Make yourself a Rav?

Not one but two mishnayot in Avot teach the same maxim in the same words. At Avot 1:6 Yehoshua ben Perachyah says עֲשֵׂה לְךָ רַב (aseh lecha rav, literally “Make for yourself a rav” (meaning “a master” or “a teacher”: see note on translation, below), and these words are repeated by Rabban Gamliel at Avot 1:16.

The traditional understanding of these words is that an individual should have a go-to person as a useful source of all or any of the following: advice, objective and balanced criticism, understanding, empathy and inspiration. This understanding was subject to occasional qualifications. For example, even a rabbi needs to make for himself a rav, and the need to do so remains even if the only person available to fulfil this role is his junior or is less knowledgeable. Some explain that rav is a singular noun: with just one teacher a person will not be confused by conflicting messages; for others, one rav is the minimum requirement: the more, the better. There is even an opinion that one can make for oneself a rav by buying appropriate books.

The words aseh lecha rav do not have a reflexive character to them. They instruct one to make someone or something into a rav for oneself, not to make oneself into a rav. Nonetheless, some commentators have seen these words as in invitation or an injunction to do exactly that.

The idea of turning oneself into a rav is popular in some Chasidic circles. R’ Yehudah Leib of Ger explains that one should treat oneself as one’s own rabbi, keeping a watchful eye on what one does so that one doesn’t wander from the derech yesharah (the “right path”). R’ Yisrael the Maggid of Kozhnitz adds that you should do this whenever your yetzer hara seeks to deny you a chance to perform a mitzvah by telling you that you are not worthy of it.

Our Chasidic brethren were not the first to come up with this suggestion. In Midrash Shmuel, the 16^th century scholar Rabbi Shmuel de Uçeda made it too—but with a different slant. For him, making oneself a rabbi comes with the corollary that one should get out and about, travelling from town to town and spreading words of Torah. Even if you don’t find anyone to teach, don’t worry—you can still make yourself a friend to others.

Could it ever have been intended that each of us should make ourselves into a rav? Most people are qualified neither by their learning nor by their temperament to be a rabbi in the sense in which we use the word today. However, it is easier to acquire an active conscience and an acute sense of the difference between right and wrong than it is to master the Talmud and its commentaries—and making oneself a rav in the latter sense can be equated with being able to subject oneself to self-discipline, the classical definition of a gibor, a strong person, according to Ben Zoma at Avot 4:1.

Overall, it’s surprising how many different explanations we find for the apparently clear and unambiguous words aseh lecha rav. But this is a reflection of the ingenuity of the Jewish people in turning the words of their teachers again and again, each time finding something new. Long may we and our sages continue to do so.

Translation note

Is rav better translated as ‘teacher’ or ‘master’, or should it be left untranslated and therefore leaving the mishnayot open to wider interpretation? Here’s what some of the English translators say:

Teacher: R’ Asher Weiss, ArtScroll translations, R’ Lord Jonathan Sacks, Irving M. Bunim, Chanoch Levi, R’ Yaakov Hillel, R’ Moshe Toperoff, Philip Birnbaum, Herbert Danby and the majority of translations.

Master: David N. Barocas (tr. Me’Am Lo’ez), R. Travers Herford (cf ‘maitre’ in David Haddad’s French translation)

Rav: R’ Tal Moshe Zwecker, R’ Yisroel Miller (Gila Ross opts for ‘Rabbi’).

For comments and discussion of this post on Facebook, click here.