Doing something wrong? Then go with the flow

One of the three teachings we learn in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Netanel at Avot 2:18 is אַל תְּהִי רָשָׁע בִּפְנֵי עַצְמֶֽךָ. Most commentators and English translators take much the same view of the Tanna’s message. Typical of this consensus are the following:

• “Do not be wicked in your own eyes” (chabad.org; Rabbi Lord Sacks substitutes ‘evil’ for ‘wicked’)
• “Do not judge yourself to be a wicked person” (ArtScroll)

Some go further and incorporate further guidance. Thus:

• “Do not be wicked in your own esteem [lest you set yourself a low standard of conduct]” (Philip Birnbaum, HaSiddur HaShalem)
• “Do not consider yourself as wicked when left to depend on your own efforts” (Rabbi Shimshon Refael Hirsch, The Hirsch Pirkei Avos, tr. Hirschler/Haberman)

One aspect of this teaching that invites further discussion is the choice of the words “בִּפְנֵי עַצְמֶֽךָ”. This is the reflexive part of the mishnah. Rendered “yourself”, “in your own esteem” or “in your own eyes” in the translations quoted above, the words literally mean “before yourself” or “in front of yourself”—words that do not flow comfortably in English.

An interesting interpretation of these words in the context of this teaching appears in Rabbi Reuven Melamed’s Melitz Yosher. Here follows my expansion of his brief words.

We believe that, when a person performs a mitzvah or a generally meritorious act, this deed will attract a reward. Not all actions are equally rewarded. Those good deeds that are practised by everyone on a regular basis may be regarded as the products of good habits. They are unlikely to require a person to struggle against their yetzer hara, their evil inclination, in order to perform them. On the contrary, since everyone else around them is carrying on with the same conduct, there may even be peer pressure to continue do to those meritorious acts that attract rewards. This being so, since the effort involved in performing them is likely to be small, the reward for doing them will be small too. Only where the effort is great, and where a person exceeds the standards set by others, will the reward be great (“According to the effort, so is the reward”: Avot 5:26).

The same principles apply, mutatis mutandis, to averot (misdeeds) and generally poor conduct. Where a person’s breach of legal or social standards of behaviour is commonplace, shared by most or all fellow humans, it may have been the product of nothing worse than bad habits. All the miscreant is doing, after all, is to go with the flow. For such misdeeds, the punishment may be expected to be small. Indeed, as the Pele Yo’etz comments, a person who performs the same wrongful deeds as everyone else does at least have the virtue of respecting Hillel’s precept (Avot 2:5) of not separating himself from the rest of the community. However, if a wrongful act requires effort, initiative and individual action that goes beyond the norm of even bad behaviour, the punishment should be much bigger.

The teaching of Rabbi Shimon ben Netanel is therefore a wake-up call to anyone who is contemplating the performance of any wrongful act. We should ask ourselves whether our behaviour is normatively bad or whether it is בִּפְנֵי עַצְמֶֽךָ, a stand-out deed that others are not also doing. If it is, we should seriously think twice before doing it since the prospect of severe punishment lies ahead. The fact that we are in effect "going solo" should be sufficient warning.

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Thanks for the thank-you

 Earlier this week my wife and I received a "thank-you" card from a newly-wed couple to whom we had sent a present. This set me thinking.

The card, which was printed, bore a hand-written inscription that was several lines long. It made reference both to the gift itself and to the couple's appreciation of it, and it was penned relatively soon after the wedding.

I was greatly surprised to receive this card. For one thing, it seems that in recent times many couples do not acknowledge gifts at all, so the arrival of this epistle was quite unexpected. For another, both newly-weds are very busily engaged in their work, their studies and their communal activities. It would have been quite understandable if they had printed out a standard one-size-fits-all thank-you card and posted it without further ado. We do not know the couple particularly well, though one of them is the child of a cousin.

Our gift was not a particularly generous or exotic one and I rather felt that the letter with its attendant message was somehow more valuable than our gift. It gave me great pleasure to receive and read it; I felt that the world was not quite as full of thoughtless and ungrateful souls as sometimes seems to be the case.

What does this have to do with Pirkei Avot? A great deal, I believe. We learn that we should treat even small mitzvot (commandments) with as much alacrity and conscientious application as we would direct towards the fulfilment of big ones (see Avot 2:1, 4:2). This is because we are not in a position to know which, if any, are more important to God than any others. We may think something is a trivial ritual requirement that can be easily passed over or done in a desultory fashion, but we have no idea how our performance of mitzvot is received at the other end.

I'm sure that the young couple who sent us their thank-you message do many things each day that they may regard (maybe rightly so) as being more important. However, they have sent out a message that, from their outset of their marriage, they are prepared to devote as much attention to getting the little things right as to addressing the big ones -- an attitude endorsed by Pirkei Avot.

From my standpoint, their little gesture of gratitude made a great impact. Apart from giving me huge pleasure, it has forced me to ask myself whether I am sufficiently conscientious in adequately acknowledging the kindness of others that I so enjoy (and sometimes expect) to receive.