Rabbi Chatinover had spent seven years as a congregational rabbi at Temple Beth Hillel in South Windsor before he became a teacher at SSDS, a small Jewish day school in West Hartford for children age three through middle school. There, as long as I have known him, he has been addressed solely by his title, Rabbi. This is entirely appropriate: “Rabbi” comes from “rav”, the Hebrew word for “teacher”. Some may think of rabbis strictly as religious leaders, “Jewish priests”, but they are first and foremost teachers. The study of the Tanach (Old Testament) and the many related commentaries and writings is central to Judaism. This religion would be nothing without its teachers and my Rabbi was a once-in-a-lifetime teacher.
For all three years of middle school, he taught my Bible and Rabbinics classes. In Bible class, we studied the actual texts of the Torah (Five Books of Moses) in their original Biblical Hebrew. Rabbinics dealt with everything else: Nevi’im (Prophets), Ke’tuvim (Writings), and the Talmud, the codified body of Jewish law, as well as other religious writings.
I am hardly an expert on any of the works I just mentioned, and frankly I remember very little of the material I studied with Rabbi. Yet when I start to doze off in a class out of sheer boredom and disinterest, I wistfully recall Rabbi and the kind of class he taught. Discussions were not only encouraged, but they actually existed and were enjoyable. There was never a sense that there was one right answer. “At best, a teacher teaches a child how to learn and models for a child what an adult should be like,” Rabbi said during the interview. In my middle school religion classes, I learned to think analytically in a way that will help me so long as I continue to study and consider words, images and ideas. If I ever become a teacher, and if I am ever a good teacher, it will be because of the example of Rabbi and other teachers like him who really care about their students.Rabbi had an impact on me in many ways. I remember that my whole fourth grade class celebrated the end of the school year by tossing all our old notebooks and workbooks and handouts into the trashcan. Rabbi made a trip from the middle school wing to collect these reviled papers for recycling. This grown man collecting the detritus of my school year for the sake of the environment made me ashamed about my own lack of concern. For the rest of my life I will strongly prefer recycling bins over garbage cans.I think that the most important thing I have taken away from Rabbi’s classes is the concept of Tikun Olam (Repair the World). This is the Hebrew term for the idea that while it is no one’s duty to fix all of the world’s problems, it is everyone’s duty to do something to make things a little better. “Most things I do are simple things,” said Rabbi. “If enough people do something, then real positive change over time occurs. I am proof that Tikun Olam is a valuable philosophy, if only because my love of learning dates to middle school and because I will always look for the recycling bin.ME
I will be 17 on October 22, '02. I have lived most of my life in Farmington, Connecticut, though I was born in Santa Barbara, California and I lived in Jerusalem for two years as a toddler before I ever came to New England.
I attended elementary and middle school at the Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Hartford (SSDS), which has left me with a strong background in Judaica, though I am not a practicing Jew, but an agnostic. Ethnically, I consider myself half-Jewish and all European.
I am presently a student at Miss Porter’s School (MPS) and I will spend my junior year in Viterbo, Italy through the School Year Abroad (SYA) program. I am a staff writer for the school newspaper, Salmagundy, and I am a member of Spectrum, the MPS Gay-Straight Alliance.
I am a bookworm and have been ever since I learned to read in first grade. My desire to be a writer dates back to that distant era as well. I love history and languages, though science and math classes are merely bearable.
I never seem to have much free time, especially during the school year, but I always make time to read and to go online. I like to play chess with my brother, and I enjoy beating him at PS2. I also like watching movies, listening to music and, of course, hanging out with friends.
ME AND ALYC
These are my two reasons for taking part in Act Like You Care: Marlo Marrero and photography. Marlo taught my Studio Art 1 class in the spring semester of my sophomore year of high school and she sold the idea of ALYC so skillfully that I couldn’t say no. All kinds of art fascinate me and learning the ins and outs of this particular form _ free of charge _ seemed like a good enough way to spend a month of my summer vacation.
Social activism, having my voice heard, celebrating heroes and mentors: these were not my motives, though they sounded pleasant enough through the haze of end-of-the-year papers and exams. Needless to say, these goals have grown in importance to me, especially since interviewing my former teacher, Rabbi Steven Chatinover.
Rabbi Chatoniover
Other photos by crow_lea.
Boyz
Feet
