Teacher's Ten

This edition’s Teacher’s Ten have been answered by Rabbi Eliezer Zobin, Head of the Immanuel College Beit Midrash and Sixth Form Jewish  Studies.
 
1. What is the best thing that has happened to you this week?
It is my oldest daughter's Bat Mitzva this Shabbat. As I write these words, I remember one of the happiest days in my life: twelve years ago, when my daughter was born.
    
2. If Hollywood were to make a film of your life, who would play you?
Seth Rogen. I think that Jewish men with beards and a great sense of humour are far too rare, and need all the support they can get. I am sure that he would jump at the chance to take his career to a new level and play me!
 
3. What do you like best about working at Immanuel College? 
The students. I find (most of) them (most of the time,) to be mature, polite, considerate, intelligent and thoughtful. I love the students’ questioning, I love the way they listen to each others’ points of view with respect, and I love watching (most of them, most of the time) grow up into real "menchen"!
 
4. What has been your biggest achievement in life?
My family. Without bias, I can say that they are the most adorable, kind and sweet children I have ever met. On rare occasions they are also hard work, but then my wife deals with them.

 
5. Where would you like to visit before you die?
A safari or wildlife reserve in Africa. Nature, particularly when wild and untouched, inspires, moves and relaxes me like nothing else. 
 
6. Who inspires you?
My teacher – who was also one of the rabbis who ordained me. Rabbi Shapiro, who passed away a few years ago, was the embodiment of Jewish wisdom and ethics; he was a role model for generations of students, with his warmth, understanding and insight. I miss him every day.
 
7. Which famous person, alive or dead, would you like to have dinner with?
No doubt - Maimonides. He had a dazzling mind and an enormous impact in Jewish and world philosophy, and many of his ideas were way ahead of his time. I feel that I have succeeded with a class, when I am able to share with students a fraction of the beauty of his ideas.
 
8. If you ruled the world, what would you do first?
Probably resign! Of course a good legal system and political framework is crucial, but I don't really think that legislation or governmental power can really change people or sort out most of our problems. I believe that real change is internal – through “furnishing” one’s inner world with more tools – and I think (hope?) that education, argument and the sharing of ideas is the best way to do this.
 
9. What is your favourite dessert?
I am a big dessert person, so this is an important question for me, and one I have spent a lot of time thinking about. After much research, I have decided that my wife’s pecan pie definitely wins, though her coconut rum chocolate mousse comes a close second.
 
10. What is your favourite work of art?
Vivaldi's Four Seasons. I enjoy the vivid pictorialism and the journey it takes us on. I have a particular love of this piece, since this was the first piece I ever heard performed live, when my grandmother took me to a concert at a very young age!