same time, was asked to teach a seventh-grade class at the cheder in Lod. It was a very, very heavy challenge. A very heavy challenge. Today, when I look back on it, I say that nothing else could have given me what I gained that year: the experience, the struggle, yes, that difficulty. As you said earlier, there’s the storm, and then there’s the stage after the storm dies down. The storm I was in that year was intense; it was heavy. But looking back today, I can point to—and even bring to mind—particular incidents from that year that I’ll never forget, that stay with me to this day. I learned so much from them; they gave me so much. So yes, at the beginning it really is hard. It’s challenging, it drains you. Sometimes you say, “What am I doing here?” And there are always moments when the thought comes up: maybe I should just quit. But at the same time, when you reflect on hashgachah pratis and you

20:07 Speaker 3 know Who sent you, you know that the existence of a challenge doesn’t mean you can’t handle it. It doesn’t mean that, even in those moments, you haven’t succeeded. The struggle itself is part of the whole thing.

20:20 Speaker 1 That too.

20:20 Speaker 3 The struggle is part of it, and ultimately, one day you’ll understand that what happened was what needed to happen.

20:28 Speaker 1 Still, we ask that it be with kindness and mercy.

20:31 Speaker 3 Absolutely.

20:31 Speaker 1 That’s a prayer for all the new teachers who started this year. We’re still praying for you that it will indeed be with kindness and mercy. But yes, if we’re talking about truth versus falsehood, then ultimately that storm is false. There was all that disorder, and then what are you left with? A soul you touched. Dr. Harari was with us on the first day of the program I mentioned, and he spoke about this idea of touching souls—that a teacher’s job is to reveal the strengths within a child. And that was another insight that suddenly struck me: this idea of revealing the strengths a child already has. Often it’s very easy to slip into a mode of instruction: I’m here to teach material, or I’m here—even in education itself—to instruct. In other words, I’m here to move him forward, to put him in the right place. But suddenly I understood that I’m here to reveal the strengths this child already has. And this is where I think the idea of being a living example really stands out. It gives us a very clear direction; there’s a lot to discuss about being that example. The example itself is the most authentic thing. You can talk and talk, but if they see it in you, if you are the example, then its effect on the child—how it works within him—is far more meaningful and genuine, because he sees authenticity. He says, “My teacher doesn’t just talk to me about negel vasser; my teacher washes negel vasser. My teacher doesn’t just talk to me about davening from the siddur; my teacher davens from the siddur.” That really gave us a great deal

22:12 Speaker 1 to think about. And this is the place to ask—again, coming from what you know firsthand—what is this idea of being a living example? How and where is a child watching us without our noticing?

22:25 Speaker 3 That’s one of the biggest questions, because ultimately, working in education isn’t about teaching material. That’s part of it, but it isn’t the point. The point of education is the person being educated. The Rebbe says that the most important thing about someone involved in education is that the educator be G-d-fearing. Why is that so crucial? Because ultimately, when you educate, you educate through your way of life and your outlook. Yes, you also do it through your teaching, but a student sees you as a role model. The question is: a model for what? You can study with him, explain things to him, and be the best lecturer, but if, when you daven together, the student sees something a little different—children aren’t fooled by tricks. They pick up on who you really are. And being a living example—

23:40 Speaker 1 Our children are our guarantors. They check; they know how to watch for whether we really are in the right place.

23:47 Speaker 3 Being a living example is the most, most significant thing. When I look back today and consider which people gave me the most when I was a child, I can say with certainty that the ones I remember most are precisely those who were living examples.

24:10 Speaker 1 Without a doubt.

24:12 Speaker 3 A living example means that when he needed to stop for a moment and help a particular student, he was there for me. He knew how to step outside his own place and listen to me. He knew how to see me, and that living example is what affected me most. It might be one moment with a particular teacher that you’ll never forget: he said something to you, but he looked you in the eye, as they say, saw you, and said the right word at the right time. You can carry that with you your whole life. So there’s no question that for a chossid—and certainly for an educator, certainly for a shliach in education who wants to truly live the avodah—it isn’t enough just to be a good teacher, to teach, explain, and be devoted. Your own inner service of Hashem has to be alive too. When do you set aside time for your own Torah study? What does your davening look like? Because the students see you exactly as you are. When you daven like a chossid, with proper, chassidic davening, and when you learn like a chossid, you influence them in the strongest possible way, because they imitate you. You’re a role model. I have no doubt that today, when I see the students and the tremendous impact, I can say with certainty that an educator who is a living example has an entirely different kind of influence on the students. I can’t say it’s beyond comparison, but it’s completely different. As I always tell parents, when a student comes to an educational institution, it isn’t that he has an educator and he has a parent. He has parents who educate him and an educator at school, because parents educate too. How do parents educate?

26:39 Speaker 1 One hand washes the other. I remember that phrase from last year. One hand washes the other.

