Avos 3:15

בס׳ד

אבות ג:טו

Everything is foreseen, yet - Choice is still possible; And the world is judged benevolently; And everything depends on the balance of actions.

הַכֹּל צָפוּי, וְהָרְשׁוּת נְתוּנָה, וּבְטוֹב הָעוֹלָם נִדּוֹן. וְהַכֹּל לְפִי רֹב הַמַּעֲשֶׂה:

        Rabbi Aqiva here addresses one of the great moral paradoxes.  If HaShem is truly omniscient - knowing all things - does this imply that he must have knowledge even of events which have yet to occur?  If He does, he must know all of our own future actions.  How, then, can we speak of ourselves as having freedom to obey or disobey divine commandments?  Doesn’t divine pre-knowledge make a sham of our sense of being free?

        The great meforshim have struggled with this passage, and it would be impossible to summarize all their discussions here.  I do think, however, that there is a simple gemara that cuts to the heart of the problem and provides a solution.  It is found in Bavli Berkhos 33b, and is cited by the Vilna Gaon (the Gra) as his only comment on Rabbi Aqiva’s teaching:  “Said Rabbi Hanina: All is in the hands of Heaven except the Awe of Heaven, as it is said: ‘And now, Israel, what does HaShem your God ask of you?  Just this - to revere HaShem your God, to walk only in His paths, to love Him, and to serve HaShem with all your heart and soul…’ (Devarim 10:12).”  The point is that HaShem is in control of everything about us, except for our response to His will. For this he must depend upon our own decision.  And that decision - obedience or the opposite - is not a foregone conclusion.  We we alone are free to determine the answer to that question.

        How does this gemara address the problem posed by Rabbi Aqiva?  It helps us to realize, first of all, a dimension of the Hebrew original of this mishnah which is lost in most translations, including my own.  The Hebrew says: hakol tzafui va-hareshus nesunah.  In light of the gemara, this means : “All possibilities are known in advance, including the necessity to choose among them.”  That is, our Creator knows us intimately down to our very souls, and places us in a world of His own construction.  He knows in advance what capacities he has “programmed” into us and what sort of life experiences will challenge us.  But neither He nor we know how we will meet those challenges until we meet or fail to meet them.  We are “programmed”, in other words, to be unpredictable.

        From this point of view, HaShem’s omniscience is limited to possibilities. He knows all the infinite range of choices that will condition our lives.  But He - like us - awaits the concrete decision. The world, in this view of things, is hardly a tidy package.  Instead, it is always in process.  HaShem is discovering His Creation’s concrete reality at every second of its unfolding from the infinite dimensions of its possibilities.  In this sense, HaShem is never the one-time-only Creator of the world; rather, He is always creating it - discovering it - as he comes to know its shifting reality.

        If we’ve made some sense of the first part of Rabbi Aqiva’s teaching, the second part is still difficult.  If the world is judged benevolently, what does it mean to say that everything depends upon the balance of actual deeds?  Isn’t this a contradiction?  We should say either: the world is judged benevolently whether or not it deserves it, or: the world is judged strictly, in accord with the balance of deeds. Indeed, the Midrash Shmuel reports that some copies of the Mishnah do read: “the world is judged benevolently, and not in accord with the majority of actions.”  That is, the only reason the world survives despite the over-balance of disobedience is through divine compassion. As a famous midrash on the phrase bereshit bara Elokim has it: “HaShem sought to create the world through the attribute of Judgement (din, represented by the name Elokim), but saw it wouldn’t stand.  So he created it with the attribute of Mercy (hesed, represented by the four letter Divine Name), and then it stood.”  The Mishnah will make a similar point in Avos 5:2, when it discusses the 20 generations that existed from Creation until the time of Avraham Avinu.

