Category: Differentiated Instruction (Fall 2006)
The writings of the remarkable Piaseczno Rebbe, z”l, reveal profound insights about how children learn, as Levi Cooper explains.
The culturally rich pre-Holocaust Polish Jewish milieu has bequeathed a legendary figure whose stature as an educator and as an inspirational leader in troubled times is recognized far beyond his immediate circle. The life of the hasidic master, Rabbi Kalonymus Kalmish Shapira of Piaseczno (1889-1943), began with much promise, though it ended in tragic circumstances in the storm of Warsaw Jewry’s destruction. A scion of hasidic masters, his illustrious ancestry could not have foretold the unique treasures he left behind or his pioneering educational legacy.[1]
Young Kalonymus Kalmish’s parents considered his education a top priority, priming him for future leadership. He was just three years old when his father died, and the mantle of raising the child passed to other family members.
Following the death of his father-in-law in 1909, Rabbi Kalonymus Kalmish moved to the town of Piaseczno, just outside Warsaw. Within a few short years, the Piaseczno – as he quickly became known – was attracting a significant following as a hasidic mentor and guide. When the chief rabbi of the town passed away in 1913, the Piaseczno was invited to fill his position.
After World War I, the Piaseczno moved his residence to nearby Warsaw. The Jewish community of Piaseczno refused to accept his permanent absence, petitioning their leader to remain. Eventually a compromise was reached: the Piaseczno would visit the town for nine weeks from the end of the summer through the High Holy Days and on other significant occasions, and he would have a say in all communal matters.
In 1923, the Piaseczno founded a Yeshiva in Warsaw (Daas Moshe) which remained operational until World War II. Much of the Piaseczno’s energies were devoted to sustaining this institution where he took a personal interest in each student, supervising courses and administering tests. The academy quickly grew and the first ordinands completed their course of education in 1927.
With the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, the Piaseczno hurriedly returned to Warsaw. In the bombings of the initial German offensive that wrought destruction on the Polish capital, the Piaseczno lost his son, daughter-in-law and sister-in-law. As the situation in Warsaw worsened, the Piaseczno put aside his personal grief to guide his congregation, encouraging his disciples to flee while he remained with those unable to escape.
Presented with opportunities to leave the Warsaw Ghetto, the Piaseczno firmly refused, insisting that he would not forsake his charges, seeking constantly to strengthen their spirits.[2] Though this courageous attitude would eventually cost him his life, the Piaseczno’s contribution during his last years is inestimable. He recorded his thoughts and discourses from the Warsaw Ghetto years and hid the manuscript, entitled Hidushei Torah MiShnot Ha-za’am, 5700, 5701, 5702, [lit, Torah Insights from the Years of Rage, 1940-1942] together with some of his other writings.
Following the Holocaust, the manuscript of his inspirational talks in the ghetto were miraculously discovered and published in Jerusalem in 1960 under the title Esh Kodesh.[3] Based on classic hasidic teachings, the talks paint a portrait of a hasidic master trying valiantly to uphold the spirit of his kin, providing direction and guidance to those in need.
Besides Esh Kodesh, other works of the Piaseczno were also published posthumously. The Piaseczno’s pre-war hasidic discourses, articles and letters appeared under the title Derekh Hamelekh [4] [lit., The Ways of the King] and a few ethical handbooks of the Piaseczno have also recently become available. Bnei Mahshavah Tovah contains directives for an almost-secret society of serious disciples dedicated to improving their service of the Almighty and assisting one another in this pursuit.[5] This short manual was not widely disseminated during the lifetime of the Piaseczno, but made available only to choice students. Other works by the Piaseczno include: Hakhsharat HaAvreikhim [lit, Training of the Young Scholars], Mevo HaShearim [lit., Entrance to the Gates] and Tzav veZiruz [lit., A Command and an Urging].[6] According to a letter the Piaseczno wrote to his brother living in Palestine, dated January 3, 1943, the publication of Hakhsharat HaAvreikhim had begun before the war but was interrupted. He implored his brother to publish the manuscripts he left behind.
The only work to be published and disseminated during the lifetime of the Piaseczno, however, was Hovot HaTalmidim [lit., The Obligations of the Students], the cornerstone of the Piaseczno’s innovative educational philosophy. [7] This work was popularly circulated and reportedly even reached the Jewish community of Morocco.[8] Writing in a time of upheaval when the attractions of the modern world were enticing many a young mind from the Tradition, the Piaseczno penned this work for students, encouraging and imploring them to take steps to ensure the success of their own education.
As an introduction to the work, the author offers “a discussion with teachers and parents”, beginning with the verse, “Educate the youth according to his path; even when he grows old, he will not depart from it,”[9] a stirring call for individualizing instruction. [10] The Piaseczno follows this tradition, telling us that education is a pursuit that goes beyond the tools of instruction and habituation. True education is expressed in the very Hebrew word for this venture: hinukh. The Piaseczno elucidates the meaning of the term:
The term hinukh refers to realizing the inherent capability – to be found in potential within a human being – for this task or for that task, or the capability of a house or an object to fulfill this or that function. Hinukh is a word unto itself, and is used in reference to bringing a certain capability that exists in a human being or in an object from potential to actuality. If we do not draw it out, it will remain hidden. And we must draw it out and educate this person, so that he will become this skilled craftsman, and [similarly] the house or the object will fulfill its function: each room for the use for which it was designed, and every object for the task for which it was designed.
