The speaker did not quote any sources; he didn't even
mention Avot at all. This did not surprise me, since he was not a rabbi and he
was not speaking on a Jewish topic. The surprise--for anyone reading this and
who was not present at this talk--was that he was a journalist, and an Arab
Muslim, speaking on prospects for Israel, her citizens and her neighbours in
the coming months.
The occasion was this month's Rosh Chodesh Lunch Club
meeting and the speaker was Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist with
the Jerusalem Post. His talk was crisp and concise, funny, painfully honest and
constructively critical. Remarkably, while speaking of a wide range of
politicians Israeli and Arab, Jewish and otherwise, he managed not to speak
insultingly of any of them.
Ben Zoma asks (Avot 4:1) "Who is wise?" and then
answers his own question, "the person who learns from everyone". It
was possible to do this by listening to Abu Toameh's talk -- an object lesson
in how easily one can instil the spirit of Avot into one's oral presentations
and impart its moral values without sounding preachy.