        Is there, perhaps, a way of making sense of the version of the mishnah that we have before us?  Once again, the Tiferes Yisroel offers a helpful suggestion. In his opinion, the word “benevolently” (betov) doesn’t imply a smiley-face God sweeping under the table every violation of His will.  Rather, it means that HaShem doesn’t judge the world in a spirit of vengeance; he views us with honest compassion.  He assesses all the possible motives behind our actions, seeking out the most generous interpretation of them.  But the actions are what they are, and ultimately must be evaluated in terms of the balance of transgression and obedience.

        Taken as a whole, this mishnah presents us with an amazing picture of the world’s process.  The actual world is constantly being realized by God and humanity together, as it is condensed into reality from all of its infinite potential. At every moment, God’s infinite powers of knowledge are assessing and evaluating the real state of the world - the actual deeds performed within it - in light of whether the balance of potential good or potential evil has been made concrete. Only HaShem knows the infinite possibilities of existence, and only He can know all the actualities.  And only He can judge the way we have brought actuality into line with all the potentialities He has imagined and made possible.

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Avos 3:14

בס׳ד

אבות ג:יד

He used to teach: Humanity is beloved, having been created in the Image; And an even greater act of love is that it was told that it was created in the Image, as it is said: “In the image of God He made humanity” (Bereshis 9:6). Israel is beloved, having been called Children of the Source; And an even greater act of love is that they were told that they are called Children of the Source, as it is said: “You are children of HaShem your God” (Devarim 14:1). Israel is beloved, having been given a marvelous Tool; And an even greater act of love is that they were told that they had been given a marvelous Tool through which the world was created, as it is said: “For a fine implement Have I given you - My Torah, do not abandon it” (Mishlei 4:2).

הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, חָבִיב אָדָם שֶׁנִּבְרָא בְצֶלֶם. חִבָּה יְתֵרָה נוֹדַעַת לוֹ שֶׁנִּבְרָא בְצֶלֶם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (בראשית ט) כִּי בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים עָשָׂה אֶת הָאָדָם. חֲבִיבִין יִשְׂרָאֵל שֶׁנִּקְרְאוּ בָנִים לַמָּקוֹם. חִבָּה יְתֵרָה נוֹדַעַת לָהֶם שֶׁנִּקְרְאוּ בָנִים לַמָּקוֹם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (דברים יד) בָּנִים אַתֶּם לַה' אֱלֹהֵיכֶם. חֲבִיבִין יִשְׂרָאֵל שֶׁנִּתַּן לָהֶם כְּלִי חֶמְדָּה. חִבָּה יְתֵרָה נוֹדַעַת לָהֶם שֶׁנִּתַּן לָהֶם כְּלִי חֶמְדָּה שֶׁבּוֹ נִבְרָא הָעוֹלָם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (משלי ד) כִּי לֶקַח טוֹב נָתַתִּי לָכֶם, תּוֹרָתִי אַל תַּעֲזֹבוּ:

        Believe it or not, it is possible to find among the great Sages the opinion that Jews somehow have a richer humanity then Gentiles; that Jewish lives are in some sense more important to HaShem than the lives of Gentiles.  An example comes from this passage of Bavli Yevamos 60b-61a: “So taught Rabbi Shimon ben Yahai: the graves of idolators do not convey uncleanness in an enclosed space, for it is said of Israel: ‘For you, my sheep, my sheep that I protect, are human’ (Yehezkel 34:31) - you are called human, but idolators are not called human.”  This and other isolated parts of the Talmud contribute to an unfortunate tendency, especially in Kabbalah and Hasidus, to draw a total distinction between the “superior” humanity of Jews and the “lesser being” of non-Jews.  For example, a basic idea in the Alter Rebbe’s otherwise great book, the Tanya, is the notion that Gentiles share with Jews an Animal Soul (nefesh behamis), but only Jews have a Divine Soul (nefesh elokis).

        Many Sages stood against this dangerous line of thought.  You can, for example, look at the comments of Tosfos on the very page of Talmud I’ve just mentioned: “This is shocking!  For in the beginning of tractate Avodah Zara 3b and in Sanhedrin 59b we have learned that idolators who engage in Torah study are equivalent to the Kohen HaGadol, as it is said: ‘these are the commandments through which a human will live.’  The passage doesn’t specify Kohanim, Leviim, or Israelites, but ‘a human’!”

