Rethink Your 9th Grade

By COLlive staff

What sort of enlightened individuals penned the following various thoughts (each phrase having been written by a different person)?

“These studies help you understand the world’s workings…Contrary to Einstein’s theory…” Perhaps it was a group of scientists? What about these?

“Hashem, the complete opposite of nothingness, is the only Being that exists… [Originally, I thought that] after a certain age, the way you are, is how you are going to be for life and there is no way to change it. I know now that [one’s personality] is not set in stone.” Sounds like philosophers.

Here’s more: “Chassidus deals with non-physical realities that cannot be demonstrated… Now I realize how much more there is and how simple my perspective was…” Who votes for theologians?

Finally: “The healing of the soul is like the healing of the body. The crucial first step… The inner meaning of Sh’ma Yisroel is…” Definitely, a band of mystics!

Actually, these ideas and many more were written by the 9th grade students of the Rohr Bais Chaya Academy at the Kodsi Campus in Coral Springs, Florida.

Besides final exams, the girls were required to write end-of-year essays on how “Chassidus Changed My Perspective.”

Their essays were astounding, each one revealing a level of self-awareness beyond the ability of many adults.

“I recognize my faults… A part of me always knew, almost subconsciously that I was just grasping at the straws of my foolish excuses, avoiding having to admit failure on my part… I can no longer make excuses. Now whenever I fail to do something, the blatant truth pops out at me… This has definitely changed my way of thinking.”

Their compositions were more than merely introspective.

They acknowledged not only personal failings; they addressed the need for solutions and even spoke about the specific areas they were going to improve.

“It is important to understand which of the kochos are more dominant in your personality so that you can develop them to serve Hashem. Tiferes D’klipah takes charm and uses it to manipulate others. The art of manipulation is to control, to one’s own advantage, someone else’s opinion to suit mine…Sometimes I use this quality for kedusha (holiness), but other times… May this technique solve the awful Koach of mine, and may I turn it over…I think that on some levels of Chessed, I don’t go far enough; for example…. At the moment I am working on improving 3 of my 10 Kochos.”

This level of internalization is what every teacher dreams about, and was the ultimate goal in the design of the Chassidus curriculum at Rohr Bais Chaya. The unique “Building Blocks of Chassidus” course takes the major concepts and terminologies upon which Toras HaChassidus is based, and explains them systematically and clearly.

More importantly, at each step along the way, the students are shown and given the opportunity to see how every idea is relevant to their own lives. And that is how they have come to realize and write of the power we mortals have being created in Hashem’s image, and that Chassidus helps us discover the five levels of our soul, why the world was created, to take more responsibility for our own actions rather than trying to figure out a way to blame it on someone else, and to respect other people more through knowing what great Kochos they have and why they act the way they do.

To learn more about this personally inspiring Chassidus curriculum, watch a quick video by Chassidus teacher Rabbi Yossie Denburg: