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Save "Pirkei Avot Musings ~ Chapter One
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Pirkei Avot Musings ~ Chapter One

(א) משֶׁה קִבֵּל תּוֹרָה מִסִּינַי, וּמְסָרָהּ לִיהוֹשֻׁעַ, וִיהוֹשֻׁעַ לִזְקֵנִים, וּזְקֵנִים לִנְבִיאִים, וּנְבִיאִים מְסָרוּהָ לְאַנְשֵׁי כְנֶסֶת הַגְּדוֹלָה. הֵם אָמְרוּ שְׁלשָׁה דְבָרִים, הֱווּ מְתוּנִים בַּדִּין, וְהַעֲמִידוּ תַלְמִידִים הַרְבֵּה, וַעֲשׂוּ סְיָג לַתּוֹרָה:

(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.

Our first mishnah opens the most famous of all tractates. Just compare the amount of commentaries the first mishnah in Avodah Zarah had (44) with this one in Pirkei Avot (152) on Sefaria! In part it is due to the character of the tractate, which deals with moral principles, interpersonal actions and internal qualities hence in some translations call this “Ethics of the Fathers”. The sayings of the first two chapters come in somewhat chronological order, but that changes later on.
The beginning is the transmission of the Torah, given at Sinai. The word Torah, here, encompasses both Written and Oral, as attested by the end of the mishnah with the saying of the “Men of the Great Assembly” – this is basic to Rabbinic Judaism, and a pint of contention with other groups such as Karaites and Sauduccees. Ovadia of Bartenura will call our attention to the fact that just as legal principles are part of the Torah, so too are moral and ethical ones. Rav Avi Novis-Deutsch calls our attention to the absence of kings and kohanim in this line of transmission, and for the smooth transition of prophets to sages.
The ”Men of the Great Assembly” are a group that tided over Judaism during the building of the Second Temple (~ 500 BCE). Ezra and Nehemiah, whose books are among the last ones in the Tanach (Bible) are among those. Little is known about this last group, but their three sayings are important.
The first is that one should be either patient or deliberate in judgment, and depending on how you translate that word your vision of the tractate is different: to whom is it speaking? To people in general (be patient) or to judges (be deliberate, don’t rush) – or, in times when people are judgmental, to everyone?
The second saying “raise many students” which seems obvious, it is actually not obvious at all. Some rabbis, such as Shamai and Rabban Gamliel, are known for not being so open and accepting of students as we can read in a fascinating story in the Babylonian Talmud, Brachot 27b.
The last saying is the basis for a lot of things we do or not in Judaism today. There are many laws that the rabbis establish in order to prevent a direct transgression of what is seen as Deoraita, or Torah-based law. Not mixing chicken and milk and not handling money on Shabbat are examples of those. There are many laws that are established by the rabbis in order to fulfill Torah injunctions, such as affixing a mezuzah and saying the Shema twice a day. Finally, there are seven mitzvot Derabanan (of the rabbis) that are notable for being directed by the rabbis. The most famous of those are lighting Shabbat candles, lighting Hannukah lights, reading the book of Esther on Purim and saying a bracha (blessing) before eating. Least famous are: washing hands before eating bread, saying Hallel, making eruvim.
There is an interesting question of how many are those mitzvot of the Rabbis, as the SMaG (Sefer Mitzvot HaGadol) counts only five. The list of seven is given by David Vital in the book Keter Torah. Later commentary notes that 620 letters in the Ten Sayings (aka 10 commandments) 613 mitzvot DeOraita and 7 DeRabanan.

(ב) שִׁמְעוֹן הַצַּדִּיק הָיָה מִשְּׁיָרֵי כְנֶסֶת הַגְּדוֹלָה. הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, עַל שְׁלשָׁה דְבָרִים הָעוֹלָם עוֹמֵד, עַל הַתּוֹרָה וְעַל הָעֲבוֹדָה וְעַל גְּמִילוּת חֲסָדִים:

(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.

After beginning with a general list of transmission of Torah, the Mishnah begins focusing on individuals and their teachings. Shime’on HaTzadik is one of the few names we know from the period of the Men of the Great Assembly, which began in the period of Ezra. The Talmud credits him for meeting with Alexander the Great and saving Jerusalem from destruction in that meeting, and so if that is correct, this would place him at the 4th century BCE, given that Alexander died on 323 BCE. So Shime’on HaTzadik is from a time that is way before the Mishnah, and he is not a rabbi – he was a kohen in the temple. This places him as a transitional leader at the end of Biblical times.

His saying has been converted into a song (see below) and interpreted in many ways. There are those who believe he’s talking about three essential things without which the universe could not exist; there are thosse who say those three things are why God created the universe; there are those who say that since a person is a universe, these are three things one has to combine to have a meaningful life. As it may, the three things are Torah, service and acts of lovingkindness.

Torah is supposed to be studied and kept alive through that study, as a guide to one’s actions. Torah is a word that is nowadays all-encompassing for the wisdom of the Jewish tradition.

Avodah or Service has a variety of meanings: service to others, work in the field, prayers, mitzvot, the sacrificial system of the Temple. Shime’on HaTzadik, being a kohen, probably meant the last one, but that does not prevent the generations to see other meanings in his saying as Jews continue to exist through history.

“Gemilut Hasadim”, acts of lovingkindness, are not just charity – they are all acts that help others living through a time of need, such as visiting the sick, comforting mourners, welcoming guests, helping newly weds, helping new parents, the list is very long and it of course includes supporting the poor and needy. With the destruction of the Temple, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai reinterpreted Avodah as verbal prayer, and acts of lovingkindness as substitutes for the sacrifices.

