An Avot mishnah for Shabbat: Perek 1 (Parashat Naso)
In this, our second series of erev Shabbat posts on the perek of the week, we return to Perek 1.
There’s a curious mishnah near the beginning of Avot, at
1:7, which has something to say about the company we keep. Taught by Nittai
HaArbeli, it opens like this:
הַרְחֵק מִשָּׁכֵן רָע, וְאַל תִּתְחַבֵּר לָרָשָׁע
Distance yourself from an evil neighbour,
and don’t be a friend to a wicked person…
Most commentators not unreasonably take this advice
literally, for there is much to discuss on that basis. Issues regularly
pondered include how to tell whether a neighbour is bad or not, what’s the
difference between “bad neighbour” and “wicked person”, how far to distance or
disassociate oneself, and how in practice does one achieve these ends,
particularly if one is expected to judge all people favourably unless it is
impossible to do so (Avot 1:6). Additionally, in contemporary Jewish society,
despite its affluence, the costs associated with moving home are seen as a
deterrent—and, even when one moves away from an evil neighbour, there is no
guarantee that one’s new neighbours will be any better.
There is an approach to this teaching which not resolve
these issues but seeks to divert it from interpersonal relationships to the
zone of introspection. In the writings of the Kozhnitzer Maggid and R’ Ovadyah
Hedayah we are encouraged to view the “bad neighbour” as our own yetzer hara
(“evil inclination”) which competes for our attention with our yetzer tov
(“good inclination”).
If the yetzer tov and yetzer hara are both
locked inside us, there are plainly limits as to how far we might distance
ourselves from our own worse selves. Here there are no easy answers. Keeping
away from obvious temptations (bars, fashionable clothing shops, gambling dens,
nightclubs, confectionery stores or whatever else takes one’s fancy)—these practical
steps can help up to a point. Our sages, quoting God’s own words as it were, go
further: barati yetzer hara, barati Torah tavlin (“I created the evil
inclination, and I created Torah as its antidote”: Kiddushin 30b). But
ultimately we still have to take the antidote. In other words we have no choice
other than to cultivate and build up enough self-discipline so that we can
effectively put our yetzer hara into a sort of internal exile.
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