Avos 4:1

בס׳ד

אבות ד:א

        

Ben Zoma says: Who is wise?  One who learns from everyone, as it is said: “From all my experiences have I learned” (Tehillim 119:99). Who is heroic?  One who dominates his passions, as it is said: “Better patience than heroics, and one who rules his emotions is better than a world conqueror” (Mishlei 16:32). Who is rich?  One who takes pleasure in his situation, as it is said: “When you eat the yield of your hands, you shall rejoice and be happy” (Tehillim 128:2).  “You shall rejoice” means in this word; “and be happy” means in the Coming World. Who is honorable?  One who honors others, as it is said: “Those who honor Me, I shall honor, but despisers shall come to ruin” (Shmuel I, 2:30).

בֶּן זוֹמָא אוֹמֵר, אֵיזֶהוּ חָכָם, הַלּוֹמֵד מִכָּל אָדָם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (תהלים קיט) מִכָּל מְלַמְּדַי הִשְׂכַּלְתִּי כִּי עֵדְוֹתֶיךָ שִׂיחָה לִּי. אֵיזֶהוּ גִבּוֹר, הַכּוֹבֵשׁ אֶת יִצְרוֹ, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (משלי טז) טוֹב אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם מִגִּבּוֹר וּמשֵׁל בְּרוּחוֹ מִלֹּכֵד עִיר. אֵיזֶהוּ עָשִׁיר, הַשָּׂמֵחַ בְּחֶלְקוֹ, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (תהלים קכח) יְגִיעַ כַּפֶּיךָ כִּי תֹאכֵל אַשְׁרֶיךָ וְטוֹב לָךְ. אַשְׁרֶיךָ, בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה. וְטוֹב לָךְ, לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא. אֵיזֶהוּ מְכֻבָּד, הַמְכַבֵּד אֶת הַבְּרִיּוֹת, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (שמואל א ב) כִּי מְכַבְּדַי אֲכַבֵּד וּבֹזַי יֵקָלּוּ:

                Shimon ben Zoma is known as one of “the four who entered the Orchard” (Bavli Hagigah 14b).  His companions were Shimon ben Azai (Avos 4:2), Rabbi Aqiva (Avos 3:13-16), and Rabbi Elisha ben Avuyah (Avos 4:20).  It is not clear what the “Orchard” (pardes) was. Rabbenu Hananel’s commentary on this statement in the gemara hints that it was a kind of contemplative activity that enabled the soul to rise through the various heavenly realms to glimpse the Throne of Glory. Whatever it was, the vision it offered these Sages changed them forever.  Ben Zoma, for his part, saw something that made him lose his mind.  His friend Shimon ben Azai died on the spot, and Rabbi Elisha was driven by what he saw to actively induce disciples of the Sages to despair of HaShem’s justice and providence.  Only Rabbi Aqiva emerged enriched.  What he saw enabled him, at the end of his life, to withstand Roman torture with the Shma on his lips.

        I will not speculate about what it was that made ben Zoma go mad.  It is more important to appreciate the values that animated his approach to life.  As the Midrash Shmuel suggests, ben Zoma reminds us that our essential freedom can never be eliminated by our circumstances.  We cannot explain our lack of wisdom, for example, by claiming we were born stupid.  Wisdom is not an innate gift, but a cultivated trait.  We gain it not by being born with it, but by opening ourselves up to those who embody it.  Thus the truly wise person is one who is open enough to others to learn from them no matter who they are.

        The same goes for heroism.  According to ben Zoma it is not a matter of physical courage or great displays of domination.  You don’t have to be born with great physical endowments in order to be courageous.  Rather, courage is a cultivated attitude, a moral quality. We embody it first of all in our own struggle with ourselves, especially with those rebellious desires deep within us that identify freedom with a lack of limitation on our desires.  The struggle against the yetzer hara is the defining aspect of Jewish spirituality, not profound efforts to win visions of HaShem in His angelic world such as ben Zoma might have have glimpsed in the Orchard.  Our heroism is expressed whenever we resist the laziness that encourages us to avoid a mitzvah. We deepen it throughout our lives by internalizing and embracing the entire system of restraints encoded in halakhah.

        Wealth is obviously a state of mind determined by our own free will, rather than some sort of objective standard.  For ben Zoma it has nothing to do with money or possessions.  Billionaires can be poor if their possessions do nothing but enslave them to the endless hunger for acquisition. Real wealth is freedom from the desire for wealth - that is, rejoicing in precisely what you have as the arena granted you by HaShem to work your way towards Torah.  That arena is a humble one - our families, our friends, our communities and our work.  People who truly rejoice in the simplicities of love shared, friendship offered, and productive work require nothing more.  Financial power, for them, is the “spice” of wealth (Avos 3:18) but not its essence.

        What is honor?  Is it something that we receive from others?  If so, we are enslaved to it, for we feel deprived when people withhold from us the honor we believe is due us.  Real honor, ben Zoma tells us, does not lie in the way we are viewed by others.  Rather, it lies in what we bring to others.  Genuine honor is something we exhibit through our freedom to give the gift of honor generously. The prooftext that ben Zoma cites from the book of Shmuel makes the point well.  When we honor HaShem’s creatures, we in fact honor HaShem; and it is through honoring HaShem that we anchor our own sense of honor in a permanent source rather than the fickle opinions of other people.

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