(ג) אַנְטִיגְנוֹס אִישׁ סוֹכוֹ קִבֵּל מִשִּׁמְעוֹן הַצַּדִּיק. הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, אַל תִּהְיוּ כַעֲבָדִים הַמְשַׁמְּשִׁין אֶת הָרַב עַל מְנָת לְקַבֵּל פְּרָס, אֶלָּא הֱווּ כַעֲבָדִים הַמְשַׁמְּשִׁין אֶת הָרַב שֶׁלֹּא עַל מְנָת לְקַבֵּל פְּרָס, וִיהִי מוֹרָא שָׁמַיִם עֲלֵיכֶם:

(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.

After Shime’on HaTzadik the next teacher in the chain of transmission is Antigonos, called “a man of Socho”. Antigonos is a Greek name, attesting to the Hellenistic influence brought by the conquest of the area by Alexander the Great. This is the only source of Antigonos’s teachings. It is commonly understood that he was active in the 2nd century BCE, in the time when Judaism split into many sects. Avot deRabi Natan (see below) connects Antigonos with the origin of the split of Sauducees (Tzidukim) and Boethusians (Baitusim), as both Tzadok and Baitus were his students. Socho has been identified with one of two possible towns in the west of the Judean hills. The town name is mentioned in Joshua, I Samuel and II Chronicles, and figures in the handles of large storage jars, which were stamped with seals issued by King Hezekiah (700 BCE).

Focusing on the question of “reward”, Antigonos tries to teach that serving God should not be a task that a person engages because they have expectations of receiving something, even if not of a constant nature: there lies the difference between “payment” and “reward”. I call this “purse theology” – engaging with God as a magical purse, one to which if you say the right words or do the right things, goodness will come. Antigonos is telling us to reject such theology, and do things out of love for God, and also out of fear. This is probably the oldest articulation of the two motivators that Jewish tradition will present for doing mitzvot: love and awe/fear. Love is a powerful motivator, but many times it is not enough. Awe or fear is also an interesting mode of relating to God, even though nowadays, in modern times, this way of relating is usually looked as detrimental to a relationship. I personally find awe/fear a fascinating feeling and concept, and connect this to the sensation one has when visiting particularly high places or beautiful ones, such as the Grand Canyon; or seeing the immense power of storms. This pair is also found in the siddur, in the prayer Ahavah Rabbah.

Antigonos, it should be noted, does not use the word “mitzvot”, but talks about “serving the Master”, as pointed out by Rav Avi Novis-Deutsch, opening the possibility to read this as the proper way to deal with a master, a person.

אנטיגנוס איש סוכו קבל משמעון הצדיק הוא היה אומר אל תהיו כעבדים המשמשים את הרב על מנת לקבל פרס אלא היו כעבדים המשמשים את הרב שלא על מנת לקבל פרס ויהי מורא שמים עליכם כדי שיהיה שכרכם כפול לעתיד לבא: אנטיגנוס איש סוכו היו לו שני תלמידים שהיו שונין בדבריו והיו שונים לתלמידים ותלמידים לתלמידיהם עמדו ודקדקו אחריהן ואמרו מה ראו אבותינו לומר [דבר זה] אפשר שיעשה פועל מלאכה כל היום ולא יטול שכרו ערבית אלא אילו היו יודעין אבותינו שיש עולם [אחר] ויש תחיית המתים לא היו אומרים כך. עמדו ופירשו מן התורה ונפרצו מהם שתי פרצות צדוקין וביתוסין צדוקים על שום צדוק ביתוסין על שום ביתוס. והיו משתמשין בכלי כסף וכלי זהב כל ימיהם שלא היתה דעתן גסה עליהם אלא צדוקים אומרים מסורת הוא ביד פרושים שהן מצערין עצמן בעוה״ז ובעוה״ב אין להם כלום:
Antigonus, a man of Sokho, received from Shimon the Righteous. He would say: Do not be like servants who attend upon their master only on the condition that they receive a reward. Rather, be like servants who attend upon their master only on the condition that they do not receive a reward. And let the awe of the heavens be upon you so that your compensation will be double in the future. Antigonus, a man of Sokho, had two students who were studying his words. They would then teach them to other students, who would then teach them to yet other students. Those students then questioned what they had learned and said: Why did our fathers say [such a thing]? Is it possible that a worker should labor all day and not receive his compensation in the evening? If our fathers had known that there was [another] world, and that the dead would be revived, they would not have said this. So they decided to separate from the way of the Torah. Two factions emerged from them: the Sadducees and the Baitusees. The Sadducees (Tzadukim) were called that because of Tzadok, and the Baitusees because of Baitus. And they would make a point of always using gold and silver things, not because they were so enamored of them, but because they said: The Pharisees have a tradition that they will deny themselves in this world. Yet in the next world they will have nothing!

It is interesting to note that ADRN does say that the Tzidukim and the Baitusim rejected the idea of a world-to-come, and that they focused on enjoyment of this world. I read somewhere that this was espoused particularly by the wealthy classes on those times - and in a way it makes sense that this is the case, as we see many people who are wealthy living today as if "there is no tomorrow".

(ד) יוֹסֵי בֶן יוֹעֶזֶר אִישׁ צְרֵדָה וְיוֹסֵי בֶן יוֹחָנָן אִישׁ יְרוּשָׁלַיִם קִבְּלוּ מֵהֶם. יוֹסֵי בֶן יוֹעֶזֶר אִישׁ צְרֵדָה אוֹמֵר, יְהִי בֵיתְךָ בֵית וַעַד לַחֲכָמִים, וֶהֱוֵי מִתְאַבֵּק בַּעֲפַר רַגְלֵיהֶם, וֶהֱוֵי שׁוֹתֶה בְצָמָא אֶת דִּבְרֵיהֶם:

(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.

