Said he [Rabbi Zeira] to him [Rav Assi], But I once asked you and you did not answer me: perhaps in the rush your tradition hurried back to you? Yes, he replied; in the rush my tradition hurried back to me.
-Shabbat 130b
We don't learn in single blocks of information, unconnected from anything else, but rather we add to our webs of knowledge, accumulating connections between things we already understand and that which we are trying to assimilate.
When pressured for an answer, Rav Assi couldn't remember his teaching, but in the flow of the entire argument, from the context of the entire debate, his tradition hurried back to him, and he could give an answer.
To learn something well, it must resonate with other facts within our web of knowledge.
To teach well, we must help our students find those points of connection for themselves, so they too can experience the rush in which learning hurries back to them.
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