Pirkei Avot - AJR Spring 2024

(1) Moses received the Torah at Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua, Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the prophets, and the prophets to the Men of the Great Assembly. They said three things: Be patient in [the administration of] justice, raise many disciples and make a fence round the Torah.

(2) Shimon the Righteous was one of the last of the men of the great assembly. He used to say: the world stands upon three things: the Torah, the Temple service, and the practice of acts of piety.

(3) Antigonus a man of Socho received [the oral tradition] from Shimon the Righteous. He used to say: do not be like servants who serve the master in the expectation of receiving a reward, but be like servants who serve the master without the expectation of receiving a reward, and let the fear of Heaven be upon you.

(4) Yose ben Yoezer (a man) of Zeredah and Yose ben Yohanan (a man) of Jerusalem received [the oral tradition] from them [i.e. Shimon the Righteous and Antigonus]. Yose ben Yoezer used to say: let thy house be a house of meeting for the Sages and sit in the very dust of their feet, and drink in their words with thirst.

(5) Yose ben Yochanan (a man) of Jerusalem used to say: Let thy house be wide open, and let the poor be members of thy household. Engage not in too much conversation with women. They said this with regard to one’s own wife, how much more [does the rule apply] with regard to another man’s wife. From here the Sages said: as long as a man engages in too much conversation with women, he causes evil to himself, he neglects the study of the Torah, and in the end he will inherit gehinnom.

(6) Joshua ben Perahiah and Nittai the Arbelite received [the oral tradition] from them. Joshua ben Perahiah used to say: appoint for thyself a teacher, and acquire for thyself a companion and judge all men with the scale weighted in his favor.

(7) Nittai the Arbelite used to say: keep a distance from an evil neighbor, do not become attached to the wicked, and do not abandon faith in [divine] retribution.

(8) Judah ben Tabbai and Shimon ben Shetach received [the oral tradition] from them. Judah ben Tabbai said: do not [as a judge] play the part of an advocate; and when the litigants are standing before you, look upon them as if they were [both] guilty; and when they leave your presence, look upon them as if they were [both] innocent, when they have accepted the judgement.

(9) Shimon ben Shetach used to say: be thorough in the interrogation of witnesses, and be careful with your words, lest from them they learn to lie.

(10) Shemaiah and Abtalion received [the oral tradition] from them. Shemaiah used to say: love work, hate acting the superior, and do not attempt to draw near to the ruling authority.

(11) Abtalion used to say: Sages be careful with your words, lest you incur the penalty of exile, and be carried off to a place of evil waters, and the disciples who follow you drink and die, and thus the name of heaven becomes profaned.

(12) Hillel and Shammai received [the oral tradition] from them. Hillel used to say: be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving mankind and drawing them close to the Torah.

(13) He [also] used to say: one who makes his name great causes his name to be destroyed; one who does not add [to his knowledge] causes [it] to cease; one who does not study [the Torah] deserves death; one who makes [unworthy] use of the crown [of learning] shall pass away.

(14) He [also] used to say: If I am not for myself, who is for me? But if I am for my own self [only], what am I? And if not now, when?

(15) Shammai used to say: make your [study of the] Torah a fixed practice; speak little, but do much; and receive all men with a pleasant countenance.

(16) Rabban Gamaliel used to say: appoint for thyself a teacher, avoid doubt, and do not make a habit of tithing by guesswork.

(17) Shimon, his son, used to say: all my days I grew up among the sages, and I have found nothing better for a person than silence. Study is not the most important thing, but actions; whoever indulges in too many words brings about sin.

(18) Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel used to say: on three things does the world stand: On justice, on truth and on peace, as it is said: “execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates” (Zechariah 8:16).

(6) Joshua ben Perahiah and Nittai the Arbelite received [the oral tradition] from them. Joshua ben Perahiah used to say: appoint for thyself a teacher, and acquire for thyself a companion and judge all men with the scale weighted in his favor.

