Toil For Torah
Avimi was Rav Chisda’s rebbe. Or was it the other way around? As presented in the Gemara, it is difficult to determine who was the rebbe and who was the talmid.
Avimi was a very demanding rebbe. His prized talmid, Rav Chisda, forgot some parts of Torah he should have known. Rav Chisda later commented that he received figurative blows from his rebbe on account of his forgetfulness.
Sometime later, the tables were turned. The rebbe, Avimi, forgot the masechta of Menachos. He went to his very own talmid, Rav Chisda, to teach it to him.
The rebbe now became the talmid. Still, the Gemara wonders why Avimi had to travel to Rav Chisda, his student, to learn from him. Avimi was Rav Chisda’s rebbe and could have summoned his own talmid to appear before him. The Gemara says simply that Avimi thought he would be more successful this way. Rav Chaim Shmulevitz, zt’l, explained that this way was more humbling. Avimi, who had castigated his student for forgetting his learning, was forced to admit that he himself forgot a masechta. That was embarrassing enough, but then to act like a student before his own student was even more humbling. The more humble a person is, the more he becomes an appropriate receptacle for Torah. Avimi chose the more humiliating route because he wanted to seize the opportunity to force himself to act and feel humble.