The Sweet Fruits of Patience — BT Eruvin 54b — #62

R. Preida had a student for whom he would have to repeat everything four hundred times before he learned it. One day [R. Preida] was needed [elsewhere] for a matter concerning a mitzvah. He taught [the student four hundred times, as usual] but he did not learn it. [R. Preida] said to him, “Why is today different?” [The student] said to him, “From the moment they told master that there is a matter concerning a mitzvah [that would call you away], my attention was diverted. Every moment, I said [to myself], ‘Now master will get up [and leave]; now the master will get up [and leave].’” [R. Preida] said to him, “Pay attention and I will teach you.” He taught him again four hundred times. A heavenly voice called forth and asked, “[R. Preida,] do you prefer that four hundred years be added to your lifespan, or that you and [all] your generation merit olam ha-ba (the world-to-come)?” [R. Preida] said, “That I and my generation merit olam ha-ba.” The Holy Blessed One said, “Give him both.”

INTRODUCTION

“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.” These words are often attributed (though possibly erroneously) to the 18th century philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau is most famous for The Social Contract (1762), in which he charges nation states with corruption, repression of citizens’ physical freedoms, and failure to further their civil freedom—the last being the reason  d’être of civil society. Rousseau sounded a clarion call for a Social Contract that all citizens enter and to pledge to work for their mutual protection and preservation. Governmental legitimacy must rest on the consent of the governed. Rousseau’s treatise led to vast political reforms, and even social revolutions in Europe. He also authored a novel entitled Emile, or On Education, concerning the education of the individual to function in a corrupt society. Our Talmudic story, from tractate Eruvin, speaks to the fundamental necessities for delivering effective education: a caring and committed relationship between the teacher and the student and a patient teacher. Relationship and patience. Here we learn that patience is not bitter at all—it is as sweet as its fruit.

COMMENTARY

Teaching bright, motivated, and engaged students is a joy. It can also be joyous, but more challenging, to teach students who find learning difficult, struggle with attention and focus, often feel insecure, and experience anxiety. R. Preida had just such a student. In R. Preida’s time, learning entailed, first and foremost, memorization. Texts were handwritten and consequently costly and rare. A student would repeat a teaching—for example, a mishnah (which comes from the root “repeat”)—in order to commit it to memory. R. Preida’s student is a severely challenged learner. Under the best of conditions, R. Preida must repeat material four hundred times before his student can recite it by himself. This speaks volumes about how patient and committed R. Preida is to his student.

One day, when the usual four hundred run-throughs do not succeed, R. Preida does not berate the student for being distracted or for failing to try hard enough. He asks what interfered with his learning. In other words: “Tell me where the problem is so we can solve it together.” The student explains that from the moment someone came to tell R. Preida that he would be called away in the middle of the lesson to attend to a mitzvah matter, the student had been overcome with anxiety about the imminent interruption and had thereafter been unable to focus. R. Preida responds with compassion, understanding and reassurance: That’s okay; I’m going to teach you again. And R. Preida started from the beginning: No harm, no foul. 

So great is this act of compassionate patience and kindness in the advance of Torah learning that Heaven offers R. Preida a choice of rewards. From a rabbinic perspective, olam ha-ba (the world-to-come), is the highest reward one can attain, but if a person who knows he merits olam ha-ba (indeed that he has already earned it) he would likely choose an additional four centuries of life. After all, olam ha-ba is forever, but life is not. Yet it doesn’t surprise the reader that R. Preida, who is so generous to his student, choses the reward that includes everyone else, not just himself. Again, Heaven is so pleased with him that he is  granted both rewards.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER AND DISCUSS

1. Who was the most patient teacher you ever had? How did you benefit from this teacher’s patience?
2. Rousseau’s philosophy of education focused on the connection between the education of individuals and the overall quality of society. In Emile, he asserts that the goal of education is to cultivate our natural human tendency to be good. Education, therefore, entails character development to nurture morality and a healthy sense of self-worth. Do you see these ideas reflected in the story of R. Preida and his student? Do you think Rousseau would approve of R. Preida’s teaching style?  Why or why not?
3. Impatience is far more noticeable than patience. Those who honk in traffic jams, complain loudly while waiting in a doctor’s office or on line at the supermarket, or yell at their children to hurry up are hard to miss. Think of an occasion when you were impatient with others. How did it effect them? How did it effect you? Patient people wait calmly and quietly, knowing that life is full of delays and inconveniences. Recall a time when you were patient. How did it effect you? Others?