Torah learning: a tale of pigs and rings

One of the more memorable metaphors in Pirkei Avot can be found among the baraitot with which the tractate concludes. There, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi opens his teaching in Avot 6:2

Every day a Heavenly Voice emanates from Mount Horeb (i.e. Sinai), proclaiming and saying: "Woe to the creatures who insult the Torah!" For anyone who does not occupy himself in Torah is considered nazuf, as it is said (Proverbs 11:22): "A golden nose-ring in the snout of a pig, [is] a beautiful woman bereft of reason." ...

What is nazuf?

The baraita describes the person who is free to learn Torah, but doesn’t, as someone who is נָזוףּ (nazuf). What exactly does this word mean? No-one else in Avot is called nazuf and it is clearly not a term of endearment. The word is sometimes rendered “outcast”, which is quite good because of its connotations of being shunned or excommunicated. This seems right since the related word nezifah appears in the Talmud as a form of excommunication (see Moed Katan 16a-b, where a discussion focuses on the minimum period of nezifah in Israel and Babylonia. Another related word, nizufim, has been rendered “under divine displeasure”: see Yevamot 72a, Soncino edition).

Many alternatives to “outcast” have been offered. For example, ArtScroll favours “rebuked,” which sounds somewhat genteel: one might rebuke one’s pet dog for stealing a muffin from the tea-table. “Reprobate” (H. Danby, The Mishnah; R. Travers Herferd, The Ethics of the Talmud) has an antiquarian tone to it. “Censured” (Rabbis Avie Gold and Nahum Spirn, Alshich on Avos) suggests someone who has received a reprimand – but no more than that, though “under divine censure” (David N. Barocas’s translation of Me’am Lo’ez) has greater force to it, given the allusion to God's disfavour. “Reprehensible” (Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Authorised Daily Prayer Book) is somewhat remote, indicating a fitness to be reprimanded or censured rather than a course of action that has actually been taken. All of this goes to show how the impact of a baraita can be increased or diminished by the translator's choice of words.

The pig with a ring at the end of its nose

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi cites a piece of vivid imagery from the Book of Proverbs to support the notion of the person who insults the Torah being nazuf: “Like a golden nose-ring in the snout of a pig, [so] is a beautiful woman who has turned from reason" (Mishlei 11:22). This looks superficially as though it is a double imagery, since the person who has turned his back on the Torah is likened to a beautiful woman who has gone astray, and she in turn is compared to a pig with a golden ring in its snout. This is not quite the case, though: the pig and the woman are different metaphors. The pig has no idea that the ring has any inherent value or that it is held in high value by others; this symbolic woman on the other hand is presumed to know that the Torah represents a particular set of values but nonetheless rejects them. In each case the Torah is rejected, but the circumstances are quite different.

If we look at commentaries on this verse, we can see that it has been taken to refer to someone who has turned away from Torah (Rashi), presumably in contrast to someone who has never been exposed to the Torah in the first place, as well as to someone who uses his intelligence in order to deceive others (Metzudat David), and even to someone who does learn Torah but, in failing to do so in an appropriate manner, brings shame on his teacher (Malbim, Mussar Chochmah).

As an aside, the most famous ring in the snout of any pig is probably that which appears in Edward Lear’s popular nonsense rhyme, ‘The Owl and the Pussycat', which contains the following lines:

        And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
        With a ring at the end of his nose, his nose, his nose,
        With a ring at the end of his nose.
        “Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
        Your ring?” Said the Piggy, “I will” …

Known today chiefly for his children’s verses, Lear was also an accomplished artist. Samples of his paintings are currently held in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England. 

Lear was born into a religious Christian family and visited what is now Israel in the 1850s, making a number of sketches while he was there. It may be wondered whether his idea for incorporating a pig with a ring at the end of its nose into his verse was inspired by his own presumed familiarity with the Book of Proverbs.