Committing spiritual suicide -- or killing time?

Three mishnayot in the third perek of Avot contain a phrase that is difficult for us to comprehend: to be מִתְחַיֵּב בְּנַפְשׁוֹ, mitchayev benafsho. The first, at 3:5, is taught in the name of Rabbi Chanina ben Chachinai:

הַנֵּעוֹר בַּלַּֽיְלָה, וְהַמְהַלֵּךְ בַּדֶּֽרֶךְ יְחִידִי, וּמְפַנֶּה לִבּוֹ לְבַטָּלָה, הֲרֵי זֶה מִתְחַיֵּב בְּנַפְשׁוֹ

One who stays awake at night, travels alone on the road and/or turns his heart to idleness is mitchayev benafsho.

The second, at 3:9, is brought in the name of Rabbi Yaakov:

הַמְהַלֵּךְ בַּדֶּֽרֶךְ וְשׁוֹנֶה, וּמַפְסִיק מִמִּשְׁנָתוֹ וְאוֹמֵר: מַה נָּאֶה אִילָן זֶה, מַה נָּאֶה נִיר זֶה, מַעֲלֶה עָלָיו הַכָּתוּב כְּאִלּוּ מִתְחַיֵּב בְּנַפְשׁוֹ

One who walks along a road and studies, and interrupts his study to say, "How beautiful is this tree!", "How beautiful is this ploughed field!”—the Torah considers it as if he is mitchayev benafsho.

The third, at 3:10, we learn from Rabbi Dosta’i bar Yannai in the name of Rabbi Meir

כָּל הַשּׁוֹכֵֽחַ דָּבָר אֶחָד מִמִּשְׁנָתוֹ, מַעֲלֶה עָלָיו הַכָּתוּב כְּאִלּוּ מִתְחַיֵּב בְּנַפְשׁוֹ

Anyone who forgets even a single word of this learning, the Torah considers it as if he is mitchayev benafsho...

So what does is mitchayev benafsho mean? Literally it means “makes himself liable in [or ‘for’] his soul”. But this is not a phrase that is easily understood—if indeed we understand it at all.

If we consider this phrase in the context of the three mishnayot above, the first thing we see is that none of the triggers for mitchayev benafsho, the liability of one’s soul, is the breach of a Torah or rabbinical prohibition or of a failure to perform a positive precept. This could mean that the rabbis here are alluding to a special category of spiritual fault that leads to some sort of spiritual death or to the idea that a person who pursues chassidut, a higher level of piety, holiness and closeness to God than is demanded of humans in general, may incur a higher level of punishment for his failure to do so than might a person who does not seek to go the extra mile.

The second thing we notice is that, in each case, the person who puts his soul at risk is at odds with an active commitment to the life-giving force of Torah (on which see Avot 6:7). This person is off on his own and obviously up to some mischief at a time—night—which is created for learning Torah (Eruvin 65b). Or he stops right in the middle of his Torah studies to admire the physical world at the expense of the spiritual one. Again, instead of adding to his stock of Torah wisdom or at least keeping it safe, he lets it slip from his grasp. Now we can see that the spiritual fault we considered in the previous paragraph is that of demoting Torah in one’s scale of life values.

The third thing we spot is that only in the first mishnah is the term mitchayev benafsho used without any qualification. In the second and third instances we see the phrased prefaced by כְּאִלּוּ, “as if”, indicating that one’s soul, or life, is not actually at stake.

Having said that, we see is that the sages over the millennia have themselves failed to construct an edifice of consensus as to what the phrase means. Each different meaning of mitchayev benafsho produces a different level of meaning for this mishnah in which it is found. This need not be a problem. By grafting different shades of meaning into the phrase, our rabbis have made these mishnayot more nuanced and capable of bearing greater meaning—and thereby making a greater impact—than if the term had just one fixed meaning.

How then do the rabbis explain mitchayev benafsho? The commentary ascribed to Rashi passes over it the first and times it appears. But at Avot 3:9 it observes that the Satan has no permission to endanger a person for as long as that person is actively learning Torah. Stop for a minute to admire the scenery and that permission is presumably granted.  The Sefat Emet has a similar take: if one is mitchayev benafsho, it seemingly means that one loses the level of shemirah, of God guarding him, that was previously enjoyed. In each of these two cases, the person who is mitchayev is not necessarily harmed: all that has happened is that a level of immunity or protection has been stripped away.

According to the Bartenura, the act of learning Torah has prophylactic properties that protect a person against the mazikim (discussed at length in Avot Today here), regular bandits and the sort of bad happenings one experiences when alone. This explanation works for the facts of Avot 3:5, but it is unclear how far it explains the two later mishnayot. Rambam’s approach is broader, less fact-driven and more principled: mitchayev benafsho is effectively another way of saying “liable for punishment by the hand of God” (at 3:5) or “guilty of a mortal sin” (3:9 and 3:10).

Rabbis Nachman and Natan of Breslov take a practical view of mitchayev benafsho: it’s the natural consequence of not knowing, or forgetting, one’s Torah. If you don’t know your Torah, you won’t know what’s permitted and what’s permitted—and you will go through life picking up penalty points, so to speak. On this basis, no real definition or analysis of the phrase is required. Reb Chaim Volozhiner doesn’t feel any explanation is needed either, since he simply passes over it on all three occasions where it is mentioned.

Among modern rabbis and translators, mitchayev benafsho encompasses many shades of meaning. For example it is rendered as

“Endangers his soul” (Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks)

“Bears guilt for his soul” (Rabbi Dan Roth, Relevance; Gila Ross, Living Beautifully)

“Commits spiritual suicide” Dayan Gershon Lopian

“Sins against himself” Rabbi Joseph H. Hertz

“Sinned against his soul” Rabbi Yisroel Miller, The Wisdom of Avos, version 1

“Forfeited his life” Rabbi Yisroel Miller, The Wisdom of Avos, version 2

“Is worthy of death” ArtScroll Publications

“Is mortally guilty” Judah Goldin

“Is guilty against himself” R. Travers Herford, The Ethics of the Talmud

So, depending on your rabbinical preference, mitchayev benafsho can mean actual spiritual or physical death, liability for spiritual or physical death, a level of guilt that makes one deserving of such deaths, or a form of self-destruction. 

I shall leave this discussion by citing a partial commentary on Avot that doesn’t often get a mention here: Relevance: The Lost Art of Thinking, by Rabbi Dan Roth. Making reference to the first two mishnayot, he comments:

“…[O]ur Mishnah … restores a rare and almost forgotten ability—to use one’s time alone for serious reflection. You are up at night anyway. Do not squander the precious moments. Use them to get in touch with yourself. You are walking along the road. Do not kill the time. Use it wisely to give voice to your innermost thoughts. We should scout out such opportunities and, certainly, when they arise we should utilise them—for these opportunities have the potential of becoming the most worthwhile moments of our lives”.

So to be mitchayev benafsho is effectively to be held accountable for the time we waste and which we fail to make worthwhile.  It’s a lovely message, a highly positive one, even though I suspect that the authors of our mishnayot might struggle to see this message as something that leaps out from the words they chose.

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