        But the most important source for the common humanity of Jews and non-Jews is the mishnah of Rabbi Aqiva that we just read.  In Rabbi Aqiva’s opinion, what distinguishes Jews from non-Jews is not some difference in their basic humanity, but the special obligation of Jews to shape their humanity through the world-creating and world-sustaining powers of the Torah.

        God loves all His creatures equally, but he has expressed his love for Israel through a unique commission: to demonstrate that the essence of humanness is found in perfect obedience to the order of reality embodied in the Torah.  The reasons for this choice of Israel for this mission are beyond our comprehension and the subject of many derashes.  But one thing is clear.  Many Jews have failed in their commission, while many Gentiles, who’ve had no special mission thrust upon them, have succeeded in modeling true devotion to HaShem.

        The Tiferes Yisroel has a long and wonderful meditation on this in his commentary on Rabbi Aqiva’s mishnah.  He begins by offering a list of Gentiles who made marvelous and selfless contributions to human well-being (he includes, for example, Edward Jenner, who invented the smallpox vaccine and the man who brought the potato to Europe!).  Then he continues: “The point is that both Jews and the nations of the world have their own innate qualities of distinction.  The nations of the world, in fact, are superior to Israel insofar as, through their own free choice and power of will, they created themselves as moral beings devoted to God.  In this they exceed Israel, who were dragged by their payis by Divine Power to their completion as humans.  In view of this, Jews have nothing to pat themselves on the back about.  For the only distinction they have is one that HaShem imposed upon them, and that was because of the merits of their ancestors.”  The Tiferes Yisroel knew how to give a potch!  I wish more Jews knew his words and took them seriously.

        We live now in a time of deep human divisions, between Jews and non-Jews, between one sort of Jew and another sort of Jew.  I believe our obligation is to seek those sources of Torah that help us overcome divisions with respect and gentleness, rather than to hunt up reasons for division and bitterness.  As Rabbi Tarfon taught us at the end of Chapter 2 - we may not be obliged to complete the work, but we have no right not to try.

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Avos 3:13

בס׳ד

אבות ג:יג

Rabbi Akiva says: Tittering and silliness encourage lewdness; Tradition is a border for the Torah; Tithes are a border for wealth; Vows are a border for self-control; The border for wisdom is keeping quiet.

רַבִּי עֲקִיבָא אוֹמֵר, שְׂחוֹק וְקַלּוּת רֹאשׁ, מַרְגִּילִין לְעֶרְוָה. מָסֹרֶת, סְיָג לַתּוֹרָה. מַעַשְׂרוֹת, סְיָג לָעשֶׁר. נְדָרִים, סְיָג לַפְּרִישׁוּת. סְיָג לַחָכְמָה, שְׁתִיקָה:

        This mishnah introduces a collection of teachings of Rabbi Aqiva, one of the most influential shapers of the Oral Torah.  Although he began to study Torah in early middle-age, he spent the next 24 years of his life in study and teaching and produced thousands of disciples to continue his traditions.  We have already discussed the sacrifices made by his wife, Rakhel (Avos 3:7).  He died a martyr during the Hadrianic persecutions, the Shma on his lips as his Roman torturers skinned him alive.  To this very day we remember his example every time we prolong ehad in our recitation of Shma.

        While Rabbi Aqiva never refers to “freedom” in this teaching, that is exactly what he’s talking about - the difference between real freedom and enslavement to appetite.  If we understand freedom as the lack of restraints on behavior and desire, we are making a huge mistake.  Lack of restraint is not freedom, it’s chaos.  It creates a situation in which only those with the greatest appetites and the most powerful means of satisfying them can ultimately prevail. This sort of freedom is incompatible with any sort of justice or holiness.

