By Betzy Lynch in La Jolla, California
Every day at our JCC, I have the gift of witnessing incredible educators share knowledge, curiosity, interpretation, and genuine connection. Many of these educators have been formally trained and are intentionally tasked with creating optimal learning environments and delivering curriculum with skill and care. This includes our early childhood educators at the Nierman Preschool, swim instructors and coaches, group exercise instructors, theater professionals, Spanish and Hebrew teachers, and lecturers in both formal and informal Jewish education.
At the same time, we are also surrounded by many other teachers whose roles may be less formally defined, yet who guide moments of learning and connection every single day. These individuals remind us that education is not limited to titles, it lives in relationships, presence, and shared experience.
This idea is deeply rooted in Jewish tradition. Pirkei Avot (“Ethics of the Sages”) is a tractate of the Mishnah that focuses not on laws, but on ethical teachings, character development, and wisdom for living. It is a collection of short teachings from early Jewish sages about how to lead a meaningful, responsible, and thoughtful life, especially in relationship to others and to learning.
In Pirkei Avot 1:6, we are taught: “make for yourself a teacher, acquire for yourself a friend, and judge every person favorably.”
I have had the privilege of acquiring many teachers throughout my life, formal educators in secular studies, mentors and coaches in my professional journey, colleagues and friends, my parents and my children, and rabbis who have guided me at every stage of my Jewish path.
Over the past three years, I have had the opportunity to study with a brilliant rabbi who has deepened and enriched my spiritual engagement with Judaism. Rabbi Matthew Ponak has been my learning partner in exploring prayer, cultivating intention in daily life, and engaging with Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah, including a journey through all 613 mitzvot through both traditional and mystical lenses.
I am thrilled that Rabbi Ponak will be in San Diego for a three-day Scholar-in-Residence series, April 23–25, guiding us through Jewish mindfulness and mysticism. I hope you will join me for this meaningful experience.
While Rabbi Ponak’s residency offers a powerful, professionally led opportunity for learning, this week presents an equally meaningful invitation for all of us to embrace the wisdom of Pirkei Avot 1:6 by making ourselves teachers in our own homes.
On Wednesday evening, we begin the holiday of Pesach (Passover). Across San Diego and around the world, Jewish families will gather for the Passover seder, a ritual that has been practiced for nearly 2,000 years. The seder, as we know it today, was shaped by the rabbis following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, as a way to fulfill the mitzvah of remembering the Exodus, when G-d brought the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt to freedom.
The seder is more than a ritual meal; it is an immersive educational experience that reflects one of Judaism’s most powerful pedagogical principles: na’aseh v’nishma, we will do, and we will understand.
At its core, this idea teaches that action precedes understanding. Reading can spark imagination, but lived experience engages something deeper, it awakens emotion, memory, and a sense of belonging within a larger story. For generations, Jews have been called to step into practice and ritual even before full comprehension is possible. This requires a certain trust, a willingness to engage before everything makes sense.
The rabbis understood that some truths can only be grasped through experience. When individuals take an active role in their own learning, it opens a space where we can move fluidly between being students and teachers. This kind of learning shapes identity and invites us to go beneath the surface, toward deeper spiritual awareness.
The seder, in particular, has the capacity to teach far beyond the words of the Haggadah. It models an ideal learning environment, one where curiosity is encouraged, questions are welcomed, mistakes are part of the process, and people feel safe to admit what they do not yet know, all within a community that responds with generosity and understanding.
Ultimately, the deepest learning happens when we live something together first and only then begin to make meaning through conversation, relationship, and reflection.
As Shabbat HaGadol fades and we enter the season of Pesach, I invite all of us to consider a shift in how we approach learning within our community. Can we move away from: I think, therefore I understand and move toward: we do, we struggle, we question, we forgive, we love… and then we begin to understand?
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Betzy Lynch is the CEO of the Lawrence Family JCC.