Assets or liabilities?

A baraita in the sixth and final perek of Avot (6:8) reads as follows:

רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן יְהוּדָה מִשּׁוּם רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן יוֹחָאִי אוֹמֵר: הַנּוֹי, וְהַכֹּֽחַ, וְהָעֹֽשֶׁר  וְהַכָּבוֹד, וְהַחָכְמָה, וְהַזִּקְנָה, וְהַשֵּׂיבָה, וְהַבָּנִים, נָאֶה לַצַּדִּיקִים וְנָאֶה לָעוֹלָם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: עֲטֶֽרֶת תִּפְאֶֽרֶת שֵׂיבָה, בְּדֶֽרֶךְ צְדָקָה תִּמָּצֵא. וְאוֹמֵר: תִּפְאֶֽרֶת בַּחוּרִים כֹּחָם, וַהֲדַר זְקֵנִים שֵׂיבָה. וְאוֹמֵר: עֲטֶֽרֶת זְקֵנִים בְּנֵי בָנִים, וְתִפְאֶֽרֶת בָּנִים אֲבוֹתָם. וְאוֹמֵר: וְחָפְרָה הַלְּבָנָה וּבוֹשָׁה הַחַמָּה, כִּי מָלַךְ יְיָ צְבָאוֹת בְּהַר צִיּוֹן וּבִירוּשָׁלַֽיִם, וְנֶֽגֶד זְקֵנָיו כָּבוֹד. רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן מְנַסְיָא אוֹמֵר: אֵֽלּוּ שֶֽׁבַע מִדּוֹת שֶׁמָּנוּ חֲכָמִים לַצַּדִּיקִים, כֻּלָּם נִתְקַיְּמוּ בְּרַבִּי וּבְבָנָיו

[Translation] R’ Shimon ben Yehudah used to say in the name of R’ Shimon bar Yochai: “Beauty, strength, wealth, honour, wisdom, sagacity, old age and children befit the righteous and befit the world. As it states (Mishlei 16:31): "Old age is a crown of beauty, to be found in the ways of righteousness”. And it says (ibid. 20:29): "The beauty of youths is their strength, and the glory of sages is their age”. And it says (ibid., 17:6): "The crown of sages are their grandchildren, and the beauty of children their fathers”. And it says (Isaiah 24:23): "And the moon shall be abashed and the sun shamed, for the Lord of hosts has reigned in Zion, and before his elders is glory”.

Rabbi Shimon the son of Menasya used to say: “These seven qualities enumerated by the sages for the righteous were all realized in Rebbi [i.e. R’ Yehudah HaNasi] and his sons”

In my book I commented that this could be seen as a list of liabilities as well as of assets. I wrote (with footnoted citations removed):

Looking carefully at this Baraita, one can read it as conveying quite the opposite meaning to that which is normally given to it. This is because none of the eight things listed is only a reward or a privilege: it can also provide a basis upon which the person who possesses it must recognize that he has to shoulder the responsibility that goes with them. This idea is not as strange as one might initially think. Thinking along similar lines, Rabbi Levitas Ish Yavneh teaches that one should be very, very humble because the hope of man is but the worm: our Baraita has been viewed as a sort of negative checklist of things that can lead a person to pride and arrogance. However, we can learn here that, while these powerful attributes can corrupt or destroy if they in the wrong hands, tzaddikim have the capacity and the self-discipline to handle them. Not only can they ride with the tide, as it were, coping with each of the items on the list without losing their sense of humility, but they can channel them constructively for the good of others. How does this work? Let us take each term in order:

• Beauty: a person’s physical beauty is a snare and a delusion, an external asset that deteriorates over time. An earlier Mishnah has already warned us of the danger of taking people at face value, and the Book of Proverbs emphasizes that beauty is a false commodity. Only those with a strong moral backbone can be sure to cope with the pressures and expectations placed upon them by the perception of others that they are beautiful.

• Strength: ko’ach, the word translated here as “strength,” carries with it a secondary meaning, of “potential,” the prospect of being able to bring an incipient idea or plan to fruition. This sort of strength, the power to effect change, carries with it a weighty responsibility to bear in mind the so-called law of unintended consequences and look carefully towards the outcome of any change one has the power to achieve. Alternatively, as Ben Zoma explains above, strength is defined in terms of the ability to exercise self-discipline and control oneself. Given the powerful pull of a person’s evil inclination, having the strength to overcome it would seem to be an essential and ever-present weapon in the tzaddik’s armoury of middot. The sad lot of the tzaddik is that his evil inclination is stronger than that of others, so he has need of greater strength to combat it.

• Wealth: Hillel the Elder has already taught, “the more the wealth, the more the worry.” Again, strength of character and moral rectitude are required if a person is to pass the test of affluence. While we can all be rich in one sense – since the one who is truly rich is the person who is content with his portion – this is something that applies to everyone, whether they are tzaddikim or otherwise.

• Honour: of the eight items listed in this Baraita, none is as potentially toxic as honour: it is the only one that has the potential to kill a man spiritually stone dead. An ordinary individual runs the risk of chasing honour when it is as yet unearned, and of letting it get to his head even if it has been fairly earned. A tzaddik will however be able to handle its toxicity and treat it in the way Avot prescribes, by giving it to others and by according it to the Torah.

• Wisdom: like honour, wisdom can be dangerous in the hands of someone who lacks the requisite moral framework within which to utilize it. Pharaoh invoked wisdom when deciding to deal with his “Jewish Problem”: this misdirected wisdom could have resulted in the extinction of the Children of Israel but instead caused Pharaoh’s personal humiliation and the destruction of his own fighting force. Balaam’s attempts at prophecy could not harm Israel but his wise counsel did, when he advised Balak on how to break the desert nation’s commitment to God. Few men of their generation were as wise as King David’s counsellor Achitophel or King Saul’s chief herdsman Doeg, yet their intellectual prowess was ill matched with their scheming politics. The harsh reality is that wisdom is only safe in the hands of someone who can be trusted – ideally a tzaddik – and that is a massive responsibility, as Moses discovered when he was the only person who possessed the necessary wisdom to resolve his people’s disputes.

• Early old age: 60 or thereabouts is the time when a person becomes conscious of the fact that, while he may feel no different on the inside, he is starting to look old. Without a firm moral basis that supports a tzaddik, the drive to “have a final fling” or to yield to what is euphemistically called a “midlife crisis” can be overwhelming.

• Venerable old age: the Talmud reports the words of Barzilai the Gileadite to the effect that, on reaching the ripe old age of 80, there was no longer much pleasure to be derived from life in the King’s court. The diminution of one’s senses of sight, taste and hearing can weigh heavily on someone whose pleasures depend on them, but a tzaddik will not complain to God about his sad and feeble state. Rather, he should be well equipped to take the disappointments and the tribulations of advanced old age as a time to recall with gratitude his earlier days and the opportunities he once had to serve others. Now is the time to reflect on the opportunities that he can give others to do acts of kindness for him.

• Children: one does not need a Torah source to support the proposition, evidenced by life itself, that bringing up children can take its toll on even a loving parent. The price one pays for parenting can be steep in terms of time, effort, frustration, sleep deprivation, temper control and general inconvenience. Nor is there any point at which one can predict that the responsibility for raising one’s children will end. For a true tzaddik none of this is a burden.   

I’m delighted to have discovered that I am not alone in raising a warning about these eight things. R’ Yitzchak Ze’ev Yadler had already made the same point in his Tiferet Tzion commentary on Avot. There R’ Yadler adds that everything on this list is only of use to a tzaddik if he treats them effectively as catalysts that enable him to improve his service of God and his fellow humans.