Our mishnah for today introduces the first Zug, or Pair, of sages that are called Tanna’im. There are five such pairs. The power balance between them is that the first one is the Nasi, or political leader, and the second is the Av Beit Din, or head of the judicial court. Both are named Yossi, and so they are identified with the names of their fathers and where they come from. They come next in line after Antigonos of Socho, and the historical background is the splitting into sects (Pharisees, Sauducees, Essenes, Zealots and more) and the Maccabean revolt. The mishnah then focuses solely on Yossi ben Yoezer from Tzredah’s saying, and tomorrow we will focus on Yossi ben Yochanan from Jerusalem. Tzredah is known in the Tanach (Bible, see I Kings 11:26) as the birthplace of King Yerovoam ben Nevat, who begins by demanding that Rehovoam, King Solomon’s heir, reign in a more compassionate form, and when he refuses, leads the splitting of the kingdom (I Kings 11 to 15 tells his story).
Yossi ben Yoezer was active between 180 BCE and 140 BCE. His saying focuses on learning. It is important to know that houses of study did not exist yet, and so Yossi ben Yoezer is encouraging all Jews to make their homes places where the sages can meet. The Oral law, at this point, is still only committed to memory, and so the student sits at the feet of the sage, who is sitting on a chair, and repeats the learning until they committed it to memory. Bartenura compares making your house a place where people study as a perfumer shop: even those who do not buy the perfume become soaked up in the good scents. When Yossi ben Yoezer says “drink in their words with thirst” he is comparing the Torah to water, a common comparison in rabbinic literature. Bartenura points out that this is different than stuffing oneself with food, which at the end makes a person feel sick. Water, should be noted, carves into rock – and this idea is that words of Torah can enter even the hardened of hearts. A beautiful midrash about rabbi Akiva has this as his reason for pursuing studying Torah after the age of 40.

(ה) יוֹסֵי בֶן יוֹחָנָן אִישׁ יְרוּשָׁלַיִם אוֹמֵר, יְהִי בֵיתְךָ פָתוּחַ לִרְוָחָה, וְיִהְיוּ עֲנִיִּים בְּנֵי בֵיתֶךָ, וְאַל תַּרְבֶּה שִׂיחָה עִם הָאִשָּׁה. בְּאִשְׁתּוֹ אָמְרוּ, קַל וָחֹמֶר בְּאֵשֶׁת חֲבֵרוֹ. מִכָּאן אָמְרוּ חֲכָמִים, כָּל זְמַן שֶׁאָדָם מַרְבֶּה שִׂיחָה עִם הָאִשָּׁה, גּוֹרֵם רָעָה לְעַצְמוֹ, וּבוֹטֵל מִדִּבְרֵי תוֹרָה, וְסוֹפוֹ יוֹרֵשׁ גֵּיהִנֹּם:

(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.

Our mishnah for brings the words of Yossi ben Yochanan from Jerusalem. We saw the words of his zug, his partner, yesterday. Both sages concentrate in a person’s house – Yossi ben Yochanan focuses on the poor, and how one’s home should be open to them. As Rav Avi Novis-Deutsch says, it probably means food and lodging, and his words can be seen as a culture based on more on trust and less on purchasing services: instead of restaurants and hotels, people trusted each other when they were traveling and also in difficult times.

Yossi ben Yochanan’s second sentence is a turn off for many people. Rav Avi points out that the Kaufmann manuscript has a softening of his misogynistic instance, because it adds one word in Hebrew: beNidah, that is, during her period. Sefaria does have the page of that manuscript, and you can see the word – it is the one without nekudot, that is, vowels. A similar version is also found in the Parma manuscript. Yossi ben Yochanan’s prohibition may be fence around forbidden intimacy (with one’s wife in her period, with someone else’s wife at all times). Rabbi Yossi’s words might have been good advice in his time (180-140 BCE), but they cannot be accepted unquestioned today, in a reality in which women, men and everyone between the binary are full participants in society. It is on all people to distinguish between speaking, learning and working together and commiting adultery or transgressing the laws of Nidah.

(ו) יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בֶּן פְּרַחְיָה וְנִתַּאי הָאַרְבֵּלִי קִבְּלוּ מֵהֶם. יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בֶּן פְּרַחְיָה אוֹמֵר, עֲשֵׂה לְךָ רַב, וּקְנֵה לְךָ חָבֵר, וֶהֱוֵי דָן אֶת כָּל הָאָדָם לְכַף זְכוּת:

(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.

Our mishnah presents the second zug, Yehoshua ben Perachia and Nitai the Arbelite. They were active between 140 and 100 BCE, during the Hasmonean period, while (John) Hyrcanus, aka Yochanan Kohen Gadol, was the leader. At the end of his life, Hyrcanus turned against the Pharisees, which are the group from which the rabbis spring from, and that persecution was continued by the next Hasmonean leaders, Aristobulus I and Alexander Yannai. The pair then temporarily fled to Egypt and became leaders of the large Jewish community in Alexandria, as told in Sotah 47a. In that same sugya, we read that Yehoshua ben Perachia had a student who, in some manuscripts, is called Yeshu, or Jesus. Many are excited about this, but chronologically it makes no sense that it is the same person.

Yehoshua ben Perachia is a famous saying that has three parts. “Appoint for yourself a teacher” can be read in opposition to the previous mishnah, in which your house is open to many teachers. In Avot DeRabi Natan (8:2) we find the same idea – you need one teacher so your learning will be dedicated, as if you have one field with one crop. More recently the verb used “aseh”, literally, make, has been read as “make of yourself a teacher.” – learning enough that you can make your own decisions. The second part of the saying has to do with having a friend with whom one reviews their learning and corrects their mistakes. Traditional Jewish learning has always been done in “hevrutot”. A havruta is two people sitting together and learning a Jewish text. The verb used, “acquire”, has to do with investing your share in that friendship too. Learning alone means not seeing one’s baises or mistakes. Finally, the idea of judging everyone giving the benefit of doubt is easier said than done. A wise person is one who does not jump to judgments, but tries to understand the possible reasons and the possible scenarios for people’s actions. Yehoshua ben Perachia is reminding us that we should expect that people are generally good, and try to judge them with that in mind. In times such as ours, when snap judgments and angry words are stimulated by social media, Yehoshua ben Perachia’s advice is sorely needed. Now, if one wants to distill these three pieces of advice in one, I think it is that social isolation is dangerous and can lead to feelings of despair. Having a guide, having friends and being with others are what helps us through this journey called life.