        Rather, as Rabi Aqiva teaches, the freedom that enhances human dignity and holiness is won only through restraint and limitation.  Let’s look at his first point about the relation of humor to the lack of sexual restraint.  Even the relatively innocent give and take of common joking in class or at work can serve as a pretext for premature or improper intimacies in another, more private, setting.  There is nothing in itself wrong with humor.  But it can create an atmosphere that can be used to coerce a weaker person to consent to the demands of a stronger person.  “Now that I’ve disarmed you with laughter, let’s see what other sorts of horseplay I can entice you to try!”

        In view of the role that the symbol of “border” plays in all of Rabbi Aqiva’s other teachings in this mishnah, it’s surprising that he fails to use it here.  As the Midrash Shmuel points out, he could have said: “Seriousness is a border for lewdness.”  Rabbi Aqiva’s choice to express himself as he did highlights the complicated nature of humor. It doesn’t always or even necessarily lead to lewdness.  But it is an ingredient that, when added to others in a social setting, can tip the scales.  So Rabbi Aqiva doesn’t flat out recommend seriousness as a frame of mind.  After all, simkhah is necessary.  But he is reminding us of the proper boundaries of our jokes.

        Long before Rabbi Aqiva lived, the leaders of the Great Community taught Jews to “make a border for the Torah” (Avos 1:1). Now Rabbi Aqiva explains how: by surrounding it with tradition.  His word for “tradition”, mesores, refers to many things.  For example, you know that a Torah scroll has only consonants, with no vowels or punctuation.  How do we know how to pronounce the words or when one sentence stops and another begins?  We know this through the tradition of vowels and punctuation transmitted by the Scribes.  So, in a sense, the tradition of punctuation is the “border” which protects the proper recitation of the Torah.

        More generally, the tradition of Oral Torah is the “border” that ensures the proper interpretation of the Written Torah from an halakhic point of view. Without the border of the 39 prohibited acts of Shabbos labor described in Mishnah Shabbos 7:2, for example, we might think that the only labor forbidden on Shabbos is lighting fire, plowing, or sowing - for these alone are explicitly mentioned in the Written Torah. But if we followed that interpretation, we’d have no Shabbos at all! The point is that the Torah doesn’t mean whatever we’d like it to mean.  There are clear boundaries that it places upon us - and the key to understanding them and embracing them as our own is through the traditional borders that bring the Torah’s meaning to our own generation.

        Another sense of  “border” emerges from Rabbi Aqiva’s teaching about the relationship of tithes and wealth.  The Written and Oral Torah contain commandments to separate from all food grown in the Land of Israel certain offerings for Kohanim, Leviim, and the poor. There is also a concept of maaser kesafim - a cash tithe - that is applicable even in the Golah (exile).  By removing tithes from our property and giving them away, we remember that our wealth is not ours, since it comes from HaShem.  The best way to preserve our wealth, that is, is by the “border” of tithes.  A famous midrash makes this point.  The Torah’s phrase “You shall surely tithe” is, in Hebrew, aser taaser (Devarim 14:22). What’s the implication of the repetition of the verb aser (literally the verse says: “tithe, you shall tithe”)?  It means “tithe so that you can increase your wealth” (aser shetisasher)!

        Rabbi Aqiva’s teaching about vows goes back to his original thought about humor and lewdness.  Vows (nedarim) are solemn promises made to HaShem to refrain from certain pleasures.  They are a kind of self-imposed discipline to refrain from good things in the world that are perfectly permissible from the Torah.  The person who makes such a vow hopes to increase his or her inner sense of having devoted a portion of his/herself to HaShem in a private and intimate way, above and beyond the requirements of halakhah.  You can, for example, vow to eat meat only on Shabbos.  Or to fast on Mondays and Thursdays.  Most siddurim even have special slikhos for those who fast then. The idea is to deny oneself a simple pleasure in order to be reminded that pleasures of the body are not nearly as important as the freedom from passions that enable us to properly serve HaShem. The careful cultivation of self-control is a higher freedom than the free indulgence of every passion.  We’ll see this point in a very pithy way in the name of the Sage, ben Zoma, in Avos 4:1.