And when this term – hinukh – is used for the education of children, then the meaning is to raise and develop the child’s nature and capabilities, present [at first] only in a small amount or only in potential, or hidden – and to reveal it.
What is the potential that we strive for in the hinukh pursuit? The Piaseczno continues:
And since the Jewish person, even during childhood, has the spirit of God, the breath of the Lord, hidden and stored within, we must raise and educate the person with the aim of drawing it out, revealing it, making it flower, so that the person becomes a faithful Jew who serves God. The person’s connection to Tradition will thus be borne of free will.
As an educator, the Piaseczno was well aware that there are no guarantees in this field. Nevertheless, the Piaseczno suggests that the biblical verse indicates that hinukh is the surest route to success:
The one who commands and even the one who habituates cannot be sure that the child or the student who is being commanded or habituated will do as per the instructions when he grows up and is independent. Therefore King Solomon instructed: ‘Educate the youth, etc’. – you should educate the youth, penetrate the inner self of the youth, and reveal the holiness of Israel that resides hidden within, and only then, even when the youth grows old, he will not depart from it.
Turning now to the means for achieving the lofty goal of realising the potential of each student, the Piaseczno focuses on the middle of the verse – according to his path, contrasting the true educator with one who merely commands the students to follow a set course:
The one who only commands or only habituates need not pay attention to the child or the student – to know their nature and their intellect, etc. All that is needed is merely to command: ‘Do this and this’, and this suffices for the instructor. The instructor also does not feel obligated to deal with each student individually; the instructor can command many students of one age group with one command: ‘Do this and this’, for it is not the student or the child who is the focus, but the instructor alone; he commands and that is his entire function.
But the educator who wishes to reveal the spirit of the student that is hidden and stored within, to help it grow and to ignite it so that it will burn with a heavenly fire, upwards towards the holy, so that the student’s entirety – even the student’s physical faculties – will increase in holiness and long for the Torah of God, such an educator must adapt himself to the student who is in his charge, and the educator must penetrate into the midst of the student’s limited faculties and small-mindedness, until the educator reaches the concealed, nay hidden, soul-spark of the student, in order to draw it out, to make it blossom, to make it grow.
Here the Piaseczno hints at the knee-jerk reticence educators may feel towards differentiated instruction: ‘Let the student rise to the challenge! Why must I alter methods that have worked so well for so many just for a problematic student?’ Aware that the “according to his path” stipulation requires humble educators willing to adapt themselves for the sake of the student, the Piaseczno cites a precedent for this course:
If Moses our teacher, all the prophets and all the virtuous people adapted themselves from their lofty righteous levels to our plane, even for our physical needs, are we not sinning if we neglect them and do not adapt ourselves to each student, to educate according to their path while they are still at the formative stage, when it will be determined whether they will be faithful servants of God or, Heaven forfend, sinners?!
Therefore, concludes the Piaseczno:
We must adapt ourselves towards the student and speak his language, practically turning ourselves into children, in order to speak to him according to the way he thinks and the level he is on.
The Piaseczno paints a portrait of ideal educators who transcend their own program and are able to focus on the potential of individual students and on methods of realizing their hidden treasures.
Furthermore, the Piaseczno calls us to acknowledge our portion of the blame for students who feel no loyalty to our heritage. Our mistake, asserts the Piaseczno, stems from ignoring the individual needs of each student. Thus he laments:
Why did we neglect them without investigating, without paying attention to the ills of their souls while they were still young, and while we had the opportunity to know how and with what to heal them?
The Piaseczno takes this further: there is no student who is inherently evil. A so-called ‘bad student’ is akin to an unripe orchard that needs to be caringly nurtured into juicy, succulent fruit. Thus, deduces the Piaseczno, the responsibility for raising the next generation in the path of the tradition lies squarely with the educator. Using poetic language reminiscent of the High Holy Days service, the Piaseczno urges the educator to take this responsibility to heart:
We cannot say with equanimity, “Our hands did not spill this blood,” (Deuteronomy 21:7) of the souls of Israel that are descending to the pit of destruction. What will we say before the One who dwells on high and how will we justify ourselves before He who resides in the heavens, when He comes to count His spiritual army on earth, and with regard to the young generation, the sheep of His flock, who were entrusted to our hands, as He relied on our sense of responsibility? “God shall roar from on high and from his holy habitation give His voice” (Jeremiah 25:30): My children, where are they? My beloved children, the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, where are they?
