The Job Everyone Thinks They Know How to Do

By Meir Wagner – Toronto, Canada

People who are in Chinuch say that being an educator is a very difficult task. Balei-Batim often wonder why. They too work hard and face obstacles.

In fact, sometimes it seems – from a superficial view – that educators have a stable salary and a stable calendar, versus some business owners who can have great financial challenges and sometimes need to put in long and hard days and months without a break!

One possible perspective on the unique challenge Mechanchim face is that people tell them how to perform their shlichus.

My friend who is a plumber doesn’t have others telling him how to do his job. In fact, if someone – even if it is his customer – tells him what to do, he will apply his best knowledge to the task and do it the way he deems proper. Even if the customer claims that he himself is an expert plumber, the one doing the work may take the advice under consideration, but ultimately he will do the job the way he understands to be best.

Even my friends who are Chabad House Rabbis will not allow their congregants to dictate how they run their Chabad House. In fact, of all the Chabad Houses I am familiar with, there is none that haven’t – subtly or not so subtly – had a congregant leave because the congregant was being too loud or opinionated.

The good Mechanech, not only will not tell someone to leave for being opinionated, but will need to take abuse and face derision for doing what they are most qualified to do. And this is what got me thinking about Korach.

Korach was a great Talmid Chochom. He had a shlichus of his own: As a Kehasi, he was tasked with a unique and important shlichus in the Mishkan. In fact, one can imagine that being independently wealthy as he was, he likely built a stately Chabad House to perform his shlichus in relative comfort and luxury.

But he wasn’t satisfied with that.

He “knew best” about how the chinuch of Klal Yisroel should be performed. He made it his place to instruct the Mechanech – Moshe Rabbeinu – how he understood Moshe should be going about Moshe’s shlichus. Furthermore, because of his awareness of his own greatness and successes, he did it in a manner of publicity and with derision.

And he still wasn’t satisfied.

He strove to pull as many people into his “cause” as he could. He dragged hundreds into the fray with him through slander and defamation. He was very convincing, until Hashem Himself intervened and showed otherwise.

This frustration, aggravation, and provocation is unique to the genre of Mechanchim. We often use the phrase to describe our state as a “Dor yosom.” If so, the educators of the generation can be likened to almanos (r”l).

We know that the Torah tells us that the cry of an almono will never go unanswered.

We need to guard ourselves very carefully when interacting with Mechanchim and when advocating for our children – which is indeed our sacred duty as parents – not to do it in a manner that causes anguish to the Mechanchim. The Torah already cautioned us: Do not be like Korach.