        The final border is knowing when to keep quiet and when to speak.  By restraining unnecessary speech, you hear what’s going on around you, learn from others, and - most of all - avoid making a fool of yourself in public.  As the Hafetz Hayyim taught, the origins of leshon hora lie in an even more basic lack of discipline over the desire to throw in your two cents about everything.  “Guard your tongue from evil, and your lips from deception; turn from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it!” (Tehillim 34:14).

        

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Avos 3:12

בס׳ד

אבות ג:יב

Rabbi Ishmael says; Hearken to your Superiors; Be fair to your juniors; And greet everyone with joy.

רַבִּי יִשְׁמָעֵאל אוֹמֵר, הֱוֵי קַל לְרֹאשׁ, וְנוֹחַ לְתִשְׁחֹרֶת, וֶהֱוֵי מְקַבֵּל אֶת כָּל הָאָדָם בְּשִׂמְחָה:

        Rabbi Ishmael ben Elisha was Rabbi Aqiva’s favorite disputing partner.  The Mishnah and Talmud contain hundreds of disputes between them.  In fact, a special collection of midrashim, the Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael (on the Book of Shmos), records many of the teachings of the school of Rabbi Ishmael.  A corresponding Mekhilta of Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai transmits the Aqivan tradition.  While Rabbi Aqiva’s style of midrash could milk even the individual letters of the Torah and their shapes for clues to HaShem’s will, Rabbi Ishmael is famous for insisting that “the Torah expresses itself in plain language” (dibrah torah kilshon bnei adam).  Rabbi Ishmael’s point of view remained a minority one.  Most of the surviving Oral Torah reflects the Aqivan belief that “the Torah was given to be interpreted” (nitnah torah lehidaresh).

        Nothing could be more straightforward in “plain language” than Rabbi Ishmael’s advice here.  The point is to cultivate a very clear sense of where you stand in the scheme of things.  Know precisely who exceeds you in honor and achievement and be quick to acknowledge their achievement and learn from them.  At the same time, when you occupy a position of honor or achievement above someone else, extend them the dignity they deserve by virtue of their status as HaShem’s creation.  And finally, whether dealing with those above of below, bring joy to whomever you encounter.

        Shammai, you’ll recall from Avos 1:5, met everyone “cheerfully.”  According to Rambam, Rabbi Ishmael’s choice of “joy” (simkha) seems to require a step beyond.  Rather than simply being pleasant with others, he wants us to actively induce in them the sense of joy that will enable them to fulfill the highest of religious imperatives: ivdu es HaShem besimkhah, serve God in joy.

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Avos 3:11

בס׳ד

אבות ג:יא

Rabbi Elazar of Modin says: One who desecrates holy offerings, One who disregards Festivals, One who shames his friend in public, One who nullifies the covenant of Avraham Avinu (may he rest in peace), And one who violates tradition in the name of Torah, even if he has Torah and mitzvahs in his favor - He has no share in the Coming World.

רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר הַמּוֹדָעִי אוֹמֵר, הַמְחַלֵּל אֶת הַקָּדָשִׁים, וְהַמְבַזֶּה אֶת הַמּוֹעֲדוֹת, וְהַמַּלְבִּין פְּנֵי חֲבֵרוֹ בָרַבִּים, וְהַמֵּפֵר בְּרִיתוֹ שֶׁל אַבְרָהָם אָבִינוּ עָלָיו הַשָּׁלוֹם, וְהַמְגַלֶּה פָנִים בַּתּוֹרָה שֶׁלֹּא כַהֲלָכָה, אַף עַל פִּי שֶׁיֵּשׁ בְּיָדוֹ תוֹרָה וּמַעֲשִׂים טוֹבִים, אֵין לוֹ חֵלֶק לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא:

        Rabbi Elazar of Modin lived in profound messianic expectation.  It started with his home.  Modin was the hometown of the Hasmoneans who fought a successful war of Jewish independence centuries before. And it ran in the family. He was an uncle of Shimon bar Kokhba, the freedom fighter whom many Sages, including Rabbi Aqiva, considered to be Melekh HaMashiakh (Talmud Yerushalmi Taanis 68d).

