A hard life and a hidden patriarch

An anonymous baraita in the sixth chapter of Avot (Avot 6:4) praises a tough, ascetic lifestyle as the path to happiness through Torah study. It reads:

This is the way of Torah: eat bread with salt; drink water in moderation; sleep on the ground; live a life of hardship and toil in Torah. If you do so, "you will be happy and it will be good for you” —happy in this world, good to you in the World to Come.

Much has been written on this prescription for happiness the hard way and many questions have been asked on it: for example, is it addressed to the rich as a message that they should change their ways or to the poor as a message of consolation? Is it the exclusive way of the Torah or are there others? Does it apply for all time or was it specific to the era of the Tanna who authored it? Should it be taken literally or is it steeped in metaphor and symbolism?

This post considers a novel question: is there a subtext waiting to be discovered?

Let us conjecture that this baraita has someone in particular in mind, a role model (as it were) whose life fits the parameters of happiness laid down here. After all, the demands it makes suggest that, if it refers to anyone, that person must be possessed of extraordinary human qualities.

I venture to suggest there is some textual evidence in favour of this teaching pointing us to the patriarch Jacob. How is this so?

The Torah describes Jacob as “a quiet man, dwelling in tents,” which the commentators have traditionally taken to mean that he was a man who conscientiously studied at the yeshivah of Shem and Ever. We also know are that he slept on the ground, that he could manage without sleep and that he lived a life of great hardship. Was he happy? His final sentiments were those of a man who died content in the knowledge that he was not only reunited with his beloved son Joseph but saw his grandsons too —a formula for peace of mind.

The only element of this baraita to which the Torah makes no specific allusion is that of drinking water in moderation, but water in moderation is part of his heritage: the blessing that Isaac gives Jacob, assuming him to be Esau, is that God should give him “the dew of Heaven.” Though dew is also a blessing, it is a moderate one since its impact is more limited than that of rain.

A further hint that Jacob is the archetypical Torah scholar of our baraita is provided by the source of the proof verse: the 128th chapter of the Book of Psalms. Virtually every part of this short psalm (it has just six verses) points straight to him. Let us look at it in its entirety. The text of the psalm is bold:

1. A song of ascents [It is Jacob who dreams of the ladder with its ascending and descending angels]. Blessed are all who fear God [Jacob fears God ], who walk in his ways [Jacob literally goes wherever God tells him ].

2. You will eat the fruit of your labour [Jacob toiled hard as a shepherd ]; you will be happy and it will be good for you [his flocks and sheep-breeding programme made him a remarkably wealthy man].

3. Your wife [Jacob’s wife Leah, from whom the psalmist King David was descended] will be like a fruitful vine [“fruitful vine” is part of Jacob’s blessing to Joseph; the term “fruitful vine” is also symbolic of one’s children being without blemish, like those of Jacob ] within your house [Leah being one of the four “women in the tent” in Horayot 10b]; your sons [12 in total] will be like olive shoots around your table.

4. Thus is the man blessed who fears God [see first verse].

5. May God bless you from Zion [God blesses Jacob on Mount Moriah] all the days of your life [God says: “I’m with you, I will not leave you”]; may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem,

6. And may you live to see your children's children [Jacob lives to see a total of 54 grandchildren and great-grandchildren ]. Peace be upon Israel [God changes Jacob’s name to “Israel”].

It is the second verse of this psalm that is the proof verse for this baraita.

It is acknowledged that there is no tradition that connects this psalm to Jacob. However, anyone seeking a take-away message from this baraita could do worse than seek to emulate at least some of this man’s outstanding character and qualities.

Artwork: Jacob tending Laban's flock, after Castiglione: landscape with sheep, goats, and cows standing at a watering place, on the left Jacob brandishing a rod, and a young woman riding a donkey by his side. c.1743/63. Original with the British Museum.