Rabbi Eli as an educator, I feel him constantly blowing in the back of my neck and telling me to 'grow up'.
In the classroom I teach today, pictures of important rabbis, the great men of Israel, hang on the wall, including the picture of Rabbi Eli and Dina. It's teaching my students about their relationship that stood out very much. When we would come on Saturdays to classes at their house, Rabbi Eli would wait until Dina sat down in the kitchen with the cup of tea by the window connecting the kitchen to the living room.
During the lesson we would occasionally see Rabbi Eli looking for Dina's eyes in his eyes to get her consent to speak what he was saying or to help her remind him of something. Sometimes we felt we were interfering with their relationship, they were talking to each other and we were sitting statically in class.
I liked with Rabbi Eli that many times he returned the question to us as "say you." He gave us, not only the study of the message, but also the educational statement behind things.
In our first lesson at the Shavei Hebron Yeshiva, in Shiur A, Rabbi Eli asked everyone why he chose to come to the yeshiva in Hebron, everyone answered what he answered, there was one who said "I came here because this is where my parents most opposed me to come." In summing up that meeting, Rabbi Eli told us that everyone thinks he is coming for all sorts of reasons, but there is divine providence that is the one that brought you to this place.
Ten years later, I studied with Rabbi Eli during a sabbatical he took to study at the Har Hamor Yeshiva in Jerusalem, where I heard from Rabbi Eli again this explanation and this time about the relationship, you think you marry the girl for all sorts of reasons, but the truth is there is some divine providence Which is the one that pushes you to do this thing and it gives a different spirit to the whole move.
In many things today, I feel like I think what Rabbi Eli would have done here educationally in one thing or another to be able to do the same, see the student and succeed in lifting him from his place.
Elitzur Ariel