        In this mishnah, he reflects upon those who, through their behavior, call into question the promises of HaShem to bring redemption to Klal Yisroel.  Since they doubt God’s promises, and demonstrate this doubt in public ways, justice demands that they receive no share in the Coming World of redemption.  All of the behaviors mentioned here fall under the category of Apikorsus (see Avos 2:14) - denial of HaShem’s existence, His dominion, or His revelation.  Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:1 lists the Apikoros as one of a number of people who will not merit to see the Coming World.  Rabbi Elazar’s words here are a kind of definition of the various types of people included in Sanhedrin’s general rule.

        The first kind of Apikoros “desecrates holy offerings.”  In the simplest sense, this describes a person who is intentionally careless in the preparation and distribution of sacrificial animals and their meat in the Temple.  Now why would Rabbi Elazar, who lived after the Hurban, be so worried about this?  Perhaps he expected the imminent rebuilding of the Temple.  If so, this explains the relevance of his concern.  But there is a deeper puzzle connected with this type of Apikorsus.  The Torah gives clear instructions as to the punishments for those who defile offerings.  Kares, an early death without offspring, is the usual punishment for the most serious offenses.  Why, then, does Rabbi Elazar ignore the Torah’s clear punishment to stress that the defiler of offerings is denied a share in the Coming World?

        It seems to me, that Rabbi Elazar meant his words to apply well beyond the particular area of Temple sacrifices.  A person who “defiles holy offerings” is a person who, ultimately, has no respect for holiness, kedushah, and the holy offerings of lives lived in avodas HaShem.  People who see the world as empty of God have no sense of the separateness and specialness of the holy.  They live in a two-dimensional world.  For this reason - their inability to perceive holiness as a reality - they will not see the final manifestation of holiness when HaShem’s world is ultimately transformed at the coming of Mashiakh.  Since they cannot see holiness in its concealed form now, they will not have developed special sensitivities to perceive even its open forms in the future.

        The second type of Apikoros, who “disregards the Festivals”, is in a similar position.  Some meforshim see the Hebrew word moadim (“Festivals”) as a reference to the period of Hol HaMoed in Sukkos and Pesah.  People who treat these special days as wholly secular days prove themselves insensitive to holiness in general.  The Tiferes Yisroel, however, sees the word moadim as a reference to ALL the holy days of the calendar.  The person described here has an inability to see how moments in time can be infused with the holiness of HaShem.  Shabbos is just Saturday; Yom Kippur is a day to catch the World Series on TV;  Seder night is a convenient moment to go out for a burger and fries.  As with the first type of Apikoros, this person’s inability to perceive holiness in Shabbos or Yom Tov denies them the sensitivities they’ll need to perceive holiness in its open form in messianic times.

        Now what does a person who “shames his friend in public” have to do with these other characters?  The Tiferes Yisroel’s words here are so appropriate that I’ll just quote them: “This person does believe in HaShem’s creation of the world, but he denies that humanity is created in the Divine Image and that the soul has an eternal dimension.  Rather he believes that the soul is derived from the physical processes of the body and will disappear along with them. Therefore he has no regard for the honor due every human soul.  He’ll think nothing of shaming people in public, for in his opinion there is no distinction between human sensibilities and those of animals.”  Denying the Divine Image in the human soul, this person will be denied the vision of God in the end of days.

