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About Me

Rabbi Chaim Coffman
Rabbi Coffman has helped people from all across the spectrum to prepare themselves properly for Orthodox Conversion to Judaism. His students admire his vast knowledge and appreciate his warm, personal attention and endearing sense of humor.
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Followers

Welcome to Rabbi Chaim Coffman's Blog!

I would like to thank you for visiting my blog, Beyond Orthodox Conversion to Judaism.

The conversion process can be a lengthy and daunting one to say the least and I want you to know that I am here to help you through it.

I have been teaching newcomers to Judaism for over a decade and over the last few years I have seen that conversion candidates really lack the support and knowledge they need to navigate the conversion process and successfully integrate into the Orthodox Jewish community.

I created my mentorship program in order to help make this whole experience as smooth and as painless as possible! (Can't do much about the growing pains, though ;)

Feel free to get to know me a little through the posts on my blog and visit the mentorship and syllabus page if you are interested in possible joining us.

I sincerely wish you all the best in your search for truth and spiritual growth.

Looking forward to meeting you,
Chaim Coffman

My Rebbe, Rav Moshe Sternbuch

In case you were wondering why I have all of these articles written by Rav Moshe Sternbuch, he is my Rebbe, and one of the gedolei hador (greatest Rabbis of our generation).

Rav Sternbuch fully endorses me and supports my mentorship program.

He is the address for all of my halachic or hashkafic (practical and philosophical) questions that I or my students may have.

The articles are based on his weekly talks on the Torah portion that the Rav gives in Jerusalem in his kollel. As a member of the kollel I get first dibbs on the photocopies and I type them up for my blog so you can all benefit from the Rav's erudition and insight.
Monday, May 13, 2013

The 48 ways to Acquire Torah: Making his Teacher Wiser

The next of the 48 ways to Acquire Torah is making his teacher wiser. The Talmud tells us that a teacher becomes wiser because of the questions that his students ask. The reason is that as great and wise as a person may be, the questions that his students ask him inevitably make his knowledge of that subject much greater.

This questions his students ask sharpen the teacher and make them develop what they are teaching to an even greater level. We may think that this is more advantageous to the students because in reality they are ones that would seem to gain the most from it. This is true because they are learning more in depth and are subjected to different ideas that expands their knowledge as well.

At the same time, though this helps the teacher even more for the reasons previously mentioned. There are stories of many great Torah scholars, before they would give their classes, they would analyze and reanalyze the material that they were teaching.

They would scrutinize every point and look at the topic from every angle to make sure they knew it properly. This in turn develops them and makes the knowledge that they have even greater because of all the effort they put into the preparation of the class at hand.

When a person has to teach something to someone else, they themselves have to have the utmost clarity before they do so. This leads to a thorough internalization of the material which raises them to a different level than they were before.

This is because they want to make sure that the material is clear and they cover their bases of what possibly their students could ask. By anticipating that, they increase their own knowledge while at the same time, imparting important lessons for their students.

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