Avos 4:21

בס׳ד

אבות ד:כא

Rabbi Eliezer HaKappar says: Jealousy, desire, and honor drive a person from the world.

רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר הַקַּפָּר אוֹמֵר, הַקִּנְאָה וְהַתַּאֲוָה וְהַכָּבוֹד, מוֹצִיאִין אֶת הָאָדָם מִן הָעוֹלָם:

        Rabbi Eliezer HaKappar, a colleague of Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, is one of the few Sages in the Mishnah whose name has been found inscribed in an ancient archeological site.  Shortly after Israel conquered the Golan Heights in 1967, archeologists found an interesting stone lintel - a crossbar that sits over a doorway.  On the lintel, surrounding a carving of a wreath, were the following words: “This is the Bes Midrash of Rabbi Eliezer HaKappar”.

        It’s an amazing thing to imagine the Sages and disciples who passed under that lintel in the Golan on their way to hear the teachings of Rabbi Eliezer HaKappar.  Even more amazing is the fact that, in Avos d’Rabbi Noson, (A,26), we find the following teaching in the name of Rabbi Eliezer  HaKappar: “Don’t be like an upper lintel that no one can touch, nor like an upper door-sill that smacks people in the face, nor like a middle door-sill that scrapes people’s shins. Rather, be like a threshold that everyone tramples, yet when the building is destroyed it survives.”  It turns out that it is exactly the “upper lintel that no one can touch” that immortalizes Rabbi Eliezer’s name in stone.  Some think that Rabbi Eliezer’s nickname, “HaKappar”, may refer  to his involvement in the production of caper berries (Hebrew: kafras).  Every time I see capers in a fancy salad, I think of Rabbi Eliezer!

        In this mishnah, Rabbi Eliezer names three traits that lead us to overvalue superficial things.  Entrapping us in the “pursuit of transience” (re’us ruakh, Koheles 1:1), they cloud our values and judgements and ultimately lead us into social and psychological isolation.  The Midrash Shmuel has noticed an important relationship between Rabbi Eliezer’s teaching and that of Rabbi Yehoshuah (Avos 2:11).  There, Rabbi Yehoshuah also names three things - a wicked eye, the rebellious desire, and hatred of others - that drive a person from the world.

        According to the Midrash Shmuel, each of these correlates to an item in Rabbi Eliezer’s teaching. Jealousy - the desire for the possessions of others - is the expression of the wicked eye that is constantly measuring one’s own situation against those of others. Desire - unhindered physical appetites of all sorts - is the arena in which rebellious desire plays out its passions.  Finally, the desire for honor leads to the hatred of those who withhold it.

        The common thread of all these traits is that, when we are trapped within them, we mistake good things in the world - wealth, physical satisfaction, gratifying reputation among our peers - as absolutes that precede every other value.  We devote ourselves single-mindedly to ultimately selfish and self-absorbed affairs.  We neglect our obligations to others and all the deep satisfactions that come from immersion in the lives of those we love.  We focus our desires on things over which we ultimately have no control, neglecting those things that are truly within our power to affect - our own actions and values.

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