Fathers and funerals: a message for the living

Writing recently for the Jewish Journal ("The Examined Life", here), Rabbi Tal Sessler observed:

In Israel, when a funeral procession commences, the officiating clergy recites the following teaching from Ethics of the Fathers: “Know from whence you originate (from a drop of seed), where you are physically heading (to a place of dust, where worms consume the flesh), and before whom are you going to give spiritual accountability (before the Holy One Blessed Be He).”

This quote from Avot, which opens the third perek, startled me yesterday when it was read out at the first funeral I had attended in Jerusalem. Although it was spoken over the body of the deceased, it is actually addressed to the mourners who are present. The point of this message is that we should all remember that we are mortal and accountable. While financial accounts are submitted by businesses on a predictable basis, we have no idea when God might call us to account for our deeds and misdeeds. This was particularly the case yesterday, when the subject of the funeral was a relatively young man in apparently excellent health, the victim of a sudden and unexpected heart attack.

At this funeral -- and I don't know whether this is standard practice -- the mishnah at Avot 3:1 was not recited in the name of Akavya ben Mahalalel, even though we learn at Avot 6:6 that citing a piece of learning in the name of the person who teaches will bring redemption into the world. Any explanation?

"Derech yasharah" -- the road that leads to Israel

 In the mishnah that opens the second chapter of Avot, Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi asks:

Which is the derech yasharah (the "right path") for a person to choose? 

He answers his own question thus:

Whatever is a tiferet for the one who does it, and a tiferet for one's fellow humans.

The word "tiferet" cannot be easily translated into English. Suggestions in published translations include that which is glorious, harmonious, creditable and so forth. However, this is only a description of the path a person should choose, not an indication of what that path actually is.

Since today is Yom Ha'Atzma'ut, Israel's Independence Day, it seems appropriate to cite the opinion of Rabbi Ben-Tzion Meir Chai Uziel (Israel's first Sefardi Chief Rabbi) in the ninth and final essay on Avot in his work Derashot Uziel.  There he recommends that the derech yasharah is for people to make aliyah, to come to Israel -- the world's only independent Jewish state. By living there a life based on respect for God and kindness towards others, they will gain self-respect as well as the respect of others.