Our mishnah is made up of a list of ten miracles that God
performed for our forefathers in Temple times. One of the ten is this:
וְלֹא כִבּוּ
הַגְּשָׁמִים אֵשׁ שֶׁל עֲצֵי הַמַּעֲרָכָה
The rains did not extinguish the
wood-fire burning upon the altar.
Writing in Lessons in Leadership from Pirkei Avot, Yeshivat
HaKotel’s Rav Ari Cutler makes no secret of how to squeeze meaningful messages
for interpersonal growth from lists of this nature. Picking on four lines from
the mishnah, he treats each to two subheadings: Peshat, which is a
literal restatement or explanation of it, and Homiletic, which has
nothing to do with it but is intended to resonate with it. Thus, for the miracle cited above, Peshat is
“The fire was not extinguished even though the outer altar was in the middle of
the courtyard exposed to rain”. Then things get more interesting.
Under the heading Homiletic Rav Cutler writes:
“Many times a leader is in the
middle of different decisions and people are ‘raining down’ on his style or
decisions. A positive leader must be open to constructive criticism. At the
same time, the leader’s passion and fire cannot be permanently cooled down”
In one respect this is a heroic attempt to link a miracle
based on phenomena found in the physical world—wood which is flammable, fire
and rain which extinguishes it—to the arena of human intercourse in which there
are leaders and followers, critics and collaborators. On the other hand, perhaps
within the great tradition of homiletic teachings, it is so far from its Mishnaic
basis that it scarcely appears to be derived from it and indeed Rav Cutler’s
explanation may fare better without it.
In addition, the context of the mishnah and the richness of
Jewish symbolism and metaphor make it tempting to poke challenges to the validity
of this homiletic lovechild. Avot 5:7 talks of miracles. Is it then a miracle
for a leader to cope with the criticism that rains down? And is not rain, alias
the nourishing effect of Torah, to be preferred to the destructive fire and overpowering
passion of the yetzer hara?
I can see both sides of the argument and confess that, where
a mishnah in Avot contains no overt mention of human conduct, I’m inclined to
take the route of Rav Cutler and seek out a homiletic message where necessary.
The process still leaves me uneasy, though.
What do readers think?
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