(ז) נִתַּאי הָאַרְבֵּלִי אוֹמֵר, הַרְחֵק מִשָּׁכֵן רָע, וְאַל תִּתְחַבֵּר לָרָשָׁע, וְאַל תִּתְיָאֵשׁ מִן הַפֻּרְעָנוּת:

(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.

We spoke before about the differences between the Kaufmann manuscript and the Vilna edition. Here is an interesting discrepancy: the sage that the Vilna edition calls “Nitai” in the Kaufmann is called “Matai”. Rav Avi Novis-Deutsch believes this has to do with either the proximity of N and M or due to the fact that Matai sounds too close to Mathew, which is a name that became associated to Christianity.

Nitai the Arbelite brings balance to Yehoshua ben Perachia’s teaching that one should judge others giving them the benefit of doubt. Nitai affirms that nevertheless there are people whose actions are wicked and there is evil in the world. My grandfather used to say something that translates to “may God protect me from my friends, since I can protect myself from my enemies”. It is harder to admit that our friends are doing wrong things, and to distance from them when we see they won’t change. When someone is obviously evil, it is easier to keep our distance and not to learn from their actions – but once we are friends it is a different story, their actions and positions tend to rub off on us. And even if we say we are aware, and that we will not repeat their actions or words, there is the moral question of being a bystander. In several texts in our tradition we have a saying such as “woe to the evil person, and woe to that evil person’s neighbor”.

The third part of Nitai’s saying is connected to the other two due to the possibility by simply seeing evil rampant in the world, and despairing of punishment. That can lead to believing that there is no difference between good and evil, since we see good things happening to bad people, and they seem to be winning – but do not despair, says Nitai, eventually they will get their just desserts. Another way of understanding that last line is brought by Tosfot Yom Tov, who says that things can change in a second, as they did for Haman in the story of Esther. And a third way is brought by Midrash Shmuel, which is that even if we are not connected to evil or wickedness in any way, shape or form, we should still be aware of our own baser and selfish tendencies, which are always there. In this reading, we should never forget that what goes around comes around, and that all that are greater than their fellows also have greater opportunities to do evil.

(ח) יְהוּדָה בֶן טַבַּאי וְשִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן שָׁטָח קִבְּלוּ מֵהֶם. יְהוּדָה בֶן טַבַּאי אוֹמֵר, אַל תַּעַשׂ עַצְמְךָ כְעוֹרְכֵי הַדַּיָּנִין. וּכְשֶׁיִּהְיוּ בַעֲלֵי דִינִין עוֹמְדִים לְפָנֶיךָ, יִהְיוּ בְעֵינֶיךָ כִרְשָׁעִים. וּכְשֶׁנִּפְטָרִים מִלְּפָנֶיךָ, יִהְיוּ בְעֵינֶיךָ כְזַכָּאִין, כְּשֶׁקִּבְּלוּ עֲלֵיהֶם אֶת הַדִּין:

(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.

The third zug, pair of sages, is presented today. Yehudah ben Tabai and Shimon ben Shetach served during the reign of Alexander Yannai (127-76 BCE), in a time when Tzidukim (Sauducees) had control of the Sanhedrin, the supreme legal and religious council of 71 sages. It is not clear which one of them was Nasi of the Sanhedrin and which one was head of the court. Since Yehudah ben Tabai is listed first whenever they are mentioned together, most opinions hold that he was the Nasi. And there exists an opinion that Shimon ben Shetach was Nasi and Yehudah ben Tabai was head of the Court (see Hagigah 16b). Shimon ben Shetach was the brother of Queen Salome Alexandra, who was married to Yannai and was the widow of his brother Aristobulos I who reigned before Yannai for one year. That family connection, however, did not prevent him from having to hide during the height of Yannai’s persecutions of the Perushim (Pharisees), nor prevent Yehudah ben Tabai to exile himself in Alexandria. Eventually Yannai relents his persecutions and both sages are reinstated, and the control of the Sanhedrin goes to the Perushim, who hold by the Oral Law.
Our mishnah brings the maxim of Yehudah ben Tabai, which has two parts. The general subject is the proper behavior of a judge when litigants come before him. It is important to know that lawyers were not regular partcipants in trials during this time. The first part of the saying instructs the judges to be completely impartial, and listen to both claimants without pre-judging and without helping either side. The second part of the teaching brings the idea that the judge should be completely skeptical for them both, and examine them both as if both are guilty. As its flip, however, as soon as the claimants accept the judge’s decision, they should be seen as innocent. This shows that even the guilty side, as they receive and accept the judgment, is not tarred and feathered, but is seen as someone in their way to do complete teshuvah.

(ט) שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן שָׁטָח אוֹמֵר, הֱוֵי מַרְבֶּה לַחְקֹר אֶת הָעֵדִים, וֶהֱוֵי זָהִיר בִּדְבָרֶיךָ, שֶׁמָּא מִתּוֹכָם יִלְמְדוּ לְשַׁקֵּר:

(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.

Shimon ben Shetach is part of the third zug, pair of sages along with Yehudah ben Tabai. Shimon ben Shetach served during the reign of Alexander Yannai (127-76 BCE) and was the brother of Queen Salome Alexandra, as we learned in the last mishnah. Shimon ben Shetach has many interesting and challenging stories in the Mishnah and the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds. The most famous are his encounter with witches (Y. Sanhedrin 6:6); his dealings with Honi the circle-maker (B. Taanit 23a); and the returning of a pearl found in a donkey’s saddle to its rightful, non-Jewish, owner (Y. Baba Metzia 2:5). He also decreed compulsory education for children (Y. Ketubot 8:11).

