A spade or an axe? Take your pick

A rabbi of my acquaintance recently commented on an extract from Pirkei Avot which, he said, was generally mistranslated. This extract from Avot 4:7, taught in the name of Rabbi Zadok, is bound to be the subject of disagreement because it exists in different forms, but the text to which he referred is that which is most commonly found in contemporary publications:

וְאַל תַּעֲשֶֽׂהָ עֲטָרָה לְהִתְגַּדֶּל בָּהּ, וְלֹא קַרְדּוּם לַחְפֹּר בָּהּ

What does this mean? These words are usually rendered as

“do not use it [i.e. the Torah] as a crown with which to glorify oneself, and not as a spade to dig with”. 

The idea behind these words is uncontroversial: no-one should cash in on their knowledge of the Torah as a means of boosting their personal prestige or as a way of obtaining material gain. It is also generally accepted that the verb לַחְפֹּר (lachpor) means “dig”. So what then is the problem?

The problem—if indeed it be a problem—is that the word קַרְדּוּם (kardum), rendered in this mishnah as “spade”, is also found in the Books of Samuel (1:13, 20 and 21), Judges (9:48) and Jeremiah (46:22) with the meaning of “axe”. The same meaning is found in the Babylonian Talmud (Betzah 31a-b). There also exists a parallel text of our mishnah in which the last four words are rendered וְלֹא קַרְדּוּם לַחְתָּךְ בָּהּ (“and not an axe to chop with”).

Is the translation of kardum as “spade” in our mishnah therefore an error? I do not think so.

If kardum can only mean “axe”, Rabbi Zadok is urging us not to use the Torah as “an axe to dig with”. This seems a little awkward, in that an axe is used for chopping or splitting something rather than for digging it. To say that he is teaching only that one should use the Torah an implement that is suitable for any given task (i.e. for chopping, as it were, but not for digging) seems narrow and may also sound a little contrived.

Even if it is wrong, among English translations the “spade to dig with” formula is the generally-accepted translation among commentators, translators and publishers. These include Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks (Authorized Daily Prayer Book and the Koren Pirkei Avot), Rabbi Eliezer Prins (The Lehmann-Prins Pirkei Avoth), Rabbi Reuven Bulka (Chapters of the Sages),Rabbis Avie Gold and Nahum Spirn (Alshich on Avos), Irving M. Bunim (Ethics From Sinai), Hyman E. Goldin (Ethics of the Fathers), Philip Birnbaum (HaSiddur HaShelam) and Herbert Danby (The Mishnah), not to mention all the many editions of Avot published by ArtScroll. The version of this mishnah found on the chabad.org website accepts this translation even though the Hebrew version that accompanies it would be more accurately rendered “an axe to chop with”.

Apart from the "axe to dig with", there are other textual variants, but these are very much minority views. Basing himself on other manuscript sources, R. Travers Herferd (The Ethics of the Talmud) opts for "a 'dish' wherewith to eat", while the Hirschler/Haberman revision of Rabbi S. R. Hirsch and Samson Krupnik's Torah Dynamics both offer "an ax with which to strike". Rabbi Eliahu Touger's translation of Rambam's commentary goes for "an axe with which to cut".

Be that as it may, while it must be accepted that the majority is not always right, we cannot ignore the fact that it is the majority—and an influential one, at that. This gives me confidence to affirm that, even though kardum may mean “axe” in other contexts, we are entitled to treat the word as “spade” in the context of this mishnah and learn its message accordingly.