Doing something wrong? Then go with the flow

One of the three teachings we learn in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Netanel at Avot 2:18 is אַל תְּהִי רָשָׁע בִּפְנֵי עַצְמֶֽךָ. Most commentators and English translators take much the same view of the Tanna’s message. Typical of this consensus are the following:

• “Do not be wicked in your own eyes” (chabad.org; Rabbi Lord Sacks substitutes ‘evil’ for ‘wicked’)
• “Do not judge yourself to be a wicked person” (ArtScroll)

Some go further and incorporate further guidance. Thus:

• “Do not be wicked in your own esteem [lest you set yourself a low standard of conduct]” (Philip Birnbaum, HaSiddur HaShalem)
• “Do not consider yourself as wicked when left to depend on your own efforts” (Rabbi Shimshon Refael Hirsch, The Hirsch Pirkei Avos, tr. Hirschler/Haberman)

One aspect of this teaching that invites further discussion is the choice of the words “בִּפְנֵי עַצְמֶֽךָ”. This is the reflexive part of the mishnah. Rendered “yourself”, “in your own esteem” or “in your own eyes” in the translations quoted above, the words literally mean “before yourself” or “in front of yourself”—words that do not flow comfortably in English.

An interesting interpretation of these words in the context of this teaching appears in Rabbi Reuven Melamed’s Melitz Yosher. Here follows my expansion of his brief words.

We believe that, when a person performs a mitzvah or a generally meritorious act, this deed will attract a reward. Not all actions are equally rewarded. Those good deeds that are practised by everyone on a regular basis may be regarded as the products of good habits. They are unlikely to require a person to struggle against their yetzer hara, their evil inclination, in order to perform them. On the contrary, since everyone else around them is carrying on with the same conduct, there may even be peer pressure to continue do to those meritorious acts that attract rewards. This being so, since the effort involved in performing them is likely to be small, the reward for doing them will be small too. Only where the effort is great, and where a person exceeds the standards set by others, will the reward be great (“According to the effort, so is the reward”: Avot 5:26).

The same principles apply, mutatis mutandis, to averot (misdeeds) and generally poor conduct. Where a person’s breach of legal or social standards of behaviour is commonplace, shared by most or all fellow humans, it may have been the product of nothing worse than bad habits. All the miscreant is doing, after all, is to go with the flow. For such misdeeds, the punishment may be expected to be small. Indeed, as the Pele Yo’etz comments, a person who performs the same wrongful deeds as everyone else does at least have the virtue of respecting Hillel’s precept (Avot 2:5) of not separating himself from the rest of the community. However, if a wrongful act requires effort, initiative and individual action that goes beyond the norm of even bad behaviour, the punishment should be much bigger.

The teaching of Rabbi Shimon ben Netanel is therefore a wake-up call to anyone who is contemplating the performance of any wrongful act. We should ask ourselves whether our behaviour is normatively bad or whether it is בִּפְנֵי עַצְמֶֽךָ, a stand-out deed that others are not also doing. If it is, we should seriously think twice before doing it since the prospect of severe punishment lies ahead. The fact that we are in effect "going solo" should be sufficient warning.