A company is travelling to a distant country on a difficult road where they have to stay at night in many caravanserais. The travellers have with them many beasts loaded with heavy burdens. The individuals in the caravan are few; each has in his charge many beasts which he has to load and unload frequently. If they will help each other in the loading and unloading and if the desire of each of them is to further the welfare of all of them and ease their burdens, and that all should share equally in rendering help and assistance—they will obtain the best results. But if they are divided in mind and will not agree on one plan, and each one solely endeavours to further his own interests, most of the travellers will become exhausted. These are the grounds … why the world becomes wearisome to its inhabitants, and work and trouble are redoubled in it for them. It is because everyone wants his portion of it for himself alone, and even a larger portion than what was appointed for him. And because each wants more than his proper share and seeks in it that which does not belong to him, the world withholds from each of them the portion allotted to him and does not give any of them his share. Consequently they are not pleased with it, and there is not a single one of them who does not grumble thereat and weep over it…
Rabbenu Bachye frequently draws on sources from both the Written and the Oral Torah, and this paragraph plainly alludes to many different teachings in Avot.
Here’s a challenge for the weekend: how many can you identify?
