Brazen effrontery

At Avot 5:24 Yehudah ben Teyma teaches, somewhat mysteriously:

עַז פָּנִים לְגֵיהִנֹּם, וּבֽוֹשֶׁת פָּנִים לְגַן עֵֽדֶן. יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְּפָנֶֽיךָ, יְיָ אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ וֵאלֹהֵי אֲבוֹתֵֽינוּ, שֶׁיִּבָּנֶה בֵּית הַמִּקְדָּשׁ בִּמְהֵרָה בְיָמֵֽינוּ, וְתֵן חֶלְקֵֽנוּ בְּתוֹרָתֶֽךָ

The brazen-faced—to Gehinnom; the meek—to the Garden of Eden. May it be Your will, Lord our God and God of our fathers, that the Holy Temple be rebuilt speedily in our days; and grant us our portion in Your Torah.

In the previous mishnah the same Tanna urged us to be as brazen as a leopard in doing God’s will. Now he appears to be flagging the same attitude as possessing a negative quality.  Commentators have no trouble in reconciling the two teachings. If fulfilling God’s will is a desirable end, then there are times when one must adopt the posture of chutzpah, brazen insolence, in furthering that end. But brazen effrontery that is not aligned with God’s wishes is offensive and worthy of punishment. That is why the brazen can expect to end up enduring the torments of Gehinnom (whatever they may be), while the meek can expect to enjoy the tranquillity and bliss of life in the Garden of Eden.

A quite original reinterpretation of this pair of teachings comes from Rav Moshe Leib Sassover (I found this in Rabbi Tal Moshe Zwecker’s Ma’asei Avos). He starts with the premise, often found in chasidic writings, that there is more than one kind of righteous person, or tzaddik. For the purposes of his analysis here, we can divide tzaddikim into two classes: the reactive and the proactive. Both are righteous, but there’s a big difference between them. 

The reactive tzaddik does what he is told and gets on with his life as a sincere and committed servant of God. He spends his days and nights in prayer and praise, in contemplation of the Divine, and in studying Torah and imbibing its every shade and nuance of meaning. Not for him is the hustle and bustle of social interaction or the distraction of personal relationships: his thoughts soar towards the heavens and he troubles no-one. He is the very epitome of the meek man and it is he who will go to the Garden of Eden because there is nowhere else for him to go.

Contrast this with the proactive tzaddik. He too is a sincere and committed servant of God, but his orientation is towards his fellow man. He is pained by their failure to appreciate the beauty of Jewish practice and the noble ideals of the Torah. Not content with teaching by example, he goes after sinners and urges them to return to the fold, never losing hope and pursuing them even to the gates of Gehinnom in the hope of bringing them back.

This is a fascinating explanation of our mishnah, but it does invite an obvious question: where do we go, those of us who simply do our best to serve God on a daily basis and, being neither entirely reactive nor proactive, take our opportunities when we may?

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