The name of Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan (the ‘Chofetz Chaim’) has cropped up frequently in Avot Today, since so much of his writing is directly or indirectly relevant to Pirkei Avot. Although he never wrote a formal commentary on the tractate, several compilations of Avot-relevant comments and explanations which appeared in his other works were published after his death* and it is obvious from his focus on correct behaviour and good middot that Avot played an important part in his life.
One of the
most frequently-cited principles in Avot is the teaching of Yehoshua ben
Perachya (Avot 1:6) that we should judge other people meritoriously. This is
widely understood as meaning that, where it is possible to judge a person’s
actions favourably or otherwise, we should give them the benefit of any doubt.
In the
following chapter, the Chofetz Chaim explains that the commandment to judge
others justly is itself a subset of a wider mitzvah: “love your fellow
like yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). But in this chapter too there is no mention
of the mishnah in Avot.
At first
glance it seems astonishing that the Chofetz Chaim should overlook this mishnah
and fail to name-check the Tanna in whose name it is taught. Surely he must
have known of it! How could he have relegated it from his masterly compendium
of speech-related laws and best practices?
I believe
that there is an answer to this question that both explains and vindicates the
decision of the Chofetz Chaim to omit this mishnah. When writing in his
eponymous sefer about the principles that govern permitted speech, he
modestly mentions that his is not the first work to address the evils of lashon
hara. Much the same ground, he
recognises, was covered by Rabbenu Yonah in his Sha’are Teshuvah. There
is however a difference between these works. The account of the need to guard
one’s speech in Sha’are Teshuvah was couched in terms of middot—good
and proper standards of behaviour—while the objective of the Chofetz Chaim was
to frame the same principles as mitzvot. Bearing in mind the comment of
the Bartenura on Avot 1:1 that the entire tractate, unlike the rest of the
Mishnah, consists of middot and mussar, it is easy to dismiss
Avot as merely guidance, devoid of the force of law, the decision of the
Chofetz Chaim to describe judging others favourably as a Torah mitzvah
is perfectly reasonable.
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·
See eg Shmuel Charlap, Chofetz Chaim al Masechet Avot, Jerusalem
1962; Rabbi David Zaretzky, Masechet Avot im Pirushei HaChofetz Chaim, Jerusalem
1974 (translated into English as The Hafetz Hayyim on Pirkey Avoth, Feldheim
Publishers, Jerusalem 1975).