Midrash Shmuel reports that R. Yehuda Lerma asked why the mishna does not enjoin one to acquire students, considering that the Sages said (Ta’anit 7a): I have learned much from my teachers… and from my students most of all! He explained this by noting that a student’s sole desire is to learn. Students therefore study only where their hearts desire and under the teachers from whom they feel they will gain the most. So if a person cannot find anyone who wishes to study under him, the tanna does not enjoin him to. Our master, Maharal, writes in Derech Chaim that the mishna does not say “acquire a student for yourself” because it isn’t proper for a person to appoint himself a master and create honor for himself by saying “come study under me,” as people do in these lands.
Although what they say is certainly true, I don’t think the question is a good one to begin with,because this tanna’s ancient predecessors, the men of the Great Assembly, had already preceeded him in this when they said “train many students” (Avot 1:1). Now they had in mind only students interested in the teacher in question, as it is impossible to train a student against his will, and they likewise didn’t have in mind a teacher unqualified to train students, for they said ha`amidu, which means to stand them on their feet in truly understanding Torah, as I wrote there, and only one actually possessing truth could do this. They certainly were not speaking of arrogant individuals trying to rise to positions of power, declaring that they will rule and be powerful leaders of the people and make great academies of students, for all of their words here are words of righteousness and humility. But they did enjoin someone who is able to train many students to do so.
This is similar to the passage (Avodah Zarah 19b): “And numerous are her slain” (Proverbs 7:26)—this refers to a student who has matured to the point of deciding legal questions and does not do so. But one who has not arrived at that point and lords himself over others as mentioned earlier is included in “she has felled many dead” (Proverbs 7:26; Talmud ibid.). And if this is true of an inept legal decision, which usually only has consequences for the moment and only happens periodically and with relatively few people, all the more so in the case of a teacher who instructs numerous students every day, especially as the students then absorb the erroneous material for good. Of him it is most certainly said “she has felled many dead.”
And there is nothing objectionable about phrasing their teaching as “train many students,” with no added specifications of quality about student or teacher, for this and cases like this are an example of the verse: Straight are the ways of G-d; the righteous walk in them and sinners stumble over them (Hosea 14:10).
What Rav writes, that the teacher must teach without charge, is clear from Nedarim, 4:3. And although it is evident from that very mishna that one may, in fact, charge for teaching just Bible verses, the tanna was mainly enjoining one to get a teacher of Mishna and Talmud for himself, because while it is good to learn Bible verses, it is not always the most commendable thing, as the Talmud says in Bava Metzia, 33a.

And when the Sages heard of the matter they said: If this one, Onias, who fled from the position of High Priest and offered it to his brother, still was overcome with such jealousy to the point where he tried to have Shimi killed, all the more so will one who wants to enter a prestigious position be jealous of the one who already has that position. § As a corollary to the statement of the Sages with regard to one who is jealous and wants the position of another, it is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Yehoshua ben Peraḥya said: Initially, in response to anyone who would say to me: Ascend to the position of Nasi, I would tie him up and place him in front of a lion out of anger for his suggestion. Now that I have become the Nasi, in response to anyone who tells me to leave the position, I would throw a kettle [kumkum] of boiling water at him out of anger at his suggestion. It is human nature that after one ascends to a prestigious position he does not wish to lose it.

The Sages taught: It should always be the left, weaker, hand that pushes another away and the right, stronger, hand that draws him near. In other words, even when a student is rebuffed, he should be given the opportunity to return. This is not like Elisha, who pushed Gehazi away with both hands, and not like Yehoshua ben Peraḥya, who pushed Jesus the Nazarene, one of his students, away with both hands.

The Gemara returns to the incident in which Yehoshua ben Peraḥya turned away Jesus the Nazarene: What is this incident? When King Yannai was killing the Sages, Shimon ben Shataḥ was hidden by his sister, Yannai’s wife, while Rabbi Yehoshua ben Peraḥya went and fled to Alexandria of Egypt. When peace was made between Yannai and the Sages, Shimon ben Shataḥ sent him the following letter: From myself, Jerusalem the holy city, to you, Alexandria of Egypt. My sister, my husband dwells within you, and I am sitting desolate. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Peraḥya said: I can learn from it that there is peace, and I can return. When he came back to Eretz Yisrael, Rabbi Yehoshua arrived at a certain inn. The innkeeper stood before him, honoring him considerably, and overall they accorded him great honor. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Peraḥya then sat and was praising them by saying: How beautiful is this inn. Jesus the Nazarene, one of his students, said to him: My teacher, but the eyes of the innkeeper’s wife are narrow [terutot]. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Peraḥya said to him: Wicked one, is this what you are engaged in, gazing at women? He brought out four hundred shofarot and excommunicated him. Every day Jesus would come before him, but he would not accept his wish to return. One day, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Peraḥya was reciting Shema when Jesus came before him. He intended to accept him on this occasion, so he signaled to him with his hand to wait. Jesus thought he was rejecting him entirely. He therefore went and stood up a brick and worshipped it as an idol. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Peraḥya said to him: Return from your sins. Jesus said to him: This is the tradition that I received from you: Anyone who sins and causes the masses to sin is not given the opportunity to repent. The Gemara explains how he caused the masses to sin: For the Master said: Jesus the Nazarene performed sorcery, and he incited the masses, and subverted the masses, and caused the Jewish people to sin.

(7) There was a chamber prepared for him in the Sanctuary which was called: "The Chamber of the High Priest." The glory and the honor of [the High Priest] would be to remain in the Sanctuary the entire day18As is the simple meaning of the charge (Leviticus 21:12 : "From the Sanctuary, he shall not depart." . and to go to his private home only at night or for an hour or two during the day. His home should be in Jerusalem and he should never depart from there.