In our mishnah, Shimon ben Shetach instructs judges, just as Yehuda ben Tabai did. He brings two different instructions: first, that a judge needs to examine witnesses in a detailed way; second, that while examining the judge needs to be careful with his (judges were always male in these times) words, lest the witnesses understood ways to make the judge favor one side through the judge’s words.

(י) שְׁמַעְיָה וְאַבְטַלְיוֹן קִבְּלוּ מֵהֶם. שְׁמַעְיָה אוֹמֵר, אֱהֹב אֶת הַמְּלָאכָה, וּשְׂנָא אֶת הָרַבָּנוּת, וְאַל תִּתְוַדַּע לָרָשׁוּת:

(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.

Shemaiah and Avtalion are the four pair, zug. Apparently they lived between the end of the Hasmonean rule, at the transition between Queen Salome Alexandra (aka Shlomtzion) and King Herod. According to the Mishnah in Hagigah 2:2, Shemaiah was the Nasi and Avtalion was the Head of the Court. In the Talmud it is said that they were both converts or descendent of converts (Yoma 71b; Gittin 57b). The tractate Pesachim 66a and 70b calls them Gedolei haDor, eminent scholars of the generation, Chahamim Gedolim, great sages and Darshanim Gedolim, great expositors of Torah.

In our mishnah, Shemaiah’s teaching is divided into three parts. The first, praising work, is found generally in rabbinic teachings (such as Ketubot 59b, Baba Metzia 30b, Kiddushin 30b), as idleness can lead to depression and licentiousness – just as resting on Shabbat is a mitzvah, so too is working on the other six days of the week. Work here does include manual labor. The second part is connected with the first in the sense that one sould not think of oneself as so important that they won’t do work (see Pesachim 113a). Another reading of this part is that one should not see themselves as higher in importance than others. And a third explanation is that being in a position of leadership is hard on someone’s personal life (Pesachim 87b and Bartenura). As for the third part, Shemaiah and Avtalion certainly lived in times when being too close to power was dangerous, to say the very least. Maimonides connects this with the saying "Once a man is appointed an officer over the community below, he becomes an evildoer above" (Sanhedrin 103b) and affirms that those three traits re what brings refinement to faith and to the world. There is a general voice cautioning those who are close to the government as the government will eventually force them to break Torah law (Maimonides, Bartenura, Rabbeinu Yonah).

(יא) אַבְטַלְיוֹן אוֹמֵר, חֲכָמִים, הִזָּהֲרוּ בְדִבְרֵיכֶם, שֶׁמָּא תָחוּבוּ חוֹבַת גָּלוּת וְתִגְלוּ לִמְקוֹם מַיִם הָרָעִים, וְיִשְׁתּוּ הַתַּלְמִידִים הַבָּאִים אַחֲרֵיכֶם וְיָמוּתוּ, וְנִמְצָא שֵׁם שָׁמַיִם מִתְחַלֵּל:

(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.

Avtalion, the av beit din (head of court) of the fourth pair, directs his words to the leaders of what would become rabbinical Judaism, which is what is practiced today. Sages had their followers, and the possibility of leaving the path of rabbinic Judaism and attach oneself to any of the several groups of second Temple Judaism is a real possibility, or even beginning your own sect. Antigonos, the man of Socho, had among his students Baitus and Tzadok, who begun their own sects – and there are those who believe they did so by misinterpreting the words of Antigonos on 1:3 as a denial of the world to come.

Avtalion warns the sages that their words can bring evil to themselves – and the consequence is that the sage is exiled, bringing his students with him, and evil words can be poisonous. “Water” here is a metaphor either for Torah or from explanations. This last idea is from the Yachin (Israel Lipschitz, Poland 1782–1860), who says that Torah really is compared to strong wine, and water is the explanations of the sages that make the strong wine drinkable. His opinion is that the sage should not have words that could be interpreted in different ways. There are those, like Avigdor Shinan (A New Israeli Commentary, Hebrew University, ~2009) that believe Avtalion is talking about words connected to the powers of his time, the Hasmoneans or Herod, and that exile here is actual self-exile, and not captivity. Avtalion would be commenting on Shemaia’s words “do not get too close to the powers.” In this reading, Avtalion is responding to what happened to Shimon ben Shetach and Yehudah ben Tabai (1:8-1:9), his teachers. Just as water is a metaphor, “death” here would be spiritual death, the one that comes from going to other sects – that is the desacration, according to Rav Avi Novis-Deutsch. Rav Avi Novis-Deutsch offers also another way of reading the entire mishnah, which is that evil comes not from the words themselves, but from the understandings that can spring from those words. A sage would be being warned that his carelessness would open his words to evil understandings, and even if he does not intend to have that, exile and death follow from his words.

(יב) הִלֵּל וְשַׁמַּאי קִבְּלוּ מֵהֶם. הִלֵּל אוֹמֵר, הֱוֵי מִתַּלְמִידָיו שֶׁל אַהֲרֹן, אוֹהֵב שָׁלוֹם וְרוֹדֵף שָׁלוֹם, אוֹהֵב אֶת הַבְּרִיּוֹת וּמְקָרְבָן לַתּוֹרָה:

(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.

