Avos 1:3

בס״ד

אבות א:ג

Antigonus of Sokho accepted the gift of Torah from Shimon the Tzaddik. He used to teach: Don’t act like servants who attend their Master expecting to accept some reward. Rather, act like servants who attend their master without expecting to accept some reward. And then the majesty of Heaven will be with you always!

אַנְטִיגְנוֹס אִישׁ סוֹכוֹ קִבֵּל מִשִּׁמְעוֹן הַצַּדִּיק. הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, אַל תִּהְיוּ כַעֲבָדִים הַמְשַׁמְּשִׁין אֶת הָרַב עַל מְנָת לְקַבֵּל פְּרָס, אֶלָּא הֱווּ כַעֲבָדִים הַמְשַׁמְּשִׁין אֶת הָרַב שֶׁלֹּא עַל מְנָת לְקַבֵּל פְּרָס, וִיהִי מוֹרָא שָׁמַיִם עֲלֵיכֶם:

        If you look through the entire Tanakh you will not find the name “Antigonus”.  The reason is that it’s not a Jewish name at all.  But it was a very common name in the Greek culture in which the Jews of Eretz Yisroel lived from the time of Shimon the Tzaddik and onward.  Shortly after Shimon’s death there had been a High Priest, named Yehoshua, who took the Greek name, Jason.  And even a descendant of Yehudah HaMakkabi—a Hasmonean King and High  Priest who was given a good Jewish name, Yonatan—called himself “Alexander Jannaeus!”  His wife, Queen Shlomtzion (she has a street named after her today in Yerushalayim—Rehov Shlomtzion HaMalka), called herself Alexandra Salome!  Talk about assimilation!  And it even goes in reverse.  Jews started taking the name Alexander in honor of the Greek general who met Shimon the Tzaddik.  Eventually, the name became assimilated in Judaism.  If you know anyone with the Yiddish name, Zender or Sender, that’s short for Alexander.

        This mishnah proves to us, however, that names aren’t everything.  Maybe Antigonus of Sokho called himself “Avi” when he went up to the Torah, who knows?  But as a transmitter of Moshe Rabbenu’s Torah from Sinai, we remember him by his treyf name, Antigonus!  Every Jew, no matter how much he or she might superficially adopt “foreign” ways, is fully qualified to embody some aspect of Torah—if their inner life is shaped by the devoted service of HaShem.

        And this is just the point of Antigonus of Sokho’s teaching about serving HaShem without concern for material rewards.  Make your daily life a way of serving HaShem’s purposes no matter what the personal consequences.  The “reward” of living a life of service to HaShem is not measurable in the world’s scale of values.  The reward is in the ability to feel that HaShem’s Presence is never far off so that, wherever you are and whatever you do, the majesty and awe of Heaven inspires your deeds.

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Avos 1:2

בס״ד

אבות א:ב

Shimon the Tzaddik was one of the last members of the Great Community. He used to teach: The world exists because of three things - - Because of the Torah, Because of service to HaShem And because of generous sharing.

שִׁמְעוֹן הַצַּדִּיק הָיָה מִשְּׁיָרֵי כְנֶסֶת הַגְּדוֹלָה. הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, עַל שְׁלשָׁה דְבָרִים הָעוֹלָם עוֹמֵד, עַל הַתּוֹרָה וְעַל הָעֲבוֹדָה  וְעַל גְּמִילוּת חֲסָדִים:

        Shimon the Tzaddik was a High Priest in the Temple in Yerushalayim.  He lived in a very difficult time, when the Greek general, Alexander the Great, was conquering the entire Middle East.  Nation after nation was falling to Greek power; many were also deeply impressed by Greek wisdom and science and tried to imitate it.

        Shimon is called one of the last members of the Great Community because he lived at a time when the unity of Israel was beginning to shatter, for many Jews saw the Greeks as the wave of the future.  He saw that the Torah given to Moshe was in danger of being forgotten.  The gemara (Bavli Yoma 69b) tells a story about the greatness of Shimon the Tzaddik.  When Alexander was conquering the Land of Israel, Shimon the Tzaddik put on his High Priestly robes and marched out of Yerushalayim to greet the King.  When Alexander saw Shimon, he fell to the ground and kissed it.  His soldiers asked Alexander: “Why do you kiss the ground in front of this Jew?”  Alexander said: “In his face I can see the glory of HaShem!”  

        Shimon’s holiness was so much a part of him, that even a pagan King saw HaShem through him.  This raises a good question.  If Alexander could see the holiness of Shimon the Tzaddik, why is it that Shimon was unable to keep all Israel loyal to HaShem and His Torah?   One of the mysteries of Jewish history is that Klal Yisriel often ignores its most cherished possessions even though other nations see the beauty of the Torah.  Shimon the Tzaddik’s teaching takes account of this situation.