26:43 Speaker 3 How do parents educate? Through everything. For example, a child spills water on the couch. What will the reaction be? That’s how you educate. What will the reaction be when the child comes home with this grade or that one? At what volume, with what intensity, will you react? That’s part of education, because a parent educates through their reactions and also through not reacting. Choosing not to respond to something right now educates too. Ultimately, education really is a collaboration among all the people who influence the child. But there’s a principle that the measure of good is greater. Even when a child sometimes doesn’t see the best example at home, one educator who reaches him is enough to change him for life.

27:39 Speaker 1 Wow.

27:40 Speaker 3 And since we’re talking about that educator who reaches a student, I want to say this in a broader sense too: within a school, one educator, one teacher with a particular strength, is enough to transform the entire institution.

27:58 Speaker 1 Wow.

27:58 Speaker 3 He can influence hundreds of students, and you don’t know how far it can go. When those students grow up and become shluchim themselves, they’ll influence hundreds more. There’s no end to it.

28:15 Speaker 1 We have principals listening to us too, I hope—and I’m sure of it. So I think this applies to those principals as well. Someone who looks at the institution also looks at the staff; he’s responsible for them too. So creating momentum and taking the Talmud Torah in a more positive direction can also happen, it seems to me, through one staff member who takes the lead on a particular point. I’m saying this because of a conversation we had earlier, when you mentioned an educator taking one particular point. I’d love for you to repeat it. People need to hear it. It’s another very powerful idea.

28:59 Speaker 3 There’s the well-known saying, “What was your father particularly careful about?” Everyone has areas in which they have greater strength. That strength isn’t there for no reason; it has to do with their soul and—

29:10 Speaker 1 Their gateway.

29:11 Speaker 3 It’s their gateway. Not everyone has the same personality as someone else. There are different personalities and different traits. So when a school has an educational staff, it presumably has a range of staff members with different styles, personalities, and traits. That’s a great strength, because they work together and cooperate, while each person contributes what makes him unique. For example, one teacher’s strength might be the mitzvah campaigns, and he can get the whole Talmud Torah excited about them. Another teacher’s strength might be Ahavas Yisroel, and he can influence the entire Talmud Torah in that area. Someone else’s strength might be Torah study, and he’ll get everyone excited about that. Another person’s strength might be tzedakah, and everyone will remember him going around with the tzedakah box. In the end, one person is enough to make that his way of reaching students to their very core, so that they receive something they’ll remember and live with for the rest of their lives. They’ll live with it. I think we see this tangibly. A campaign at our Talmud Torah has just ended called “Tuning In to Niggunim.” One of the educators, Rabbi Segev Kaplan, took charge of it. You can really see a tremendous impact in the students’ homes.

31:04 Speaker 1 Wow.

31:04 Speaker 3 They learn a chassidic niggun.

31:06 Speaker 1 They come home with the niggun.

31:07 Speaker 3 They bring the niggun home.

31:08 Speaker 1 The niggun plays all the way home.

31:10 Speaker 3 Not just all the way home—inside the home too, and then at the Shabbos table. You can’t know what effect that will have. I have to mention here a wonderful letter the Rebbe wrote to a teacher who felt lonely in her life.

31:28 Speaker 1 In connection with her work, or personally?

31:30 Speaker 3 Personally. I don’t know whether it was because she had finished working and retired, or whether she felt lonely for some other reason. But the wording the Rebbe uses in that letter—just contemplating it is astonishing. The Rebbe writes that she should reflect on something. I’ll find the letter.

31:52 Speaker 1 And more generally, the letters about education are amazing. First of all, there are so many of them—so many letters in which the Rebbe addresses education. But there are also the expressions and the language. The Rebbe calls education “the beautiful part.” The Rebbe speaks about how the primary way to save the Jewish people in a time of distress is through the education of Jewish boys and girls.

32:15 Speaker 3 Yes.

32:16 Speaker 1 And much more. The Rebbe speaks about how, for someone who can engage in educational work right away, that takes precedence over other work that might—there are all sorts of expressions the Rebbe uses that show how precious education is. And again, the abundance is both in quantity and in quality. It really is amazing, the sheer number of letters.

32:35 Speaker 3 So this letter the Rebbe wrote is printed in Shaarei Chinuch and also in Likkutei Sichos, volume 22. She wrote to the Rebbe about her loneliness, and the Rebbe writes to her as follows: “It is most surprising, for Divine Providence granted her the merit of placing her in the field of educating Jewish children, the children of Hashem. Every good action she does for them, and every influence she has on them, creates an eternal closeness between them—spiritual, holy, good, and beneficial down here as well. In all these matters, distance is no barrier, and no separation can occur; that is why the bond is eternal. In other words, when she is sitting in her room feeling lonely, and at that very moment one of her students, or someone she has influenced—

33:28 Speaker 1 Wow.

