Coldplayed

Many readers of Avot Today may never before have heard of US tech company Astronomy or its former chief executive Andy Byron, whose life has just been turned upside down after he was caught on a giant screen at a Coldplay concert, first embracing a female co-worker and then abruptly ducking and seeking to flee the camera once the pair were spotted. The video clip of this incident went viral.  Byron, a married man, has since tendered his resignation and Astronomy issued a statement that said, among other things:

“Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding. Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met."

Students of Pirkei Avot may be reminded that, if we think we may behave in an inappropriate manner, it is worth considering both the risk that we will be outed by our fellow humans and the certainty that there will be a Divine audience of One. Thus we learn:

“Whoever commits a clandestine chillul Hashem [desecration of God’s name] is punished in public. When it comes to chillul Hashem it’s one and the same whether it’s deliberate or unintentional” (Rabbi Yochanan ben Beroka, 4:5)

“Contemplate three things, and you will not fall into the grip of transgression: Know what is above from you: a seeing eye, a listening ear, and all your deeds being inscribed in a book” (Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, 2:1)

All the world’s a stage, observed one of Shakespeare’s characters in As You Like It, and the men and women it—that’s us—are merely players. Unlike actors on stage, though, are parts are for the most part unscripted and we make them up as we go along. That’s what free will is all about. We are judged too: not on the quality of our acting, but on the role we choose to play. If we look to the consequences of our choice, as Rabbi Shimon ben Netanel advises at Avot 2:13, we may win plaudits for the quality of our choice even if we are none too impressive in the way we play our part, since our good intentions are factored into our assessment even as we struggle to match up to our own ideals.

Pirkei Avot throws up another question that the Coldplay scenario frames. If we know what Andy Byron and his colleague were doing, should we even watch the viral clip? Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar teaches at 4:23, among other things:

אַל תִּשְׁתַּדֵּל לִרְאוֹתוֹ בְּשַֽׁעַת קַלְקָלָתוֹ

Do not endeavour to see a person at the time of his degradation.

This teaching was articulated in an age in which there were no media technologies. The only way one should see a person who had been shamed or humiliated was by being there with him and looking at him. But is it still relevant now? It may be.

In a person-to-person situation, the person who has experienced degradation may be uncomfortably aware of others staring at him. This is not the case with the Coldplay concert clips, where Andy Byron is unlikely to meet even a small fraction of its viewers. However, we should ask whether watching another’s degradation has an adverse effect on ourselves. Arguably it does. The Babylonian Talmud (Sotah 2a) notes that the Torah portion dealing with the nazir, who takes it upon himself to refrain from drinking wine, immediately follows the portion dealing the sotah, the suspected adulteress. This is because, shocked or moved by the sight of the woman in her degradation, a man may wish to take an oath from distancing himself from one of the possible causes of sexual immorality.

All in all, this episode is a fascinating example of the interplay of modern technology and ancient ethics, showing how the latter can shed some highly relevant light on the impact of the former.

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