Avos 3:17

בס׳ד

אבות ג:יז

Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah says: Without Torah, there is no decent behavior, without decent behavior, There is not Torah. Without wisdom, there is no awe of HaShem, without awe of HaShem, there is no wisdom. Without insight, there is no knowledge, without knowledge, there is no insight. Without flour, there is no Torah, without Torah, there is no flour. He used to say: A person whose wisdom exceeds his deeds - what is he like?  He’s like a tree with many branches but few roots.  And the wind will come to uproot and overturn it, as it is said: “He shall be like a bush in the desert, not knowing that good is coming; and he shall dwell in a scorched wilderness, a parched land, and uninhabited” (Yirmiyahu 17:6). But a person whose deeds exceed his wisdom - what is he like?  He’s like a tree with few branches and many roots.  For even if all the winds in the world come upon him, they will not uproot him from his place, as it is said: “And he shall be like a tree planted near water, spreading its roots toward the stream, not knowing that heat is coming; and his leaves will be green, and in years of drought he’ll have no worry, and he will never lack for fruit" (Yirmiyahu 17:8).

רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר בֶּן עֲזַרְיָה אוֹמֵר, אִם אֵין תּוֹרָה, אֵין דֶּרֶךְ אֶרֶץ. אִם אֵין דֶּרֶךְ אֶרֶץ, אֵין תּוֹרָה. אִם אֵין חָכְמָה, אֵין יִרְאָה. אִם אֵין יִרְאָה, אֵין חָכְמָה. אִם אֵין בִּינָה, אֵין דַּעַת. אִם אֵין דַּעַת, אֵין בִּינָה. אִם אֵין קֶמַח, אֵין תּוֹרָה. אִם אֵין תּוֹרָה, אֵין קֶמַח. הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, כָּל שֶׁחָכְמָתוֹ מְרֻבָּה מִמַּעֲשָׂיו, לְמַה הוּא דוֹמֶה, לְאִילָן שֶׁעֲנָפָיו מְרֻבִּין וְשָׁרָשָׁיו מֻעָטִין, וְהָרוּחַ בָּאָה וְעוֹקַרְתּוֹ וְהוֹפַכְתּוֹ עַל פָּנָיו, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (ירמיה יז) וְהָיָה כְּעַרְעָר בָּעֲרָבָה וְלֹא יִרְאֶה כִּי יָבוֹא טוֹב וְשָׁכַן חֲרֵרִים בַּמִּדְבָּר אֶרֶץ מְלֵחָה וְלֹא תֵשֵׁב. אֲבָל כָּל שֶׁמַּעֲשָׂיו מְרֻבִּין מֵחָכְמָתוֹ, לְמַה הוּא דוֹמֶה, לְאִילָן שֶׁעֲנָפָיו מֻעָטִין וְשָׁרָשָׁיו מְרֻבִּין, שֶׁאֲפִלּוּ כָל הָרוּחוֹת שֶׁבָּעוֹלָם בָּאוֹת וְנוֹשְׁבוֹת בּוֹ אֵין מְזִיזִין אוֹתוֹ מִמְּקוֹמוֹ, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (שם) וְהָיָה כְּעֵץ שָׁתוּל עַל מַיִם וְעַל יוּבַל יְשַׁלַּח שָׁרָשָׁיו וְלֹא יִרְאֶה כִּי יָבֹא חֹם, וְהָיָה עָלֵהוּ רַעֲנָן, וּבִשְׁנַת בַּצֹּרֶת לֹא יִדְאָג, וְלֹא יָמִישׁ מֵעֲשׂוֹת פֶּרִי:

                Anyone who has celebrated a Seder will remember Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah from the Hagaddah.  He is the Sage who “was like a man of 70” before he learned from his colleague, ben Zoma, why we recite the parsha of tzitzis in the evening Shma.  He was one of the great Sages of the Yavnean academy who, for a brief time, even served as Nasi of Israel during an embarrassing political conflict between Rabban Gamliel and Rabbi Yehoshua (Talmud Bavli Berakhos 27b-28a).

