Akavya ben Mahalalel (Avot 3:1) gives us three things to think about if we seek to avoid transgressing Jewish law and breaching the norms of Jewish morality:
דַּע מֵאַֽיִן
בָּֽאתָ, וּלְאָן אַתָּה הוֹלֵךְ, וְלִפְנֵי מִי אַתָּה עָתִיד לִתֵּן דִּין
וְחֶשְׁבּוֹן. מֵאַֽיִן בָּֽאתָ: מִטִּפָּה סְרוּחָה. וּלְאָן אַתָּה הוֹלֵךְ:
לִמְקוֹם עָפָר רִמָּה וְתוֹלֵעָה. וְלִפְנֵי מִי אַתָּה עָתִיד לִתֵּן דִּין
וְחֶשְׁבּוֹן: לִפְנֵי מֶֽלֶךְ מַלְכֵי הַמְּלָכִים הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא
Know from where you came, where
you are going, and before whom you are destined to give an account of yourself.
From where you came—from a putrid drop; where you are going—to a place of dust,
maggots and worms; and before whom you are destined to give a judgement and
accounting—before the supreme King of Kings, the Holy One, blessed be He.
Human decision-making processes have been a subject of
extensive study in recent times. The late Nobel Economics laureate Daniel
Kahneman took this topic from the academic sphere to the popular arena in his
best-selling book, Thinking, Fast and Slow. One of the most impressive
things about his book is not his discussion of the way we make decisions but
the vast array of research data and results that he cites, a body of learning
that testifies to the near-obsessive nature of our desire to understand why we choose
to do one thing over another.
Kahneman’s conclusion can be summarized as follows. Since
our lives are shaped by a virtually uninterrupted sequence of decisions as to
what to do or not do (choosing to nothing is also a decision), we can only
navigate our day by shifting the vast majority of our decisions to a sort of
autopilot, leaving just a small number of decisions to be made on the basis of
conscious thought. For example, our daily routine for getting up and dressed in
the morning requires consciousness but not a great degree of conscious thought
(“thinking fast”), while our deciding whether to upgrade our cell phones may
consume a considerable amount of time and brain-space (“thinking slow”).
In truth, Jewish philosophy places a value both on the deed
and on the thought, since human existence is comprised of them both. But some
commentators do show a preference for one over the other. Thus Rabbi Asher
Weiss (Rav Asher Weiss on Avos) writes the following:
“Anybody with any sense should
consider his ways and plan his path in advance. Before he does anything he
should ask himself, “From where have you come? Where are you going to? Based on
your experience in the past, what benefit will you gain from the act that you
are about to do? Is it correct and worthwhile, or perhaps will the loss
outweigh the gain? Could silence perhaps be a better course than speaking?”
In an ideal world, this would be the ideal approach to
making a decision. But the reality often poses challenges that the ideal finds
difficult to handle. One is that, for most decisions we make in our daily lives
and that demand careful thought, it can be hard to see how where we have come
from as being a criterion we can helpfully apply. And one of the factors that
most commonly makes us stop in our tracks and think carefully is the absence of
relevant past experiences that might guide us—for if we had their benefit our
decision might not detain us long. Likewise, it is in those situations where we
are not about to choose between right and wrong, between gain and detriment,
that we find it most difficult to reach a decision at all.
Let us go back to the opening of Akavya ben Mahalalel’s
mishnah, before the three things to the reason for the teaching itself:
הִסְתַּכֵּל
בִּשְׁלֹשָׁה דְבָרִים, וְאֵין אַתָּה בָא לִידֵי עֲבֵרָה
Reflect upon three things and you will not come into the grip of
transgression.
Within the context of seeking to avoid sin, the advice of
the mishnah makes sense. If you are the person who is contemplating whether to
sin or not, you may gain inner strength and self-discipline from asking
yourself: who am I? Am I entitled to do this, and what will the consequences be—both
in the here and now and for my long-term emotional and spiritual future?
The efficacy of this advice however depends on a number of
variables. One is our ability to recognize which decisions require deep and
careful thought and which do not. We all have God-given instincts and impulses,
and the decision whether to review and assess them at all itself requires
serious consideration. Secondly, we have
to be totally honest with ourselves. Akavya ben Mahalalel is concerned with
situations in which we may decide to commit a transgression. This already suggests
that we are, as probably the vast majority of humans are, at least prepared to
contemplate breaking the rules. For many people the decision they are thinking
about is not whether to sin or not, but whether and, if so, how they can
justify the sin they would like to commit.
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