In praise of thieves and infants?

Ben Zoma controversially teaches (Avot 4:1):

אֵיזֶהוּ חָכָם, הַלּוֹמֵד מִכָּל אָדָם

Who is wise? One who learns from every man.

“Can this be right?” Our sages and commentators on Avot have long affirmed the principle but many have questioned the practice. Is it right to learn from non-Jews, idolators, apostates, criminals, animals—or even women? The answer, essentially, is yes. Wherever something of value can be learned, we should take the opportunity to learn it. Rambam is a leading exponent of this principle, even to the extent that he refuses to comply with the requirement in Avot 6:6 of citing his sources by name. As he writes in his introduction to the Shemonah Perakim:

“It is important to know … that I did not originate the ideas expressed or the explanations offered in these chapters or in my commentary [to Pirkei Avot]; rather, they have been collected from the words of the Sages in midrashim, the Talmud, and in their other works, as well as from the words of earlier and later philosophers [Jewish and non-Jewish], and from the works of many others. Accept the truth from whoever utters it. … I will .. not say, "So-and-so said this" or "So-and-so said that" because that would be unnecessarily wordy. Furthermore, it might make a reader who does not accept the author think that what he said is harmful or has a sinister intent that he is unaware of. Therefore I decided to leave out the author's name, for my aim is to help the reader and explain what is hidden away in this tractate”.

To illustrate how widely the net of prospective and potentially objectionable sources can be spread, Reb Zusha of Anipoli is said to have taught his followers that he learned seven things from a thief and a further three from an infant—all of which being lessons that could be put into practice in the service of God.

The seven lessons learned from the thief are as follows (as listed in R’ Tal Moshe Zwicker, Ma’asei Avos: Pirkei Avos through the eyes of the Baal Shem Tov and their disciples):

·       He works at night when he can see but not be seen;

·       If he fails today, he is not discouraged and tries again tomorrow;

·       He loves his fellows and would never harm them;

·       He is willing to sacrifice and even place himself in danger for any job, large or small;

·       He will sell his wares even for a small profit so long as he covers his tracks;

·       He does not reveal his past and he does not tell what he will do in the future;

·       He loves his job and would never switch to another profession.

The three things learned from the infant run like this:

·       He is always busy and never idle for a moment;

·       If he lacks anything he asks for it, crying and begging, shedding tears;

·       If he does not lack anything, he is joyful and happy, full of glee, peace and contentment.

The lists may seem a little contrived and one is entitled to ask whether they are the result of an exercise in reverse engineering. To me as a teacher I can’t help wondering whether Reb Zusha started with the message to be learned and then cast around for a surprising source from which one might learn it. This pedagogic device, in the guise of shooting the arrow first and then painting the target around the place it reaches, is a highly successful didactic technique, as described by the R’ Yaakov Krantz, the Dubno Maggid. Reb Zusha and the Dubno Maggid were almost exact contemporaries and, while there is no record of their having met, the measure of their fame and the popularity of their stories suggests that they would quite likely have known about each other.

Having said this, I have some disquiet over the content of Reb Zusha’s thief list. Are these all things even true? And are they things that are useful in our service to God?  If it was ever true that a thief “loves his fellows and would never harm them”, I doubt that many of us would be able to extract that message from the thieves of today, and it is hard to see how the fact that a person “does not reveal his past and he does not tell what he will do in the future” aids in serving an omniscient God who exists beyond time. The infant list, though much shorter, seems far more appropriate.

I’m curious to know what readers of Avot Today think about this. Do please share your views—and do offer some original suggestions as to what we might learn from other occupations.

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