There's a Mishnah in the third perek of Avot in which Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa teaches as follows:
כֹּל שֶׁרֽוּחַ הַבְּרִיּוֹת נוֹחָה הֵימֶֽנּוּ, רֽוּחַ הַמָּקוֹם נוֹחָה הֵימֶֽנּוּ. וְכֹל שֶׁאֵין רֽוּחַ הַבְּרִיּוֹת נוֹחָה הֵימֶֽנּוּ, אֵין רֽוּחַ הַמָּקוֹם נוֹחָה הֵימֶֽנּוּ
This is usually translated non-literally, often along the lines of:
"One who is pleasing to his fellow men, he is pleasing to God. But one who is not pleasing to his fellow men, he is not pleasing to God",
However, in truth, when we stop to reflect
for a moment, it is apparent that the notion that one who is popular with
his fellows will also be loved by God raises problems. The first problem is that of establishing and
justifying any causal connection between people being popular with their peers
and their being popular, as it were, with God.
When we humans like other people, it can be both because of their
qualities or despite them – and we might like them for quite the wrong
reasons. This is why we have such a deep
and irrational fascination and sometimes affection for rogues and villains. We
would expect God, whose knowledge and understanding quite exceeds our own, to
make better judgements than we do. Why
should God’s spirit rest more on a charismatic rogue than on someone who is
socially awkward but possessed of finer inner qualities?
A second problem is that our own
literature does not appear to support this simple view of the Mishnah. A case in
point involves two of the most outstanding personalities within Jewish culture,
Moses and Aaron. There is no doubt that
these two individuals were loved by God: they possessed remarkable human
qualities and dedicated their lives to unselfish service of their Maker. However, while Aaron was greatly loved and
deeply mourned by a fickle and demanding public, Moses was of necessity a remote and distant figure, a stranger to the masses, respected and feared rather than loved. Indeed, he feared that they were ready to kill him. It is difficult to reconcile a simple
understanding of the words of this Mishnah with the notion that God’s warm
favour and affection is only directed towards those who are popular with their
fellow men. We might also contemplate the cases of Noah (an object of ridicule
and derision who finds favour in God’s eyes),
Jeremiah (subjected to vilification and physical abuse but gifted with prophecy by God) and Shimon ben Kosevah (‘Bar Kochba’, the
charismatic leader of a popular revolt against Roman rule but who did not receive
God’s support).
Thoughts, anyone?
