Learning From Great Teachers

I've always been a little dubious about 'long distance learning' over the internet. The following explains why, courtesy of Rabbi David Wolpe:

Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary Solomon Schechter famously
explained to the incoming student and future Chancellor Louis Finkelstein that
the purpose of coming to the seminary was not to learn a fact or law; he could
learn those elsewhere. The purpose was to study with great men. Speaking of his
years as a student my father told me far less about what he learned than about
the people with whom he learned. They were not perfect, but they were
passionate, learned, marvelously eccentric and they brought the tradition to
life.

To the extent that the Internet and the proliferation of long distance
learning deprive us of being in the presence of charismatic, kind, scholarly
people, it will be a tremendous loss. When a Hasid said that he traveled miles
just to see how his master tied his shoes, he was expressing this beautiful
idea. What we learn from a great teacher cannot be put into a book, because it
is in a look, an inflection, a quirk of personality or a tossed off comment. The
greatest human lessons are found in the power of presence.