The fifth and last zug is Hillel and Shamai, both great names in their own right. They serve as Nasi and Av Beit Din during part of Herod’s reign, which began in 37 BCE. They founded schools of thought, Beit Hilel and Beit Shamai, and there are many legends about both of them. Hillel will be our teacher for this and the next two mishnayot. Hillel was an immigrant from Babylonia, and got to become Nasi due to his Davidic lineage. He is known for his patience, kindness to others and humility. Yachin (Rabbi Israel Lipschitz 1782–1860) points out that the three mishnayot correspond being humble in words, deeds and thought; and also to those greater than Hilel, those in the similar station and those lower, teaching us that one should talk and befriend everyone.
There is no Biblical verse connecting directly Aharon with peace, but Malachi 2:4-7 describes the the house of Levi as following God with “peace and loyalty” and “bringing back many from iniquity”. Hillel’s syaing has three parts: loving and pursuing peace, loving humans and bringing them to Torah. Avot deRabi Natan 12:3 brings a famous legend about Aharon’s methods. It is not enough to love peace and not enjoy having disputes over small things with your fellow human beings, you also need to pursue peace, trying to reconnect with those that have a dispute with you. Yachin points out that this is based on a verse from Psalm 34, “turn from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it”. Avigdor Shinan points out that humankind is a term that could be used strictly, but all the stories about Hillel and the converts (see Shabbat 31a) point to a most expansive use. The Vilna Gaon (Elijah ben Solomon Zalman 1720-1797) in his commentary connects this with the verse about Avram (Gen. 12:5) “making souls in Haran”. The Maharal of Prague (Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel 1512–1609) in his Derekh Chayim (1:12) points out that loving God has to do with loving people, and to properly serve God Aharon had to be someone who can connect with all. Similarly, Hillel is exhorting us to develop that trait, pursuing and loving peace as it is also a way of searching for God, called Peace (see Judges 6:24). Unifying God, which is what this life in about, has to do with being united with all of God’s creation, which brings us to a great humility.

(יג) הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, נָגֵד שְׁמָא, אָבֵד שְׁמֵהּ. וּדְלֹא מוֹסִיף, יָסֵף. וּדְלֹא יָלֵיף, קְטָלָא חַיָּב. וּדְאִשְׁתַּמֵּשׁ בְּתָגָא, חָלֵף:

(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.

We continue with the sayings of Hillel. This mishnah is surprising in many ways. One, it is not in Hebrew, but in Aramaic. Two, it has a clear rhythm and rhymes. Finally, the structure is very tight, packing a lot of content in few words: it has four different ideas.
The first is the question of fame and honor, symbolized by the word “name”. One common understanding of this is that if you focus on getting famous, fame will always elude you (this is similar to Eruvin 113a, and to an interesting saying found in Sanhedrin 106a – “the camel that seeks horns has its ears cut off”). Bartenura sees the message as if you get your name known by lording over others, you will be buried by the pressures of lording over others. Yachin (Rabbi Israel Lipschitz, 1782–1860) believes that we are talking about punishments, and that the punishment for wanting honor that is not due you is to lose the little you already have. The Vilna Gaon connects this to Shemaia’s saying that one should not be too close to the government, since they will take everything you have from you once you become known, and to Arachin 16a, in which people talk about your name, and everyone expects you to trat them well, and will end up cursing you when you don’t. If you want to sum up: be careful with your ego.

The second part has to do with growth in learning, and the two next pairs can be seen as interconnected. The gist is that you should never be satisfied with the learning you have, being Jewish is not just being, but growing in Torah. Bartenura mentions that there is a manuscript in which it reads “he will be gathered” intead of “it will cease” and similarly the Vilna Gaon brings Baba Batra 121b, in which the sages connect this to the disturbing idea that if you do not increase your studies your mother will bury you. Avigdor Shinan remarks that there is a play in words with לְהוֹסִיף (to add) and סוֹף (end) which sound similar but come from different roots (י.ס.פ. and ס.ו.פ.). As Rabbi Joshua Kulp writes: “One who does not learn Torah deserves to die - I don’t believe that this harsh statement is not meant to be taken literally; it is certainly not a directive to a court to execute the unlearned.” The meaning is probably that what brings real life to a person is reaching to spiritual and intellectual growth, since this is what really makes us different from animals, and the moment someone is content with their growth, they are metaphorically dead.

The last part was so meaningful to the rabbis that it is repeated again, in Hillel’s name, by Rabbi Yishmael on Avot 4:5. Most understand the “crown” to be the crown of Torah, and see the message as using your learning as a means to an end. This is made explicit by Rabbah Bar Bar Chana in Nedarim 62a – and note that he is an amora of the third generation, that is, 300 CE, strengthening this understanding and the vitality of this message through the generations. Resh Lakish, in Megilah 28b will reinterpret this as specific to those who repeat halachot, and transforms this in a warning to those sages who had others who served them. Bartenura, however, brings an alternative explanation that crown is a codeword for God’s explicit name, and that manipulating the Name as a tool would bring death to the manipulator, in this world and in the world to come. Yachin warns us that this is about self-worship: using Torah as a tool to self-advancement, for the ego, is a form of idolatry. There are those (Kulp, Shinan) that see a chiastic structure in this mishnah, with the first and last sayings mirroring one another and the second nd third doing the same. It would look like “dangers of ego – need to grow – need to grow – dangers of ego”.

(יד) הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, אִם אֵין אֲנִי לִי, מִי לִי. וּכְשֶׁאֲנִי לְעַצְמִי, מָה אֲנִי. וְאִם לֹא עַכְשָׁיו, אֵימָתָי:

(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?

We continue with the sayings of Hillel. This mishnah is one of the most famous, as songs have been made of it. Similar to the previous one, it has both rhythm and rhyme. In the comments there’s a link for the Zamir choral, but many different singers, including Debbie Friedman, have made songs out of this mishnah.

