Drinking with thirst

In one of the earliest mishnayot of Avot (1:4), we have a vividly-expressed piece lf advice from Yose ben Yo’ezer Ish Tzereidah:

יְהִי בֵיתְךָ בֵּית וַֽעַד לַחֲכָמִים, וֶהֱוֵי מִתְאַבֵּק בַּעֲפַר רַגְלֵיהֶם, וֶהֱוֵי שׁוֹתֶה בַצָּמָא אֶת דִּבְרֵיהֶם

Let your home be a meeting place for the wise; sit in the dust of their feet, and drink thirstily of their words.

Much of the attention that this teaching receives relates to the “dust of their feet” bit, since it is understood by the traditional commentators in so many different ways. There is no consensus among translators either. I’ve used the ArtScroll translation here, but variations include “dust yourself in the soil of their feet” (Chabad.com) or my own preferred translation, “be wrestling in the dust of their feet”

In contrast, one might expect far greater consensus regarding the final part of the mishnah. There are no problems of vocabulary or idiom and the metaphor of drinking someone’s words thirstily is easily understood, whether used in a Torah context or in everyday speech. But here too the commentators have something to add to the plain meaning of the words.

A possible trigger for elaboration of this mishnah is the implication that “drinking” suggests water. Even though Yose ben Yo’ezer makes no mention of water here, the association of water with Torah, and of thirsting for Torah, is deeply rooted in the psyche of our commentators.  

According to two commentators, the thirst to which our mishnah refers is no ordinary thirst: it is the thirst that is generated by drinking salty water. This activity itself generates further thirst, which is compounded when the person seeking to slake his thirst merely drinks more of it. That. It is suggested, is how consumption of the Torah should be: the more one tastes it, the more of it one wants of it (Rabbi Chaim Volozhiner, Ruach Chaim; Rabbi Yitzchak Volozhiner, Milei de’Avot). The opposite view is also however taken, that the water—because it is a metaphor for Torah—should always be sweet to one’s palate, to encourage its steady consumption (Rabbi Yosef Yavetz, quoting Rabbenu Yosef ben Shushan).

The Chida, quoted in MiMa’ayanot HaNetzach, focuses on the realities of the metaphor, taking a practical view of drinking in one’s Torah. If one drinks too much at a time, it can be harmful. A perfect case in point is that of the baby at the mother’s breast. The baby cannot sustain itself without the life-giving force of the mother’s milk, but will nonetheless stop drinking once the necessary quantity of milk has been consumed. The slowly-slowly approach, in preference to going for a sudden, massive intake is also endorsed by Maharam Shik in one of his later comments on Avot 6:6.

So far as imbibing the wisdom of Torah is concerned, both approaches can be justified. In general, our education is governed by the speed at which we can absorb what we learn. But if someone special walks into our lives, we should at least make an effort to maximise the amount we can learn from that person—even if we do not understand fully at the moment we imbibe it.

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