Rav said to Rav Shmuel bar Shilat, “Until the age of six, do not accept a student, but from that age on, accept the student and feed him like an ox.”
Our daf teaches the origins and development of a revolutionary system of establishing schools for Torah study, beginning with young children. Originally, there were limited educational opportunities for Jewish children, depending on the family resources that were available to each child. However, the Sage Yehoshua ben Gamla, who was a kohen gadol during the time of the Second Beit Hamikdash, instituted the first “Torah Public School System.” He began a movement to enable all Jewish children from any location and any financial means to receive a quality Torah education.
Many halachot regarding this system and the way it should be managed, including the relationship between the teacher and the student, are taught on our daf, and are codified in Shulchan Aruch Yoreh Deah 245. One example is the above statement of Rav to Rav Shmuel bar Shilat, “to feed the student like an ox”. Rashi explains this to mean for the teacher to heartily insist that the student “eat and drink the nourishment of the Torah,” similar to how a person puts a yoke upon his ox. Rashi in another place (Ketuvot 50a) explains this phrase slightly differently: “Feed him so much Torah that he will be ‘stuffed with it,’ in the same way you feed an ox a very large amount of food.”
The Maharsha, however, suggests that this intends to convey a different, more gentle approach to educating our youth. He writes: “The teacher should learn with the student tenderly and with great sensitivity, just as one feeds an ox with his hands without any force or coercion. The example of an ox is meant to depict an example where there is total lack of force applied, as opposed to feeding a camel or a calf, in which case the animal is forcefully fed without a sense of compassion (perhaps think of veal nowadays).” Torah should be taught and transmitted to the next generation in a loving manner, which will not only teach, but also demonstrate to the youth, the peaceful and pleasant ways of the Torah.
Bava Batra 21a
