Avos 3:3

בס׳ד

אבות ג:ג

Rabbi Shimon says: If three people ate at a single table and did not share words of Torah, they might as well have eaten sacrifices for the dead, as it is said: “For all tables are full of vomit and filth without HaShem”  (Yeshiyahu 28:8). But if three ate at a single table and shared words of Torah, it is as if they ate at the table of the Blessed Source, as it is said: “And he said to me, this is the table that is before HaShem” (Yehezkel 41:22)

רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן אוֹמֵר, שְׁלשָׁה שֶׁאָכְלוּ עַל שֻׁלְחָן אֶחָד וְלֹא אָמְרוּ עָלָיו דִּבְרֵי תוֹרָה, כְּאִלּוּ אָכְלוּ מִזִּבְחֵי מֵתִים, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (ישעיה כח) כִּי כָּל שֻׁלְחָנוֹת מָלְאוּ קִיא צֹאָה בְּלִי מָקוֹם. אֲבָל שְׁלשָׁה שֶׁאָכְלוּ עַל שֻׁלְחָן אֶחָד וְאָמְרוּ עָלָיו דִּבְרֵי תוֹרָה, כְּאִלּוּ אָכְלוּ מִשֻּׁלְחָנוֹ שֶׁל מָקוֹם בָּרוּךְ הוּא, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (יחזקאל מא) וַיְדַבֵּר אֵלַי זֶה הַשֻּׁלְחָן אֲשֶׁר לִפְנֵי ה':

        When you read the words of “Rabbi Shimon” in the Talmud, the reference is almost always to Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai, one of the greatest students of Rabbi Aqiva.  He survived the persecutions in which his teacher and many others died by hiding in a cave for 12 years (Bavli Shabbos 34a-b).

        While Rabbi Shimon was in hiding, living on the occasional carob, the Torah was his food and drink.  He came to realize that what we eat at the table is nourishing to the body only if what we say at the table is nourishing to the soul. Perhaps this teaching is based on his experience in the cave, for it is about how our common dinner table can be transformed through Torah into a vessel for the Shekhinah.  The tables mentioned in the psukim he cites are the altars and bread-tables in the Temple.  Now he compares them to our own tables.

        Rabbi Shimon’s position is a harsh one: if your table is empty of words of Torah, it might as well have been an altar to the demons that were believed to bring pagan souls to the underworld!  But is it any harsher than the point of view we find in Yeshiahu?  Speaking of the very altars in the first Beis HaMikdash, Yeshiahu claimed that the sacrifices offered upon them by careless priests were “vomit and filth.” They defiled the altar because they were offered improperly, without words of Torah.  So now - a meal without words of Torah is a kind of defilement.

        Correspondingly, words of Torah at a meal elevate the meal to the status of a proper sacrificial offering.  As the verse from Yehezkel says: THIS table - the one laden with Torah - is the table that is before HaShem.

        Why does Rabbi Shimon mention three diners?  Does he mean that one or two may dine without words of Torah?  After all, Rabbi Hananiah ben Teradion, only one mishnah ago, argued that even a single person meditating on Torah can be worthy of being a vehicle for the Divine Presence.  And the point will be repeated in Avos 3:6 by Rabbi Halafta of Kfar Hananiah.  So why three?

        Rabbi Shimon’s point is an halakhic one.  Since three are required to create a zimun for birkas hamazon, they constitute the minimum for a public gathering. It follows that if three are dining without words of Torah they are, in effect, desecrating the Divine Name in public.

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