        The issue between Rabban Gamliel and Rabbi Yehoshua concerned stubborn pride.  Perhaps this is why the nature of genuine wisdom is the basic issue behind the two teachings of this mishnah. The first teaching lists four pairs of interdependent qualities.  As the Tosfos Yom Tov points out, it would be wrong to argue that one quality, for example the knowledge of Torah, is a necessary precondition for acquiring the other, decent behavior.  Rather, both qualities must be simultaneously present or neither will exist.  In other words, decent behavior is the external expression of learning in Torah, just as genuine learning in Torah is the intellectual fruit of a life lived honorably.

        If you see a “scholar” who behaves rudely, you know that the scholarship is shallow and counterfeit, despite the person’s ability to recite a memorized page of gemara.  There’s a story about a great talmid hakham who approached Rebbe Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev for a berakhah.  In order to gain his audience, he pushed his way to the front, impatiently elbowing others out of his way.  When he finally presented himself to the Rebbe he boasted, among other things: “I have gone through every page of the Talmud a dozen times.” To which Rebbe Levi Yitzhak replied: “Yes, but I wonder how much of the Talmud has been through you?”

        Rabbi Elazar’s focus on the interdependence of important qualities continues throughout this teaching.  Awe of HaShem is the emotional expression of genuine wisdom, which sees the world as a display of HaShem’s own being. At the same time, wisdom is a perceptive appreciation of one’s own smallness that generates an attitude of awe before the world and its Creator.  Likewise: insight, the ability to penetrate intuitively to the heart of things, requires for its operation genuine knowledge of the way things are; but all the knowledge of this and that is useless unless you have the insight to distinguish the important from the trivial.  Finally, the material and the spiritual components of life must be balanced; if you don’t have a livelihood, “flour”, you won’t have the peace of mind to acquire Torah; but without the guidance of Torah, the search for “flour” will consume you alive!

        I can’t resist mentioning at this point a wonderful comment of the Tiferes Yisroel on the connection  of Torah to decent behavior.  He demonstrates the ability of the truly great talmid hakham to see in all human beings - Jews and non-Jews - the true image of HaShem. Notice how he understands the relationship between Torah and morality in terms applicable to all civilizations: “This reference to Torah is not to the Torah specifically, for we know that there are ignorant Jews without learning and many righteous gentiles who do not observe the Torah - yet they are perfectly moral people.  Rather, it seems to me that every human community has knowledge of God that includes three aspects: 1. revelation; 2. reward and punishment; 3. survival of the soul.  All that divides us is the interpretation of these facts.  Now these three principles are Torah in the broadest sense. Accordingly, whoever disbelieves in them will regard human beings as cattle, and will have no desire to treat souls with honor through ethical relationships in accordance with the moral codes of the various communities…This is the general rule: religion and morals are bound up with each other.  A person lacking one lacks the other.”

        Rabbi Elazar’s second teaching in this mishnah makes a point we have seen earlier (Avos 3:9).  But it seems in a way to challenge the idea of interdependence, for he says that wisdom, while important, is less crucial than the performance of mitzvahs.  In fact, there is no contradiction.  Consider how Rabbi Elazar likens human beings to a tree.  The tree is an interdependent system - the roots nourish the branches and leaves, while the branches absorb through the leaves the air that helps the tree breathe.  In this system, the strongest tree will be the one with the deepest roots.  This doesn’t mean that the leaves and branches are unimportant, only that fewer of them are necessary for the life of the tree.  So too with wisdom and good deeds.  They are both essential to human life, but it is the deeds which anchor the wisdom.  And a few of them will go a long way.  Remember Rabbi Aqiva’s advice: “The border for wisdom is silence!” (Avos 3:13).

        

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