        He taught that the world was created (literally, “stands”, ״עומד״) so that three realities could come into being.

        The first reality is the Torah itself.  The world exists to provide a setting in which people may come to know HaShem through His gift of Torah.

        Second:  the world came into being so that those who received Torah could offer thanks to the One who gave it.  Shimon the Tzaddik, who was a High Priest, was thinking about the sacrifices in the Temple when he taught this.    The Temple was HaShem’s house and His Presence could be met in the Holy of Holies on each Yom Kippur.  Shimon the Tzaddik had been in that Holy of Holies.  Within the Holy of Holies, on the very spot which had contained the Ark of the Covenant, was the Foundation Stone.  The Foundation Stone was the spot from which the Universe came into being.  Shimon the Tzaddik knew of the power found there; he had been at the center of Existence.  And he knew that the world existed only in order to provide a dwelling place for HaShem’s Presence, a dwelling place created and sheltered by Israel’s loving service.

        But Shimon the Tzaddik also knew that the Temple would one day be destroyed by the Romans; he knew that Israel would not always be able to shelter the power of HaShem in its midst.  He knew that even without the Temple, Israel’s loving service of HaShem in the form of prayer and mitzvahs would be just as effective in bringing Israel to the very spot through which the Universe came into existence.  That spot, in our day, is in the human heart, in the empty space we create, through prayer, for the continuing Presence of HaShem.

        The third point of creating the world was so that human beings could imitate within it the nature of HaShem.  This is the trait of generous sharing.  That is, one whole point of creation is to bring the qualities of HaShem into the human world of people taking care of each other and anticipating each other’s needs.  Shimon the Tzaddik believed that if Israel studied Torah and performed the divine service in the form of sacrifice and prayer, that this would automatically lead to generous sharing.  Why?  Because Torah and mitzvahs would lead people to see the face of HaShem in each other, just as the pagan Alexander had seen it in Shimon himself.

        In other words: generous sharing is possible when we realize that everyone is a bearer of HaShem’s Image.  It is so easy to give to HaShem, but often so hard to give to strangers or people we’re angry with.  But to be worthy of the gift of the world, we need to learn how to see HaShem’s face wherever we see a human face.

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Avos 1:1

בס״ד

אבות א:א

Moshe accepted the gift of Torah from Sinai  and gave it to Yehoshua. And Yehoshua gave it to the Ancient Ones. And the Ancient  Ones gave it to the Prophets. And the Prophets gave it to the Leaders of the Great Community. And they taught three lessons: Be careful in rendering judgement, And nurture many disciples, And build a border for the Torah.

משֶׁה קִבֵּל תּוֹרָה מִסִּינַי, וּמְסָרָהּ לִיהוֹשֻׁעַ, וִיהוֹשֻׁעַ לִזְקֵנִים, וּזְקֵנִים לִנְבִיאִים, וּנְבִיאִים מְסָרוּהָ לְאַנְשֵׁי כְנֶסֶת הַגְּדוֹלָה. הֵם אָמְרוּ שְׁלשָׁה דְבָרִים, הֱווּ מְתוּנִים בַּדִּין, והַעֲמִידוּ תַלְמִידִים הַרְבֵּה, וַעֲשׂוּ סְיָג לַתּוֹרָה

            This mishnah tells of the first bonds in a chain of Torah teachings that link Moshe Rabbenu to the Sages of the Mishnah. But its most important lesson isn’t about history.  

         No, the most important lesson of this mishnah is that Torah is an utterly unique gift.  HaShem gave Moshe the most precious thing He had.  As Rabbi Akiva will say later in Avos, the Torah is “the precious instrument for creating the World.”  What HaShem gave to Moshe was not something valuable in this world, but the thing that makes the world valuable--the Torah upon which the reality of the world rests.

        If Hashem gave the Torah to Moshe, why doesn’t the mishnah say “HaShem gave Moshe the Torah on Sinai?”  Why does it use the language of “acceptance” rather than “giving”?  The author of the Midrash Shmuel, R. Shmuel of Uceda, explains that this is the mishnah’s way of telling us that Moshe mastered only a small amount of what HaShem revealed.  

