Thoughts
on Pirkei Avos
Perek
1 Mishna 1:
Tradition:
The Essence of Judaism
משה
קיבל תורה מסיניי,
ומסרה
ליהושוע,
ויהושוע
לזקנים,
וזקנים
לנביאים,
ונביאים
מסרוה לאנשי כנסת הגדולה.
והן
אמרו שלושה דברים:
היו
מתונים בדין,
והעמידו
תלמידים הרבה,
ועשו
סייג לתורה
Moshe
received the
Torah from Sinai
and gave it over to Yehoshua.
Yehoshua gave it over to the Elders, the Elders to the Prophets, and
the Prophets gave it over to the Men
of the Great Assembly.
They [the Men of the Great Assembly] would always say these three
things: Be cautious in judgment. Establish many students. And make a
safety fence around the Torah.
Pirkei
Avos 1:1
By:
Daniel Listhaus
Rabbeinu
Yonah describes
that at Har
Sinai
we received Torah
she'ba'al peh and
Torah
she'b'chsav.
Both aspects of Torah are equally necessary. Like the red and blue
sides of 3D glasses, the true Torah is only seen properly when
looking through both lenses at the same time. No Torah came before
the other. Hashem gave the Written Torah as we have it along with the
tools we are allowed to use to expound on it and its explanation. We
all witnessed Hashem giving the Torah on Har
Sinai
and the word for word mesorah
has
followed an unbroken chain from Moshe until today. No other person or
religion in history has ever claimed such a tradition – one which
started with over a million witnesses and has since been passed down
generation to generation.
The
Torah is the blueprint of the world. This means that everything we
are expected to do and the direction of how to live the optimum life
is all contained in the Torah. We cannot necessarily trust even our
most logical thoughts without knowing that it is allowed from the
Torah's perspective. The reason to be nice to others is not because
“it makes sense”, but rather because the mesorah
we
have from the Torah all the way from Har
Sinai
is tells us so. If every person would live a life of doing things
that each one thought “made sense” society would cease to exist.
Modern civilizations are based on laws and norms that the average
person desires in order to achieve safety, a livelihood, freedom, and
a level of happiness. However from the Torah perspective, there is
only one question that must be asked: Is this what Hashem wants
according to His Torah? Everything else is completely irrelevant.
Mercy has no place if the commandment is to attack, and logic plays
no role when the commandment is to do. On Har
Sinai
we declared na'aseh
v'nishma.
We are servants to Hashem and our sole job is to fulfill his
commandments. Everything else is secondary.
There
is no doubt that within the Torah there is a system with rules which
seems to make sense logically – for example there is a concept of
d'ra'che'ha
darchei noam that
the Torah's ways are pleasant and would not command us to do anything
hurtful. However the fact that that may be logical is not the reason
to know it is real. Rather the reason it is true is because the Torah
tells us that that is part of the Torah perspective.
Another
essential aspect of our mesorah
is
that it is unchanging. It is obvious that anything made up outside of
our mesorah
is not part of our mesorah.
It may sound good because it sits well with our ethics, values, or
perspectives however we must remember that those are not the
conditions of something being part of our mesorah.
The criteria of something being part of out mesorah,
by definition could only include things that were passed in a direct
line from what was received by Moshe on Har Sinai. This of course
does not mean that the Torah is incapable of dealing with modern day
issues. After all, built into the Torah is a system of tools used to
expound it – for example the yud
gimmel middos she'hatorah nidreshes bahen.
Additionally, each generation has Torah leaders with da'as
Torah who have studied the way of the Torah and the ways that cases
have been compared and applied in Torah shel
ba'al peh.
The Torah allows and expects us to follow the opinions of our Torah
leaders who have da'as
Torah.
This is why there is tremendous value given to those who spend time
near their rabbeim.
So much could be gleaned by watching how one's rebbe
learns
and acts. This is the reason Rashi
writes
why Moshe picked Yehoshua as his successor – because Yehoshua never
left his side. He was always watching Moshe and learning from his
ways. He became an extension of Moshe rabbeinu
himself
and was therefore picked to lead B'nei
Yisroel into
Eretz
Yisroel.
The
mishna
continues with three things that the Anshei
K'neses Ha'gedolah
used to advocate:
- Be careful in judgment – Rabbeinu Yonah explains that judging a case based on Torah is very different from taking a standardized test. A piece of advice often given to students taking a test is to go with their first answer – the gut feeling they think to be correct. As weird as this advice sounds if one thinks about it it makes sense to some degree. After all when studying for a test (perhaps with the exception of math), one is memorizing information. So, when it comes to the test and your instinct is pointing you in a certain direction it is most probably because something about what you are seeing in the answer seems right based on what you remember, no matter how little that may be. However when it comes to judging a case based on Torah, there is nothing that is answered with a 'gut feeling'. Everything must be approached with a Torah perspective according to halacha and proper applications of various s'varos. A judge must be deliberate and think through the many avenues that the case opens to and see the case in its entirety. There are so many areas of halacha that could be brought in, in even the simplest of cases. In order for the question to be answered properly it must be with a thorough approach of a judge who will consider all possibilities based on da'as Torah.
- Establish many students – The object of each generation is to make sure that the mesorah continues to go unbroken and that the next generation is one of Torah students. Rabbeinu Yonah brings a machlokes as to how this should be accomplished. Beis Shammai hold that one should seek out specific outstanding people to invest everything into to create a Torah leader for the next generation. However, Beis Hillel maintain that one should teach many students so that although not everyone will come out as the next leader, there will be more teachers who could then in turn further spread Torah to the next generation. One could never know how life turns people around and how what you once said to or did for someone could have an incredible effect later on. Sometimes the people who you have categorized as unsuccessful losers end up being the next leaders.
- Make a safety fence for the Torah – Transgressing on something contained in the Torah is a very serious matter. At the same time, we are forbidden to create our own mitzvos to add onto the Torah. However, the Torah itself allows chazal to create a fence to guard us from the transgression of mitzvos of the Torah. The mitzvos and issurim that chazal instituted are to be taken just as seriously as the mitzvos in the Torah itself. However, being that they of course are not what we would term “mitzvos m'd'oraisa”, they follow a different system of rules. For example whereas by a “safeik d'oraisa” we are stringent and go “l'chumra”, when it comes a “safeik d'rabanan” we are lenient and go “l'kula”. Another aspect of making a fence for the Torah is our personal goals and restrictions which we should set for ourselves. We know ourselves best and where we struggle most. Therefore, we are responsible for setting our own limitations and lines not to cross. Protection demonstrates value. The more we are willing to protect ourselves from doing what is wrong the more we show how much we value doing the right things.
These
three lessons that the Anshei
K'neses Hagedolah left
us for generations are no doubt the three-part strategy necessary to
continue the chain of our mesorah
that
starts at the beginning of the mishna.
We must not race to follow our instinct or logic when it comes to
answering questions. We must make sure that there are many students
of Torah so we could ensure that the next generation will be able to
grow in Torah. And we must take the advice and words of our chachomim
with
da'as
Torah
as seriously as the Torah itself. The Rabbis are not making up new
rules. They are clearly defining the ways of the Torah and making
sure we do not stumble over that line, all in accordance to the
system that the Torah itself designed for them to do so.