33:28 Speaker 3 reviews a lesson he heard from her and blesses Hashem as she taught him, and so on, this adds vitality and light to the bond between them. It is impossible for the Divine soul within her not to feel that addition—

33:40 Speaker 1 Amazing.

33:41 Speaker 3 because this matter touches her very essence.” At the end, the Rebbe writes: “I know that not everyone feels what has been said, since the eye does not see it, the ear does not hear it, and the heart cannot touch it. But that in no way diminishes the truth of its reality.” I think those words are very powerful.

34:00 Speaker 1 Absolutely. What the Rebbe is saying here is that even when a student is no longer—meaning, they’re no longer in touch, not in contact—

34:06 Speaker 3 They might not have been in contact for decades.

34:07 Speaker 1 The student has gone on with his life.

34:09 Speaker 3 But what you imparted to him—

34:11 Speaker 1 Wow.

34:11 Speaker 3 in one moment of his life stays with him now: what you taught him, how you guided him, the example he saw in you.

34:21 Speaker 1 The Rebbe isn’t talking about—

34:22 Speaker 3 The bracha you taught him to say—he says it.

34:24 Speaker 1 We’re not talking about that aspect, not the psychological aspect. That’s not what the Rebbe is talking about here, right? Not about how what you did as a teacher shows up later in someone’s life, and so, good for you for what you did. The Rebbe says it’s an ongoing action.

34:38 Speaker 3 It’s eternal.

34:39 Speaker 1 It’s eternal, and I think the idea of an ongoing action takes on a new light here. An ongoing action means that every new action a student takes is powered by that original influence—like someone throwing a stone, except it doesn’t end. The analogy is of someone throwing a stone: the force carries the stone, but here that force is constant, like the force involved in the creation of the world. Well, we’ve thrown around a lot of concepts from Chassidus here, but yes: with an ongoing action, every action the student takes as a result of the influence they received from the teacher adds more life to it. It’s truly amazing. Wow.

35:09 Speaker 3 There’s another striking expression in another letter of the Rebbe. The Rebbe writes: “Every mitzvah has a limit, even putting on tefillin. But the influence of education has no limit: it reaches that child, his family, and their children’s children, to the end of all generations.”

35:27 Speaker 1 Wow.

35:28 Speaker 3 Education has no limit. How much influence do you have through education? There’s no limit to it.

35:33 Speaker 1 Wow. Rabbi Roitman, honestly, I can’t believe how the time has gone. We’ve really enjoyed this. I’ve enjoyed it, and I’m sure everyone listening has enjoyed this conversation too. This is the first episode, and it’s exciting. It’s exciting. We also brought something for a l’chaim, so I think the best way to end is—we started with a l’chaim even before the program. We don’t want anyone saying, “Shlomo, what about at the end?” You need to say l’chaim beforehand too. So this conversation happened after a l’chaim, but I definitely think the best ending for a Chassidic farbrengen about education—and for all the farbrengens to come—is to say l’chaim together. Again, we’ve enjoyed it. This was tremendous.

36:14 Speaker 3 L’chaim, l’chaim.

36:15 Speaker 1 L’chaim, l’chaim.

36:15 Speaker 3 And I want to close by saying that everyone who has had the privilege of entering shlichus in education has been fortunate from Above and fortunate down here too. At the end of the day, the Rebbe does not leave anyone unrewarded. And to all those young educators now studying in the network’s program: first of all, it’s a wonderful thing. Second, make use of the tools you’re receiving. Ultimately, they give you the ability to keep succeeding in education, more and more. And... let’s end with l’chaim, l’chaim.

36:57 Speaker 1 L’chaim, l’chaim.

36:57 Speaker 3 When we started working together, you were an educator teaching seventh grade at [unclear]. And that is eternal, as we were saying earlier. The picture you brought out is eternal—the students, the influence on them. May Hakadosh Boruch Hu help that the merit of all of us being involved in education, and in shlichus in general... Ultimately, it’s all education. Every shliach, wherever he is, is also involved in educating souls. It’s just harder there, because those souls have already reached—

37:26 Speaker 1 Absolutely.

37:27 Speaker 3 So everyone, everyone is working in the field of education, bringing all our fellow Jews closer, wherever they may be.

37:34 Speaker 1 Absolutely.

37:35 Speaker 3 To set the seven heavens ablaze [unclear] and prepare the world for the coming of Moshiach, for the Rebbe’s revelation, very soon.

37:41 Speaker 1 Amen, amen. L’chaim, l’chaim, Rabbi Roitman. We learned a great deal. It was a pleasure; we enjoyed it. Thank you very much.

37:49 Speaker 3 Thank you so much for the wonderful idea, and may you continue to go from strength to strength.

37:54 Speaker 1 Amen. L’chaim and blessings.