The Kaufmann manuscript has a slight different version, in which the word אִם, if, is ommitted. Most commentators understand that the first part of this saying as not praising individualism, and see it as an exhortation to “acquire merit” through doing mitzvot. Be as it may, the second line comes to balance the first, even regarding acquiring merit through mitzvot, as one has responsibilities to the world. Bartenura will reread this as a comparison between the mitzvot one does and all the duties one actually has, making this second part a call to humility, and the last part a call to “memento mori” – remember that you will die, and in death no mitzvot are possible, so do them in this world and now. Maimonides has a different take on “what am I”, he sees it as the question “what am I becoming.” True to character, he rereads this mishnah with the idea that we become what we habitually do, and so it is in our power to decide what we become, and imagines “now” as the time of youth, the time of formation of character, and “when” as the time of old age, when it is difficult to change. Avigdor Shinan sees the first sentence as a call to action, and the second one as a reminder that one does not act alone, no person lives in a vacuum. All achievements are done in conjunction with others, and if a person sees the proper action, that action should be done at its proper time. “Now”, for Shinan, is not a call to do things recklessly or without thinking about the consequences. “Now” is the exact time when things need to be done. Shinan does not see the last sentence as connected to the other two. The Maharal of Prague, in his Derekh Hayim, brings an allegory to clarify his reading, and this is fund in Vayikra Rabbah (4:2) about a commoner that marries the daughter of the king, and no matter what he does he won’t fulfill all that she needs – the same happens to the body that “marries” the soul – you have to do a lot, Torah and mitzvot, for yourself, since you can’t pass on that merit to others, but always knowing that you have never fulfilled everything that your soul needs.

(טו) שַׁמַּאי אוֹמֵר, עֲשֵׂה תוֹרָתְךָ קֶבַע. אֱמֹר מְעַט וַעֲשֵׂה הַרְבֵּה, וֶהֱוֵי מְקַבֵּל אֶת כָּל הָאָדָם בְּסֵבֶר פָּנִים יָפוֹת:

(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.

The Mishnah now turns to Shamai, Hillel’s counterpart. Shammai was Hillel’s intellectual rival and the av beit din, the head of the court. Shamai is known as a pious and punctilious defender of the tradition during their tenure, 30 BCE – 20 CE. For starters, let’s look at the fact that there are three sayings of Hillel recorded, and only one of Shamai. This already tells us which school will win the day.
Yachin (Rabbi Israel Lipschitz, 1782–1860) connects this three sayings – and every other three part saying - with Shimon HaTzadik’s “the world stands on three things”. Corresponding to Torah, “make it a disciplined action”; to work, “say little and do much”; to lovingkindness, “receive every person with a pleasant smile”. Maimonides’s and the Vilna Gaon’s commentaries bring the possibility of a different version, that adds the words “make your work casual”. The Vilna Gaon also connects the “say little and do much” with the example of Avraham Avinu, who says he’ll give the messegers a “morsel of bread” and ends up bringing a calf (Gen. 18). The Maharal of Prague (Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, 1512–1609) brings in his Derech Hayim an interesting principle: the first of the zugot is always teaching about love, and the second is always teaching about awe. He reads the last piece of the mishnah as a warning not to forget that every person is made in God’s image. The last part of our mishnah stands in tension with another story of Shamai, found in Shabbat 31a, in which he rejects people with anger and hits them with his builder’s measuring stick. Known as severe and irritable, Shamai’s words show us another side of him as a teacher and human being – and be as it may, his advice is a sound one.

(טז) רַבָּן גַּמְלִיאֵל הָיָה אוֹמֵר, עֲשֵׂה לְךָ רַב, וְהִסְתַּלֵּק מִן הַסָּפֵק, וְאַל תַּרְבֶּה לְעַשֵּׂר אֹמָדוֹת:

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

Our mishnah for today is interesting in that it stops the pattern we had before “so-and-so received from…” , probably to indicate that we are done with the zugot and move to individual tannaitic leadership, a possible indication of a change in the transmission of the Oral Law. A Tanna is a sage of the Mishnah. It is assumed from the context that the Rabban Gamliel here is Rabban Gamliel I, aka Rabban Gamliel The Elder, a grandson of Hillel. All the commentators make a point to say this. He becomes the Nasi (patriarch) after Hillel dies (~ 20 CE), a few decades before the destruction of the Temple by the Romans (70 CE). Part of his tenure (20-40 CE) coincided with the reign of Agrippa, whom he befriended and taught. Agrippa was the grandson of Herod and Mariamne, and the son of Aristobulus and Berenice, making him the nephew of Queen Salome Alexandra, aka Queen Shlomtzion. Keep an eye on the title “Rabban Gamliel” as it was used by six different Nesi’im – and that is why every commentator will try to specify whom we are learning with.
Rabban Gamliel the Elder begins revisiting what Yehoshua ben Perahia said in mishnah 1:6. If you chose to see the saying as independent from the others, he is merely repeating Yehoshua ben Perachia. But if you chose to see his saying as connected to the other two, then he is explaining what “appoint a teacher” means: to get rid of doubt. In his reading, it is not about learning and making decisions for yourself, but about going to a higher authority and relying on them. This same idea is brought by the commentary of the Rambam. The question of tithing is interesting, in that the Tosfot Yom Tov (Yom Tov Lipman Heller, Prague, 1579 - 1654) points out that Rabban Gamliel does not simply say “do not tithe by estimation”, but “do not make a habit of tithing by estimation”. Literally it is written תַּרְבֶּה “do not increase” – very apropos of this time in the year, when we use the same verb to describe the month of Adar. R. Meshulam Katz (Lvov, 1758 – 1810) understands this to mean that even if you want to give more than what you are asked (10%) you should not. Yachin (R. Israel Lipschitz, Danzig, 1782–1860) will remind us that adding to the ma’aser is actually a trangression, as mentioned in Menachot 54b, and so one should not imagine oneself to be stringent in ma’aser by adding to it.
The Kaufmann manuscript has two words: אֹמָדוֹת, and עימדות so opens up the possibility that we are reading this all wrong. Rabban Gamliel could be saying do not make a goal of enriching yourself (עישור and עמידה enriching and social standing). Be as it may, the central object of his saying is the hope to leave behind doubt.
Bringing it to modern times, Avigdor Shinan points out that every person who works in any area knows that it is important to get advice from those who are more specialized. And he asks an important question: is it possible, in the modern world, to be completely free of doubt? I’d wager that it is the acceptance of the presence of doubt that makes us moderns – and groups who live in cloistered communities do so precisely because doubt is so powerful, and those groups embrace a pre-modern way of living – as do those who we call extremists. What they wear, and in what time they live is less important than the fact that they, as Rabban Gamliel I, do not want a life with the presence of doubt. Rav Avi Novis-Deutsch also loves doubt, and he makes that clear in his commentary. Certainty is a powerful drug and, in my opinion, is the opposite of faith. But this is another discussion.

