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).

        

&&&