Avos 3:8

בס׳ד

אבות ג:ח

Rabbi Dosetai ben Rabbi Yannai in the name of Rabbi Meir says: Whoever forgets a single lesson from his studies - Scripture suggests that he’ll bring disaster upon himself, as it is said: “Just be careful and preserve your soul, lest you forget these things that your eyes have seen” (Devarim 4:9). Is it possible that this applies even if his studies were too difficult for him?  The teaching is: “and lest these things pass from your mind all the days of your life” (Devarim 4:9). This proves that disaster will befall him only if he intentionally dismisses them from his mind.

רַבִּי דּוֹסְתַּאי בְּרַבִּי יַנַּאי מִשּׁוּם רַבִּי מֵאִיר אוֹמֵר, כָּל הַשּׁוֹכֵחַ דָּבָר אֶחָד מִמִּשְׁנָתוֹ, מַעֲלֶה עָלָיו הַכָּתוּב כְּאִלּוּ מִתְחַיֵּב בְּנַפְשׁוֹ, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (דברים ד) רַק הִשָּׁמֶר לְךָ וּשְׁמֹר נַפְשְׁךָ מְאֹד פֶּן תִּשְׁכַּח אֶת הַדְּבָרִים אֲשֶׁר רָאוּ עֵינֶיךָ. יָכוֹל אֲפִלּוּ תָקְפָה עָלָיו מִשְׁנָתוֹ, תַּלְמוּד לוֹמַר (שם) וּפֶן יָסוּרוּ מִלְּבָבְךָ כֹּל יְמֵי חַיֶּיךָ, הָא אֵינוֹ מִתְחַיֵּב בְּנַפְשׁוֹ עַד שֶׁיֵּשֵׁב וִיסִירֵם מִלִּבּוֹ:

        Rabbi Meir was one of the towering Sages of the Ushan academy in the middle of the second century CE.  Tosefta Megillah 2:5 (cited in the Bavli Megillah 18b) tells us that, one Purim, Rabbi Meir found himself in a place without a megillah.  So he wrote one from memory. The present mishnah, transmitted by Rabbi Meir’s disciple, Rabbi Dosetai ben Rabbi Yannai, tells us exactly what Rabbi Meir thought of memory in the context of Torah study.  In a word: without it you’re headed for disaster.  The reason is simple.  The Torah is an interconnected, organic, whole; each piece of knowledge is related in a variety of ways to every other piece.  Forget one strand of Torah and you begin to unravel the whole cloth.

        This is now the third mishnah in the present chapter that connects various forms of mental distraction to the possibility of suffering the personal disaster of ultimate alienation from Torah (Avos 3:4 and Avos 3:7 are the others).  Are these mishnahs connected in some way?  The Tosfos Yom Tov thinks so:

        “There are three categories involved in this sort of distractedness. The first involves a person who intentionally suppresses words of Torah from his consciousness.  Neither our Tanna (Rabbi Meir) nor Rabbi Hananiah ben Hakhinai (Avos 3:4) has this type of person in mind.  The second category involves a person who doesn’t intentionally suppress words of Torah and would in fact like to preserve them.  But he also enjoys idle diversions and seeks them out. This is the kind of person Rabbi Hananiah ben Hakhinai has in mind - the one who will surely bring disaster upon himself.  And the third category involves a person who doesn’t in fact prefer distractions to words of Torah.  But when such distractions come to hand, he permits them to govern him and he entirely loses his capacity to return to his studies.  Our mishnah refers to this type of person who ‘dismisses words of Torah from his mind.’  That is, by hanging around with nothing on his mind his studies simply disappear from his thoughts.”

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