Rebbe Chiya: The Ultimate Teacher
Rebbe Chiya was a teacher of Torah. (Bava Metzia 85b) The Gemara relates how Rebbe Chiya personally oversaw the entire harbotzas Torah process from the very beginning. He would plant seeds. Not seeds of Torah! He would plant flax seeds. Did he need to raise funds with the sale of flax? No! He would harvest the flax and fabricate nets with the material. Perhaps he needed nets to round up unruly children? No. Rebbe Chiya needed the nets to hunt deer. Perhaps he needed food to feed the children he was teaching? No. The Gemara said he would distribute the meat to orphans. The deer were needed for their hides. He would prepare parchment from the deer hides. Rebbe Chiya would then write the five books of the Torah on them. He would go to a city and teach five children the five books, one book per child. He would teach six other children the six orders of the Mishna. He would then instruct the eleven children, “Until I return and come here, each child should teach the other children the portion of Torah that I taught him.” This way every child functioned as both a student and a teacher, maximizing their Torah studies.