Avos 2:11

בס׳ד

אבות ב:יא

Rabbi Yehoshua says: A wicked eye, The rebellious desire, And hatred of others, Drive a person from the world.

רַבִּי יְהוֹשֻׁעַ אוֹמֵר, עַיִן הָרָע, וְיֵצֶר הָרָע, וְשִׂנְאַת הַבְּרִיּוֹת, מוֹצִיאִין אֶת הָאָדָם מִן הָעוֹלָם:

        The mishnah keeps surprising us!  It told us that each of Rabbi Yohanan’s disciples taught three lessons.  Yet we just saw that Rabbi Eliezer is assigned four lessons, and now Rabbi Yehoshua is assigned a single lesson that makes three points.  In order to understand them we have to ask, first of all: what does it mean to be “driven from the world?”

        Most likely it means “to suffer an early death.”  On one level, Rabbi Yehoshua teaches that a sour outlook on life, an attitude of hostility to Torah, and the rejection of solidarity with other people is a recipe for physical illness.  This is because the source of physical vitality that keeps us healthy goes beyond good food and rest.  Our physical health is sustained by our relationships to the world, to HaShem through Torah, and to the people we encounter every day.

        But there is also a second kind of death involved here.  If we cut ourselves off from these crucial relationships, we actually amputate a part of ourselves.  We lose the compass that keeps us oriented towards the things that give our lives substance and joy.  This is a moral and psychological death that is in a way worse than a physical one.  The body and its functions survive but our lives are “over” in a deeper way, since we connect to nothing real.  A similar point is made by Rabbi Eliezer HaKappar in Avos 4:21.

&&&