        No human, not even Moshe, can contain the entire wisdom of the Torah.  Moshe faithfully passed on what he could retain, but the rest remained with HaShem. Only in the redemptive time of Mashiakh will the entire Torah become known.  In the meantime, we accept the teachings of our Rabbis as Torah, knowing all the while that they are human beings trying to grasp something beyond all of us.  We can never know how much of the Torah as we know it is directly from Heaven, and how much is the creative contribution of great and pious Sages who faithfully transmitted what they learned from their own teachers.  

         This means that we must be open to every honest attempt by Jews to live in the light of the Torah they receive from their teachers--even as we must be loyal to the ways we have been taught.  It is only for HaShem, in the fullness of His own time, to decide whose way in Torah is the one He had in  mind when he first called Moshe Rabbenu up to the mountain and sanctified him in the cloud of Revelation.

        Notice, finally, what Moshe did with the Torah.  He didn’t just “take” it.  The mishnah says he “accepted” or “received” it.  That means he didn’t put it in a drawer or on a shelf.  The Hebrew word   qibel (קבל) really means to take or accept--it also means to embrace or cherish.  When HaShem came to Moshe with the precious gift of Torah, he clutched it to himself and tears of gratitude came to his eyes.  He found in the Torah more than information, stories, and rules.  When he accepted the Torah of HaShem he discovered how precious he was to HaShem, that HaShem would give such a precious instrument to a frail human being.

        And Moshe didn’t keep it to himself.  

        Lots of times, if someone gives us a beautiful present, we are tempted to enjoy it all for ourselves.  Moshe did something different.  The Torah was so precious to him, and he saw such beauty in it, that he couldn’t keep it all for himself.  This is why the mishnah tells us that Moshe “gave it to Yehoshua.”  The reason we call Moshe “our Rabbi”, “Moshe Rabbenu”, is this: he couldn’t receive the Torah without sharing it.  When he found out how precious he was to HaShem, he also realized that everyone was precious and that everyone needed to learn just how precious they are in HaShem’s eyes.  

        So Moshe turned first to those closest to him, to his own people, Israel, and his own disciple, Yehoshua, and began the work of giving Torah to others.  And, as our mishnah says, each generation found the Torah so precious that each gave it to the next generation, preserving it, and explaining it, and celebrating it.  So knowledge and love of Torah spread throughout Klal Yisroel. Everyone began to embrace the Torah as Moshe had first done.  

        

        That’s why Mishnah Avos describes the transmission of Torah as a series of memorable mottos, like a string of wisdom-pearls on a necklace, bead after bead continuing the necklace and beautifying it.  Yehoshua taught Torah to the Ancient Ones.  As Rashi explains, this refers to those who would enter the Land of Israel after Moshe’s death in the Wilderness.  The Ancient Ones taught Torah to the Prophets--King David, King Solomon, Eliyahu, Elisha, Amos, Hoshea, Nakhum, and all the other great teachers whose books are included in the TaNaKH.  They continued to teach, even when few in Israel would listen to their words.  Yeshiyahu taught us to obey Torah or we would lose our land.  Later, Yirmiyahu lived to see the Exile.  He taught us that, in return for teshuvah, HaShem would create for us new, softer, more receptive hearts.  Hearts that would open once again to receiving the Torah as Moshe had done.

        And Yirmiyahu was right.  The last of the Prophets, Zekharyah, Haggai, and Malakhi, had returned from Exile and helped rebuild the Temple and love of Torah in the land.  And they gave the gift of Torah to the teacher, Ezra, who led all Israel in the paths of the Torah.  And in Ezra’s days, the Jewish people were so unified that they became a Great Community, great in Torah and unified in love of each other.

        And the leaders of the Great Community taught the three basic lessons found in the first mishnah of Avos.

        First:  The unity of Israel is the foundation of our ability to cherish and pass on Torah.  Therefore, our leaders must be very careful to establish justice in the community so that everyone can feel personally responsible for preserving unity.  That is why we must be “very careful in rendering judgement”--for when leaders judge quickly or thoughtlessly they create resentment in the community.  And a resentful community that harbors grudges against its leaders cannot hear Torah or love HaShem.

        Second:  For Torah to shape us, it must be taught in each generation.  And teaching is not simply “telling” people what to do or what the Torah says.  Teaching Torah to a student is like feeding a child; Torah is the spiritual food that nourishes the student and shapes the student’s growth and self-understanding.  So teachers of Torah are not like instructors explaining a computer manual; they are like parents who nurture children.  In fact, the Hebrew word for parents (horim) (הורים) and teachers (morim) (מורים) both come from the word “instruct” (yoreh) (יורה)  that is also the basis of the word Torah.  Each of us begins as a child, learning Torah from our parents and teachers.  But each of us must become in turn a teacher, nurturing others in the ways of HaShem’s precious gift to Moshe.

