covered in the dust of the rabbi

And if the rabbi believed that you were the best of the best, that you were able to become a rabbi, He would say, “Lech Acharai – Come, follow me.” And you would leave your family. You would leave your family compound. You would leave your village. You would leave the local synagogue where you had been studying. You would leave everything and you would follow that rabbi. You would become a talmudeen, a disciple, a student. You would give your life to being exactly like that rabbi. And you would follow him everywhere.

One of the Mishnah rabbis would tell disciples or students, “May you be covered in the dust of your rabbi.” Because you would have a rabbi come to the village and behind him would be these tamudeen following right behind him. And the roads were dusty. So these disciples who closely followed their rabbis would get covered with the dust of their rabbi.

You wanted to be so much like your rabbi that when your rabbi would pick up a piece of straw and put it in his mouth then you would. And you would follow this rabbi everywhere. Because the rabbi believes that you can be like him.

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