        The “covenant of Avraham” is, of course, circumcision.  There are many ways of nullifying it.  Parents who deny circumcision to their sons fall into this category.  So does a person who, uncircumcised by his parents, chooses not to be circumcised in adulthood.  Finally - and this happened frequently among Greek-speaking Jews in ancient times - there are those who are circumcised but have a special plastic surgery to hide it.  By rejecting the sign of the Covenant in their own bodies, they also deny themselves the covenantal promises of physical and spiritual redemption from Exile that comes from our perfection in the Coming World.  For this reason, the joys of the Coming World will be hidden to them.

        The final category of Apikoros is the person who accepts the existence of holiness in the world, agrees that the soul is immortal, and even recognizes the covenantal relationship of God with His people, Israel.  But what sticks in this person’s throat is the idea that the Sages have developed a tradition, steeped in holiness, that serves as a reliable guide to the life of covenantal holiness.  In the name of the Written Torah, this person seeks to overturn the Oral Torah; to divide the source of Jewish life from its traditional forms of expression.  By introducing division into the world of Torah, this person is denied the experience of the ultimate unification of Israel and HaShem in the Coming World.

        The last point is very dangerous and difficult to apply.  Who is ultimately to say with confidence that an honest Jew’s search for HaShem’s will is “wrong?” If, as we have seen earlier, there is an undeniable human element to the Sage’s Torah, how can we challenge the right of an honest person to question aspects of the tradition?  Our own time is one in which many serious Jews feel compelled to depart from tradition in the name of HaShem, to find new ways of avodah where traditional ways leave them feeling spiritually empty. I believe we must always be open to these new promptings of Jewish souls searching for God.  All honest paths must be respected and honored.  When the Coming World indeed comes, let Elijah reconcile the disputes.

        In the meantime, we who hold by traditional halakhah must act in a way that does not make the Torah we love seem like an oppressive force to other Jews. There is no greater hillul HaShem, in my opinion, than the sight of frum Jews abusing more liberal Jews at the kosel hamaarivi in Yerushalayim for choosing to daven in a mixed minyan of men and women.

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Avos 3:9-10

בס׳ד

אבות ג:ט/י

3:9 - Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa says: If your fear of sin precedes your wisdom, your wisdom will endure; But if your wisdom precedes your fear of sin, your wisdom will not endure. He used to teach: If your deeds exceed your wisdom, your wisdom will endure; But if your wisdom exceeds your deeds, your wisdom will not endure. 3:10 - He used to teach: One who gives pleasure to people brings pleasure to the Source; And one who does not give pleasure to people does not give pleasure to the Source. Rabbi Dosa ben Harkinas says: Late sleeping, early drinking, childish talk, and loitering in the lairs of idiots drive a person from the world.

רַבִּי חֲנִינָא בֶן דּוֹסָא אוֹמֵר, כָּל שֶׁיִּרְאַת חֶטְאוֹ קוֹדֶמֶת לְחָכְמָתוֹ, חָכְמָתוֹ מִתְקַיֶּמֶת. וְכָל שֶׁחָכְמָתוֹ קוֹדֶמֶת לְיִרְאַת חֶטְאוֹ, אֵין חָכְמָתוֹ מִתְקַיֶּמֶת. הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, כָּל שֶׁמַּעֲשָׂיו מְרֻבִּין מֵחָכְמָתוֹ, חָכְמָתוֹ מִתְקַיֶּמֶת. וְכָל שֶׁחָכְמָתוֹ מְרֻבָּה מִמַּעֲשָׂיו, אֵין חָכְמָתוֹ מִתְקַיֶּמֶת: הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, כָּל שֶׁרוּחַ הַבְּרִיּוֹת נוֹחָה הֵימֶנּוּ, רוּחַ הַמָּקוֹם נוֹחָה הֵימֶנּוּ. וְכָל שֶׁאֵין רוּחַ הַבְּרִיּוֹת נוֹחָה הֵימֶנּוּ, אֵין רוּחַ הַמָּקוֹם נוֹחָה הֵימֶנּוּ. רַבִּי דוֹסָא בֶן הַרְכִּינַס אוֹמֵר, שֵׁנָה שֶׁל שַׁחֲרִית, וְיַיִן שֶׁל צָהֳרַיִם, וְשִׂיחַת הַיְלָדִים, וִישִׁיבַת בָּתֵּי כְנֵסִיּוֹת שֶׁל עַמֵּי הָאָרֶץ, מוֹצִיאִין אֶת הָאָדָם מִן הָעוֹלָם:

