An Avot baraita for Shabbat: Perek 6 (parashat Bemidbar)
Continuing our series of erev Shabbat posts on the perek of the week, we finally reach Perek 6, “Kinyan HaTorah” (“Acquisition of the Torah”), which we learn ahead of the festival of Shavuot which marks the giving of the Torah at Sinai.
Not all the teachings in Avot consist of rabbis telling
people what to do. One of them, a baraita in the final perek (Avot 6:9), opens
with a short story:
אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹסֵי בֶּן קִסְמָא: פַּֽעַם אֶחָת
הָיִֽיתִי מְהַלֵּךְ בַּדֶּֽרֶךְ, וּפָגַע בִּי אָדָם אֶחָד, וְנָתַן לִי שָׁלוֹם,
וְהֶחֱזַֽרְתִּי לוֹ שָׁלוֹם, אָמַר לִי: רַבִּי, מֵאֵיזֶה מָקוֹם אָֽתָּה, אָמַֽרְתִּי
לוֹ: מֵעִיר גְּדוֹלָה שֶׁל חֲכָמִים וְשֶׁל סוֹפְרִים אָֽנִי. אָמַר לִי: רַבִּי,
רְצוֹנְךָ שֶׁתָּדוּר עִמָּֽנוּ בִּמְקוֹמֵֽנוּ, וַאֲנִי אֶתֵּן לָךְ אֶֽלֶף אֲלָפִים
דִּנְרֵי זָהָב וַאֲבָנִים טוֹבוֹת וּמַרְגָּלִיּוֹת. אָמַֽרְתִּי לוֹ: אִם אַתָּה
נוֹתֵן לִי כָּל כֶּֽסֶף וְזָהָב וַאֲבָנִים טוֹבוֹת וּמַרְגָּלִיּוֹת שֶׁבָּעוֹלָם,
אֵינִי דָר אֶלָּא בִּמְקוֹם תּוֹרָה
Rabbi Yose ben Kisma said: Once I
was going on my way and I encountered a man. He greeted me and I returned his
greeting. He said to me: "Rabbi, where are you from?" I said to him:
"I’m from a great city of sages and scholars". He said to me:
"Rabbi, would you like to live with us in our place? I will give you a
million gold dinars of gold, precious stones and pearls”. I said I to him:
"If you were to give me all the silver, gold, precious stones and pearls
in the world, I wouldn’t live anywhere but in a place of Torah”.
Is any further comment needed, or indeed desirable? Here, in
narrative form, we read a simple story of a great and highly principled rabbi
who refuses all inducements and blandishments for the sake of being able to
learn Torah in the company of other like-minded scholars.
But perhaps there is more to this story than meets the eye. For
one thing, though we know very little about Rabbi Yose ben Kisma, we do know
that he lived and taught in the Roman city of Caesarea—an affluent place but
hardly a notable makom Torah after the Bar Kochka revolt of 132-136 CE.
Further, everyone reads this baraita from the standpoint of
Rabbi Yose ben Kisma. But why do we not read it too from the perspective of the
unknown man whom he meets? Here we find a man who is so desperate to secure a
rabbi who will illuminate his town with Torah and enrich it with his knowledge
that he is prepared to pay any price for it. Perhaps he is even greater in his
dedication to Torah than is Rabbi Yose. After all, the rabbi articulates his
concern for himself, while the man he meets is seeking a rabbi for an entire
community.
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