For the Piaseczno this was not merely educational theory. He would spend time with his young students, patiently listening to them and guiding them. It is said that the Piaseczno would spend more time and place greater emphasis on the youth than on his older loyal disciples, thus boldly departing from the hasidic norm. [11] Moreover, he insisted that the goal of education is not just to maximize the intellectual potential of each student; rather the educator strives to access the very soul of the student.
Rabbi Levi Cooper is a rabbi in Tzur Hadassah and teaches Jewish Studies at Machon Pardes and other university level programs in Jerusalem.
[1] For the biographic information I have relied upon the account of Aharon Sorasky appended to אש קודש (note 3) and to the 1992 edition of חובת התלמידים (note 7). A shortened version of this biography appeared at the beginning of a volume containing three other writings of the Piaseczno (note 6). Sorasky’s biography is based on based on testimony from survivors’ recollections and on family traditions. See also: דוד זילברשלג (עורך), ספר זכרון לרבי קלונימוס שפירא מפיאסצנה, ירושלים, תשנ'ד; Polen (note 3), pp.1-14; Starrett (note 3), Introduction, pp. xi-xxxii; Cohen-Kiener (note 5), Introduction, pp. xiii-xviii; Worch (note 3), Introduction, pp. xv-xxix.
[2] The journalist Leib Bein, who left Poland in 1940, reported that he personally tried to convince the Piaseczno to leave Warsaw with him, but to no avail; see: לייב ביין, מפנקסו של עיתונאי-חסיד, ירושלים, תשכ'ז, עמ' 27-35.
[3] This volume has also been reprinted several times since the first edition appeared in Jerusalem, 1960. A translation of select passages appears in: Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, To Heal the Soul – The Spiritual Journal of a Chasidic Rebbe, Yehoshua Starrett (translator), New Jersey: Jason Aronson Inc, 1995; and the full text in translation is published as: Kalonymos Kalmish Shapira, Sacred Fire – Torah from the Years of Fury, 1939-1942, J. Hershy Worch (translator), Deborah Miller (editor), New Jersey: Jason Aronson Inc, 2000. Nehemia Polen, The Holy Fire – The Teachings of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto, New Jersey: Jason Aronson Inc, 1994, 1999, 2004 has written an excellent work on this. See also: ר' ליכטנשטיין, עדות – חורבן יהדות אירופה, מהדורה שניה, ירושלים, תש'ס, עמ' 24-31; אסתר פרבשטין, בסתר רעם – הלכה, הגות ומנהיגות בימי השואה, ירושלים, תשס'ב, פרק יב.
[4] Published in Jerusalem, 1995.
[5] Published in 1989. An English translation of this handbook is available: Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, Conscious community – A Guide to Inner Work, Andrea Cohen-Kiener (translator), New Jersey: Jason Aronson Inc, 1996. Uncharacteristcally, the Piaseczno never intended this work for mass consumption. On the cover page he prohibited copying the material without his express permission, and within the work expresses his displeasure at the thought of public consumption by those who are not committed to the cause (see p. 9 and p. 58). Cohen-Kiener explains her license to reproduce this handbook in English by citing the fact that the Piaseczno buried the manuscript in the final days of the Warsaw ghetto with a letter imploring the finder to ensure the dissemination of his teachings.
[6] These three works recently appeared in one volume in Jerusalem, 2001. Hakhsharat HaAvreikhim is the sequel to Hovat HaTalmidim (see below). The third part of this trilogy and the crowning jewel – Hovot HaAvreikhim – was not completed, nor did it reach us in its incomplete state. Mevo HaShearim is the lengthy introduction to this third section. Tzav veZiruz is a compilation of concise admonitions, exhortations and behests. All three works were discovered in the rubble of the Warsaw Ghetto after the war.
[7] First published Warsaw, 1932. Reprinted and republished numerous times, most recently in a new pointed edition Tel Aviv, 1992. This work has been made available in English: Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, A Student’s Obligation – Advice from the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto, translator: Micha Odenheimer, New Jersey: Jason Aronson Inc, 1991, 1995 (herein: “Odenheimer”). Interestingly, the Piaseczno never officially served as the “Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto”, and penned this work well before the establishment of the Warsaw Ghetto. All Hebrew citations herein from Hovot Hatalmidim are taken from the Tel Aviv, 1992 edition pp. 8-19. As per his milieu, the Piaseczno addressed his comments to the male student. In my translations I have attempted to avoid gender specific language, except where this would make the translation cumbersome, in which case I followed the original for clarity and authenticity.
[8] Odenheimer, p. xxix.
[9] Proverbs 22:6.
[10] This biblical verse is often cited as a keystone in Jewish pedagogy . See for example: Pseudo Ibn Ezra, ad loc; Meiri, ad loc; Rabbenu Yonah, ad loc; Rashi, Kiddushin 39a; et al.
[11] Odenheimer, p. xx. Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach would vividly tell a story entitled “The Holy Hunchback” about a street cleaner in Tel Aviv who had been a disciple of the Piaseczno before the war. This elderly man related that indeed the Piaseczno was wont to spend more time with younger students rather than older disciples. A number of audio recordings of this story exist and the story has also been transcribed together with other stories told by Carlebach.