(יז) שִׁמְעוֹן בְּנוֹ אוֹמֵר, כָּל יָמַי גָּדַלְתִּי בֵין הַחֲכָמִים, וְלֹא מָצָאתִי לַגּוּף טוֹב אֶלָּא שְׁתִיקָה. וְלֹא הַמִּדְרָשׁ הוּא הָעִקָּר, אֶלָּא הַמַּעֲשֶׂה. וְכָל הַמַּרְבֶּה דְבָרִים, מֵבִיא חֵטְא:

(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.

Our mishnah turns to the son of Rabban Gamliel the Elder, Shimon. With the death of his father in 50 CE he received the title Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel I (the II speaks in the next mishnah), he was the head of the Sanhedrin at the time of the destruction of the Temple and the Nasi. He was one of the Ten Martyrs that we mention on Yom Kippur, during the prayer Eleh Ezkereh, during Musaf. There are opinions that say that he is not given the title in the mishnah here because his father was still alive. Note also that this is the first time in Avot in which a son comes after his father: most rabbis did not inherit their positions, the Nesi’im (Princes or Patriarchs) are an exception.

Shimon says three statements that can all be summarized in “actions are better than words”. RSBG1 has left few sayings, and probably this is the reason. “Say little and do much” was said by Shammai in mishnah 15. Avot de Rabbi Natan (22:2) points out succintly: if silence is good for the wise, all the more for the foolish. Rambam points out that Proverbs 10:19 says something similar: “Where there is much talking, there is no lack of transgressing, one who keeps their lips in check shows sense.” He then brings a certain Sefer haMiddot, in which speech is divided into four categories according to benefit, three of which are no good. And he himself divides speech in five categories according to mitzvot, three being good or permissible, and two being transgressive. His commentary is translated into English in Sefaria, focusing not so much on the quantity of words, but on their quality. The idea of measured speech is depicted by RSBG1 as good “for the body” – and as Avigdor Shinan points out, body here is a word that includes all that a person does, both physically and spiritually. And there is no debate that silence is better than gossip, chatter, empty conversations and arguing for the sake of arguing and other misuse of the power of speech.

As for the second part, the Vilna Gaon connects it with Brachot 17a, which praises those who do mitzvot for their own sake. The acts of mitzvot, as there are the essential part, still need to be without an agenda – and maybe precisely because he was growing among sages, Shimon was able to differentiate between those who do mitzvot moved by devotion and those who were moved for something else. Rav Avi Novis-Deutsch points out that learning from parents and teachers happens much more profoundly through deeds than through words.

(יח) רַבָּן שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן גַּמְלִיאֵל אוֹמֵר, עַל שְׁלשָׁה דְבָרִים הָעוֹלָם עוֹמֵד, עַל הַדִּין וְעַל הָאֱמֶת וְעַל הַשָּׁלוֹם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (זכריה ח) אֱמֶת וּמִשְׁפַּט שָׁלוֹם שִׁפְטוּ בְּשַׁעֲרֵיכֶם:

(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).

Closing our first chapter is a saying Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel the second. He is the grandson of the Shimon mentioned in mishnah 17, the son of Rabban Gamliel of Yavneh. He was the patriarch after the Bar Kokhba revolt (132-135 CE). He lived in the Gallilee, which became the center of Judaism after the revolt. He was the father of Rabbi Judah Hanasi, the editor of the Mishnah. It is telling that the Mishnah skips Rabban Gamliel of Yavne – if you recall, in our haggadot Rabban Gamliel also appears separated from the other sages that are sitting in Yavne. This could be connected to the controversy in the Bavli tractate of Rosh Hashanah 25a-b. The Mishnat Eretz Israel (Shmuel, Chana and Ze’ev Safrai, Israel 2003) points out that there are those who affirm that the mishnah should have said “he also used to say”, but that is understood as a later correction, amplifying this question.

Back to Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel II, his saying mirrors mishnah 2 at the beginning of the chapter – a clear choice by the editor. You can see in Sefaria that the two manuscripts, Munich and Kaufmann, have different words for “stand” - עומד and קיים, which does not happen with mishnah 2. קיים is translated as “exists”. The Midrash Shmuel on Avot (Samuel de Uçeda, Tzfat c.1525 – 1604 CE) mentions a third manuscript in which the word is נברא, created. Midrash Shmuel will add that the difference between the two mishnayot is that each sage spoke in his time, and Shimon HaTzadik spoke while the Temple stood, and so his three things were there while the Temple existed. However, RSBG2 was alive after the destruction, showing us what we can hold on to despite that destruction. Midrash Shmuel than brings Rashi’s comment, which makes a distinction between “since the creation up to the destruction” and “after the destruction”. Several commentators, like the Meiri, will affirm is that the difference between the two mishnayot is that without those three things (judgment, truth and peace) the civilized world, with its political and societal structure, simply crumbles. The Mishnat Eretz Israel brings an interesting idea: “from Shimon to Shimon the world stood, and only after Shimon does the Torah develop”. The Melekhet Shlomo (Shlomo adani, Yemen, 1566-Hevron, 1624) points out that, when we read the Talmud Yerushalmi (Megillah 3:6) the verse seems to be attached later, which can is hinted in the Kaufmann manuscript, as it is in small letters. The relationship between judgment, truth and peace is an interesting question. There are those who see them as interdependent (without truth there is no judgment/justice, without judgment/justice there is no peace) or as stand alone, each with an importance of its own. Rav Avi Novis-Deutsch prefers to see them as standing alone, but connected in that they give the vitality that is necessary for the world to exist.

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