Taking positives from the am ha'aretz

According to the anonymous Mishnah at Avot 5:13 there are four types of people:

(i) The person who says "What is mine is mine, and what is yours is yours"—this is a middle-of-the-road type; but there are those who say that this is the character of someone from Sodom;

(ii) The person who says, "What is mine is yours, and what is yours is mine" is an am ha’aretz;

(iii) [The person who says] "What is mine is yours, and what is yours is yours" is a chasid;

(iv) [And the person who says] "What is mine is mine, and what is yours is mine" is wicked.

I prefer to leave the terms am ha'aretz and chasid untranslated since they carry so much baggage with them. For convenience, we can say that an am ha'aretz -- literally, "people of the land" -- has relatively low behavioural standards and intellectual aspirations, while a chasid is a bit of an enthusiast when it comes to meeting and even exceeding his commitments to God and man. To call someone an am ha'aretz is rather an insult; to call someone a chasid is usually praise.

The am ha’aretz can however be viewed in positive terms too, because this term can also apply to people who literally work the land. Before the era of mechanised agriculture it was the am ha'aretz who tilled the soil and brought in its harvests—and this sort of work could be done by one man on his own. Cooperative effort is demanded and this is what happens when each am ha’aretz helps his fellows. Only if every man contributes his skill, his strength and his equipment for the good of others, and receives the effort of others in return, can the good order of the world be established and maintained.

Like the motto of the Three Musketeers, "One for all and all for one", the mishnah's text of “what’s mine is yours, and what’s yours is mine” can be read in a positive light -- and it can almost be described as a sort of partnership (this view has been offered by Rabbi Yitzchak Magriso, Me’am Lo’ez, and Rabbi Menachem Mordechai Frankel-Teomim, Be’er HaAvot).

As the Jewish calendar creeps towards the New Year and the Yom HaDin -- the Day of Judgement -- it's worth reflecting that even the am ha'aretz can be viewed in a positive light. After all, we subscribe to the position that there is no-one who does not have his time (Avot 4:3) and that, where possible we should judge others favourably (Avot 2:6). That is the way we'd like to be judged too.