Moses - The Original Director of Jewish Education
This letter is written by our Director of Education, Rachel Osias.
The Kavana team and I are proud to announce that our 2022-2023 Youth and Family Education programmatic year has come to a successful end. Sound the silver trumpets! On this drizzly Friday morning I woke up to a heart full of tenderness and a cascade of sweet memories on standby. Today’s letter is about sharing these with you, and celebrating our Kavana community.
As I started exploring this week’s parasha I became immediately overwhelmed with the amount of details (#classicBookofNumbers). The Menorah in the tabernacle, the consecration of the Levites, the sacrificial offering details for Passover, silver trumpets, upset and complaining Israelites, sibling strife over marriage, clouds and fire… I mean my goodness! Considering this is my first d’var Torah I really picked a doozy to try on for size. But as luck or fate would have it, this week's portion, Beha’alotcha, translates to “when you step up”. Thanks Judaism for calling me out. Or perhaps calling me in?
I’ll admit that I read this parasha more than once, but each time I found myself centering the same moment over and over again. A group of men who became tamei (contaminated) by a dead body were not permitted to bring the korban pesach (Passover offering) on the right day - the 14th of Nissan. They approach Moses and ask why they should not be permitted? It feels unjust, and unfair. Moses models, almost effortlessly, the value of not knowing. He responds that they should wait while he seeks God’s instruction concerning them. There are at least three times where Moses is asked a question for which he does not know the answer. Here - right before us - Moses, who experienced the highest level of prophecy, who engaged with God panim-el-panim (face to face), reveals a lack of knowledge. His humanness. Surely, if Moses - the first person to really have access to teaching the Torah - could admit not knowing…couldn’t we all? Here is a remarkable paradigm of a Jewish educator. Moses in fact was the first “Director of Jewish Education”. Going so far as to even hire a “teaching staff” of 70 tribal elders later in the parasha to aid in the teaching of the Torah to the people of Israel. And what do we see? A humbleness and vulnerability in admitting what he does not yet know.
Arriving on the scene at Kavana I brought my extensive background (and passion) for education and teaching, but a lack of knowledge and experience as a “Jewish Educator”. My relationship with our staff, youth, families and Kavana community began with excitement. As Kavana’s Director of Education I was opening the door to new opportunities, growth and learning, while also being vulnerable in admitting moments of “not knowing”. Over this past year I have had the best teachers I could have asked for in our teaching staff, rabbis, colleagues and most prominently our youth. Side-by-side with our Kavana youth and families we explored the big J of Judaism. I shared in their wonder as they connected stories - people - places and themselves into the tapestry of the Jewish people. Our Kavana-learners are the Jewish heartbeat of ‘asking why’ - of being curious and of never wanting to “know it all” because then there is no more to learn.
Kavana is a place of learning, vulnerability, and connectedness. This past year was a showcase of “big wins” - in particular, being back together post pandemic isolation. I saw toddlers learning to share toys to middle school and high school students sharing ethical dilemmas and deep conversations. I loved seeing our Moadon Yeladim students’ addiction to learning as they climbed higher and higher on their mountains of knowledge. One of our 8 year old Moadon Darom students bounced over to me sharing a thank-you card and loudly proclaimed that she wrote shalom in it, in Hebrew! This society of ours has cultivated young people into thinking that adults know everything, and because of that they are hungry to learn more. But the truth is, we are all life long learners, a mixture like Moses of knowledge and not-knowing. So I ask you: When do you share the deep knowledge you hold? When are you vulnerable and admit you do not know? In what areas do you crave and seek learning with others? In our delightfully eclectic Kavana community we ALL have the opportunity to be students and teachers of one another. Let’s continue to share what we know, savor the feeling of not yet knowing, and to pursue knowing more together.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rachel Osias (Director of Education)