        We’ll treat these two mishnahs as a single group, although some versions of the Mishnah separate the teaching of Rabbi Dosa ben Harkinas from those of Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa.  Both were disciples of Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai in the years after the Temple was destroyed.  Neither transmitted many halakhic traditions, but the Talmud recalls Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa in particular as a person capable of remarkable acts of healing, specifically through the power of his prayers (Bavli Berakhos 34b).

        In many ways, Rabbi Hanina was a Hasid before Hasidism.  That is, he focused on prayer as the most essential moment in life, and knew that intelligence unshaped by submission to HaShem in prayer was more of a danger than a blessing.  The followers of the Baal Shem Tov recognized this as well. Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Polnoy, an early disciple of the Besht and a brilliant Talmudist who wrote Toldos Yaakov Yosef, once said: “I knew how to learn.  I came to the Besht to learn how to daven.”

        In mishnah 3:9, Rabbi Hanina offers his recipe for genuine wisdom.  It is a wisdom of the heart, not of the mind; one grounded in carefully honed obedience to HaShem and embodied in the performance of mitzvahs.  The unity of heart and body in avodas HaShem is the behavioral foundation that sustains wisdom.  Any traits of mind that remain unanchored in these foundations yield not wisdom, but mere cleverness.  You might want to skip ahead to the end of this chapter (Avos 3:17) to see how a later Sage, Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah, links this teaching to appropriate pasukim.

        Rabbi Hanina’s teaching in Avos 3:10 is also transmitted in Tosefta Berakhos 3:3.  One manuscript of the Tosefta assigns the teaching to Rabbi Aqiva and another to Rabbi Yehudah - and neither mentions Rabbi Hanina. Perhaps Rabbi Aqiva heard it from Rabbi Hanina and taught it to rabbi Yehudah?

        The line of transmission of this teaching may be a bit crooked, but the teaching itself goes straight to the heart of the matter.  What we do to people, the creatures of HaShem, affects their Creator.  It is not possible to be truly “religious” unless we are first scrupulously careful in the treatment of people and their needs.  All the davening in the world, all the Shmas that pray for the unification of the Holy Name, are entirely undone by a thoughtless word that wounds a friend.

        We all know the famous mishnah (Yoma 8:9) that teaches that Yom Kippur fails to atone for sins committed against neighbors unless and until we receive their forgiveness.  Our mishnah here is a kind of companion to that mishnah in Yoma.  Perhaps the confusion about who first “said” our mishnah is a result of the fact that everyone had it in mind on Yom Kippur and frequently repeated it as a reminder of the requirements of the Day.  Rabbi Dosa’s teaching brings us sharply back to the issues we studied early in this chapter at Avos 3:4, 3:7, and 3:8 - the danger of habitual laxity in the study of Torah.  All the activities he talks about indicate that a person has lost the discipline of mind and heart that keeps one motivated in the pursuit of holiness.  All are bittul Talmud Torah (neglect of Torah study) on a massive scale and set you up for personal disaster.

        If you check other translations of this mishnah you will find that the words I’ve translated as “lairs of idiots” (batei kenessios shel amei ha-aretz) are rendered as “synagogues of the ignorant.”  The use of “synagogue” in this mishnah may be a bit anachronistic.  For the Sages of the first generation after the Hurban HaBayis, a bes kenesses was not only or even primarily a place to pray.  It was really an all-purpose Jewish gathering place.  That’s why I think that Rabbi Dosa is not criticizing other Jews’ shuls.  Rather his target is hang-outs populated by people who are ignoring their obligation to study Torah.

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