Out of this world?

Three mishnayot in Avot describe different types of undesirable conduct as having the same curious and somewhat menacing outcome:

רַבִּי יְהוֹשֻֽׁעַ אוֹמֵר: עַֽיִן הָרָע, וְיֵֽצֶר הָרָע, וְשִׂנְאַת הַבְּרִיּוֹת, מוֹצִיאִין אֶת הָאָדָם מִן הָעוֹלָם

Rabbi Yehoshua used to say: An evil eye, the evil inclination, and the hatred of one's fellows drive a person from the world (Avot 2:16).

רַבִּי דוֹסָא בֶּן הָרְכִּינַס אוֹמֵר: שֵׁנָה שֶׁל שַׁחֲרִית, וְיַֽיִן שֶׁל צָהֳרָֽיִם, וְשִׂיחַת הַיְלָדִים, וִישִׁיבַת בָּתֵּי כְנֵסִיּוֹת שֶׁל עַמֵּי הָאָֽרֶץ, מוֹצִיאִין אֶת הָאָדָם מִן הָעוֹלָם

Rabbi Dosa ben Harkinas used to say: Morning sleep, mid-day wine, children's talk and sitting at the meeting places of the ignoramus drive a person from the world (Avot 3:14).

רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר הַקַּפָּר אוֹמֵר: הַקִּנְאָה וְהַתַּאֲוָה וְהַכָּבוֹד, מוֹצִיאִין אֶת הָאָדָם מִן הָעוֹלָם

Rabbi Elazar HaKappar used to say: Envy, lust and [the desire for] honour drive a man from the world (Avot 4:28).

I’ve quoted the Chabad.org translation here; the ArtScroll translation is remove a man from the world. They mean practically the same thing and are much in accord with modern English translations. But what does it mean, to drive or remove a person from the world? The implication is that the world from which a person is being removed is this world, olam hazeh, rather than the world to come, olam haba, since every public recitation of a chapter of Avot traditionally opens with a declaration that every Jew has a portion in olam haba. In any event, Rabbi Yisroel Miller observes (The Wisdom of Avos), our mishnayot should have referred to not gaining admittance to the world rather than being taken out of it.

But what does this mean in practice?

Ancient commentators offer some suggestions, but they do not go into granular detail—possibly because they have an understanding of the term which they believe they share with others. Neither the Bartenura nor the commentary ascribed to Rashi offer any explanation at all for the words “drive a man from the world” (מוֹצִיאִין אֶת הָאָדָם מִן הָעוֹלָם). Rambam makes no comment the first two occasions when this phrase appears. On the third time around, in relation to envy, lust and honour, he adds that these bad middot “cause a person to lose his faith and prevent him from attaining intellectual and ethical virtue” (tr. R’ Eliyahu Touger)—though it is not clear whether this is an explanation of מוֹצִיאִין אֶת הָאָדָם מִן הָעוֹלָם or simply a comment on the harmful effects of envy, lust and honour. Rabbenu Yonah (at Avot 2:16) however takes a robust approach to the meaning of this phrase: “you sear your own internal organs by desiring what is not yours … your jealous thoughts will destroy your body, making you short-tempered and removing you from the world” (tr. Rabbi David Sedley).

Later commentators are generally less cautious in expressing their opinions. Thus at Avot 2:16 Rabbi Yitzchak Magriso (Me’am Lo’ez), citing a gemara at Bava Metzia 107a, asserts that the evil eye which Rabbi Yehoshua mentions in that mishnah is the cause of death of 99% of the people buried in a cemetery visited by Rav. At Avot 3:14 R’ Magriso offers a different explanation: being driven from the world simply means wasting time and losing out on one’s mission in the world.  

For Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski (Visions of the Fathers, Avot 2:16), the whole point of Rabbi Yehoshua’s teaching is its punchline. With the assistance of the Ramchal’s Derech Hashem he argues that any person who does good is effectively partnering God in the continued act of Creation. Conversely, one who does evil is undoing the purpose of Creation. Such a person is “removed from the world”. This explanation is attractively simple but still leaves open the question why three separate Tannaim, in authoring their Mishnah, should have rendered the Ramchal’s idea in such a strange manner.

The most brutal modern explanation of being removed from the world may be that of Gila Ross (Living Beautifully, at Avot 2:16): for her, Rabbi Yehoshua is teaching about things that are “so harmful they can actually destroy a person”. More than that, they can “cause us anxiety, … ruin our health .... and distance us from the World to Come by derailing us…”

Of all the recent explanations, the one that appeals to me most is that of Rabbi Norman Lamm (Foundation of Faith, ed. Rabbi Mark Dratch). At Avot 2:16 he writes as follows:

“The blacks and the whites of life are not what make up the ‘world’ which is for the greatest part comprised of shades of gray. It is rare that in crisis we have clear-cut options with which we are confronted: good and evil, right and wrong. Normally we have to make subtle distinctions; we are faced with paradoxes and ambivalences and are forced to choose out of uncertainty and confusion.

The confusion and ambivalence is most oppressive when we deal with ideas and qualities which can serve both the ends of good and evil, of the right and of the wrong. At such times not only is there an element of uncertainty as to whether we are using or abusing a certain quality, but there is a tendency for us to submit to rationalization—to abuse a quality and to assume that we are doing the right thing. Since the world is constituted mostly of such uncertainties and such qualities of double nature, when we confound their right use and wrong use, when we allow ourselves to rationalize away our own self-interest, then we lose contact with ‘the world’ and we are removed from it …”.

In other words, simpler words, Rabbi Lamm is saying this: the ‘world’ from which we are being removed is the world of our own objectively-viewed reality. We effectively remove ourselves from being able to think logically and along the lines of Jewish law and tradition to which we subscribe.

Being removed from the world of reality is not necessarily a punishment. Most of us feel it at one time or another. for example when a person is first in love. In former times such a person might be described as "looking at the world through rose-tinted spectacles"; I'm sure that there are modern equivalents. The main point is that, for good or not so good, our view of reality is distorted.

May our distorted view of the world only be the product of good and happy things!

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