        Third:  We must build a “border” for the Torah.  What does this mean?  It means at least to extend the Torah the way that a border of a tablecloth extends the area that the cloth protects.  In this way we try to make the Torah cover all of our actions by extending its borders over all we do.  To make a “border” also means to protect the Torah, the way the border of one country draws a line between its land and the land of another people.  Part of learning Torah is to know the border between Torah-knowledge and other forms of wisdom and knowledge.  We can learn from all sorts of human knowledge, and all of this knowledge can make our knowledge of Torah richer.  But Torah is our first and most important source of knowledge.  We use other types of knowledge to make a “border” for the Torah, but we always remember that the Torah is the primary thing, not the border.

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Beginnings

בס״ד

About this Blog

     These commentaries were originally written by the author with the intention of making them an "Ethical Will" for his children and my children. This was in 1998.  I have benefitted from reading them from time to time over the years, and I have always been amazed by his unique insights into this monument of Torah wisdom.  I have often toyed with the idea of making these commentaries more available, until I came up with the idea of serializing them into a blog.  With my brother's hesitant permission, I now begin.

     In a larger sense, I am greatly indebted to the author, my big brother, Marty Jaffee, for enriching my life these many years.  I dedicate this blog to him.

With gratitude to the Creator,
Nisan Baruch ben Avraham

About Pirkei Avos

     The Mishnah is the basic legal code of the Oral Torah.  Sixty two of its tractates touch upon all possible halakhic questions in the conduct of Jewish life.  The sixty third, Mishnah Avos, is not about halakhah.  It is about values, middos, ways of being with other people, and the ways of relating to HaShem. It begins with a long string of teachings stemming from Moshe Rabbenu on Mt. Sinai down to the sons and disciples of Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, the compiler of the Mishnah, who died around 220 CE.  Its five chapters contain dozens and dozens of penetrating sayings about the moral life and the shaping of values.

     Even among unlearned Jews, Mishnah Avos has been studied and restudied.  It is the only chapter of the Mishnah to have entered virtually every Jewish prayerbook.  In the siddur it is usually called Pirkei Avos, and you can probably find it after the minchah prayers for Shabbos.  The versions of Avos found in the siddur differ in small ways from those found in the printed editions of the Mishnah. And both differ in yet other ways from the versions of the Mishnah found in handwritten copies of the Mishnah that survive from the Middle Ages.  Sometimes in my commentary I discuss some of these differences.

     In the siddur's versions of Pirkei Avos, and in the Mishnah's versions of Mishnah Avos, you will usually find six chapters.  The last of these, called Perek Kinyan Torah ("The Chapter of Acquiring the Torah") is understood to be an addition to the Mishnah from late Talmudic times.  It was added to the Mishnah in the early middle ages when the custom arose to recite a perek of Avos during each Shabbos between Pesach and Shavuos.  Now there are six perakim, one for each Shabbos.  Perek Kinyan Torah is beautiful.  But I have neither translated it here nor commented upon it.  I am satisfied to have worked on the five original chapters of the Mishnah.  That was hard enough !

How My Commentary Works

     I have translated the five original chapters of Mishnah Avos in a way which tries to preserve the original meaning of the Hebrew as understood by the great Jewish commentators Rambam, Rashi, and many others.  But I've also tried to make the translation sound like the Mishnah was spoken by real people whom we might ourselves know.  So the translation is very colloquial and, at times, even informal.  You'll see what I mean if you compare my translation to others you might find.  When I was preparing the translation, I felt like I was making friends with the Sages for the first time, learning how they spoke and expressed themselves.

     The translation also tries to help you read the Mishnah by breaking each section into smaller paragraphs so you can see how they fit together.  This is often lots easier than reading line after line of unbroken type.  

     After every numbered paragraph of the Mishnah, I have offered some comments.  These are my attempt to get at the heart of each Sages's lesson.  In order to prepare my commentary, I studied every Mishnah commentary I could find.  I've already mentioned those of Rambam and Rashi.  I also used all the meforshim found in the main 19th century editions of the Mishnah, some Hasidic sources, and the great collection of Mishnah commentaries found in the Midrash Shmuel.  I have by no means studied every possible commentary. But I did my best to find out what the great medieval and early modern Rabbis thought about Mishnah Avos.  I have learned so much from them.  Every time I opened their works, I was stunned by their insights and critical intelligence. Sometimes I quote them directly in my comments. Sometimes I merely allude to them. Sometimes I go my own way in reaching for the Mishnah's meaning. But always I depend upon and learn from them.  I hope you will find my own commentary as enjoyable to read as it was for me to write. 

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