NOT IN OUR HANDS

Rabbi Yannai is one of the lesser known Tannaim of Masechet Avot. From him we learn a single, somewhat perplexing lesson that is framed not as an instruction for good behaviour but as a general statement regarding the human condition. He states (at Avot 4:19):

אֵין בְּיָדֵֽינוּ לֹא מִשַּׁלְוַת הָרְשָׁעִים, וְאַף לֹא מִיִּסּוֹרֵי הַצַּדִּיקִים

The tranquillity of the wicked and also the suffering of the righteous—they are not in our hands.

Taken at face value, the plain meaning of Rabbi Yannai’s words does not look like a valuable lesson for life. Yes, many wicked people live enjoyable and fulfilling lives, and many fine and upstanding individuals find each day a painful and exacting struggle. We may not (and, if we are honest with ourselves, do not) know why.  The Gemara itself (Berachot 5a) posits that a person’s pain and suffering may be a sign not only of God’s displeasure but of quite the opposite: His wish may be to ensure that the ‘victim’ receive all his suffering in this world in order to provide him with a perfect and pain-free World to Come.

One practical use to which we might think of putting this teaching is in the implementation of Nittai haArbeli’s teaching at Avot 1:7 that we should keep well away from a bad neighbour and not team up with someone who is wicked.  But Rabbi Yannai has only described facts on the ground. He has not provided us with a litmus test by which to distinguish the virtuous from the vile; we cannot avoid calm and happy people who have peace of mind on the assumption that they must be wicked, nor can we seek out people who are tormented by pain and misfortune on the basis that they must be full of virtue.

Avot warns us of the dangers of living on credit. Thus Rabbi Shimon ben Netanel (Avot 2:14) cautions against borrowing but not repaying, whether our debt is owed to other people or to God. The person who does this is described by Rabbi Yaakov Hillel in Eternal Ethics From Sinai as living off the bounty of others, and he may do so with complete equanimity if he feels entitled to do so. Perhaps he is the wicked person that Rabbi Yannai has in mind. However, Rabbi Shimon ben Netanel neither mentions nor alludes to the corresponding personality of one who does not borrow—or borrows and repays—while living a life of suffering. Such a person may be a tzaddik, or not. Another mishnah with a credit warning is that of Rabbi Akiva at Avot 3:20. This teaching is however only about the fact that whatever you owe God is paid up one way or another, and is clearly remote from Rabbi Yannai’s scenario.

Perhaps the key to Rabbi Yannai’s mishnah is in the words that attract the least attention: אֵין בְּיָדֵֽינוּ (literally “not in our hands”). Arguably he is not telling us that these contrasting propositions relating to the happy scoundrel and the saintly sufferer are beyond our comprehension, our intellectual “grasp”. We know that. He is instead letting us know that we cannot realistically choose to be either of those persons.  Possession of a tranquil mind is not an automatic consequence of our having affluence, power and other tangible and intangible assets that are so often craved—and the more we seek to manipulate and harm others, the more our conscience is likely to trouble us, however reluctant we are to pay attention to it. Likewise, a person who is truly righteous in his dealings with others and his relationship with God may find it increasingly hard to wallow in his misery when he is so fully aware of the goodness of the path he has chosen in life and the rewards that will await him thereafter.  In other words, Rabbi Yannai is subtly teaching us that neither we nor those we know can be found at the polar extremes he describes. Rather, we are all to be found somewhere on the spectrum that spans them.

There is another “not at the extremes” explanation with which we leave this topic. It may not fit neatly with the words of the mishnah, but it carries a message that addressed to us all. According to the Kozhnitzer Maggid, as rendered by Rabbi Tal Mosher Zwecker, Ma’asei Avos:

“[W]e do not have the luxury of peace as the wicked do, as the wicked think they have no reason to repent for they have done nothing wrong. Neither do we have the suffering of the righteous, as their consciences bother them continuously, always pointing out their every shortcoming and sin. Rather, we must realize that while we always have hope, there are always things to work on and rectify. The middle road is best, balanced between both extremes”.

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