TREASURE BEYOND PRICE AND NON-TRANSFERABLE ASSETS

 The lengthy baraita at Avot 6:9, or at least the first part of it, makes for entertaining reading. The baraita reads like this:

אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹסֵי בֶּן קִסְמָא: פַּֽעַם אֶחָת הָיִֽיתִי מְהַלֵּךְ בַּדֶּֽרֶךְ, וּפָגַע בִּי אָדָם אֶחָד, וְנָתַן לִי שָׁלוֹם, וְהֶחֱזַֽרְתִּי לוֹ שָׁלוֹם, אָמַר לִי: רַבִּי, מֵאֵיזֶה מָקוֹם אָֽתָּה, אָמַֽרְתִּי לוֹ: מֵעִיר גְּדוֹלָה שֶׁל חֲכָמִים וְשֶׁל סוֹפְרִים אָֽנִי. אָמַר לִי: רַבִּי, רְצוֹנְךָ שֶׁתָּדוּר עִמָּֽנוּ בִּמְקוֹמֵֽנוּ, וַאֲנִי אֶתֵּן לָךְ אֶֽלֶף אֲלָפִים דִּנְרֵי זָהָב וַאֲבָנִים טוֹבוֹת וּמַרְגָּלִיּוֹת. אָמַֽרְתִּי לוֹ: אִם אַתָּה נוֹתֵן לִי כָּל כֶּֽסֶף וְזָהָב וַאֲבָנִים טוֹבוֹת וּמַרְגָּלִיּוֹת שֶׁבָּעוֹלָם, אֵינִי דָר אֶלָּא בִּמְקוֹם תּוֹרָה, וְכֵן כָּתוּב בְּסֵֽפֶר תְּהִלִּים עַל יְדֵי דָוִד מֶֽלֶךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל: טוֹב לִי תוֹרַת פִּֽיךָ, מֵאַלְפֵי זָהָב וָכָֽסֶף. וְלֹא עוֹד, אֶלָּא שֶׁבְּשַֽׁעַת פְּטִירָתוֹ שֶׁל אָדָם, אֵין מְלַוִּין לוֹ לְאָדָם לֹא כֶֽסֶף וְלֹא זָהָב וְלֹא אֲבָנִים טוֹבוֹת וּמַרְגָּלִיּוֹת, אֶלָּא תּוֹרָה וּמַעֲשִׂים טוֹבִים בִּלְבָד, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: בְּהִתְהַלֶּכְךָ תַּנְחֶה אֹתָךְ, בְּשָׁכְבְּךָ תִּשְׁמוֹר עָלֶֽיךָ, וַהֲקִיצֽוֹתָ הִיא תְשִׂיחֶֽךָ. בְּהִתְהַלֶּכְךָ תַּנְחֶה אֹתָךְ, בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה. בְּשָׁכְבְּךָ תִּשְׁמוֹר עָלֶֽיךָ, בַּקָּֽבֶר. וַהֲקִיצֽוֹתָ הִיא תְשִׂיחֶֽךָ, לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא. וְאוֹמֵר: לִי הַכֶּֽסֶף וְלִי הַזָּהָב, נְאֻם יְיָ צְבָאוֹת

Rabbi Yose ben Kisma said: Once I was going on my way and I encountered a man. He greeted me and I returned his greetings. He said to me: "Rabbi, where are you from?" I said to him: "I’m from a great city of sages and scholars”. He said to me: "Rabbi, would you like to dwell with us in our place? I will give you a million dinars of gold, precious stones and pearls." I said to him: "If you were to give me all the silver, gold, precious stones and pearls in the world, I would not live anywhere but in a place of Torah”. Indeed, as it is written in the book of Psalms by David, King of Israel: “I prefer the Torah of Your mouth over thousands in gold and silver”. Not only that but, when a person passes from this world, not silver, nor gold, nor precious stones, nor pearls accompany him—only Torah and good deeds, as it is said: “When you go it will direct you, when you lie down it will watch over you, and when you awaken it shall be your speech. “When you go it will direct you”—in this world; “When you lie down it will watch over you”—in the grave; “and when you awaken it shall be your speech”—in the World to Come. It also says: “Mine is the silver and Mine is the gold, so says the Lord of Hosts".

This baraita is routinely put forward as a mashal, a parable to illustrate the value of Torah. It does indeed make the point that Torah—and the opportunity to learn it and share it with others—is qualitatively worth more than all the gold, silver and precious gems in the world.

Quite reasonably, commentators learn this mashal from the viewpoint of Rabbi Yose ben Kisma and his noble refusal to be bought, since it is he who is teaching it. But it’s worth looking at it from the perspective of the man whom he encountered too. This man presumably also recognized the value of Torah—and of those whose lives embody it—since we learn that he was prepared to pay an astronomical price to acquire the chance to learn it with a first-class rabbi. Indeed, his high valuation of Torah is even more impressive. Rabbi Yose ben Kisma knew the value of Torah at first-hand, since he was a scholar, steeped in its wisdom and its deeper meanings. The traveller who meets him on the way, lacking that intimate personal knowledge and understanding, is willing to break the bank to pay for it, even though he is taking it on trust.

Another interesting point raised in this baraita is the notion that, when a person leaves this world, his Torah learning and good deeds go with him בִּלְבָד (bilvad) –a word that means ‘only’ or ‘alone’. We normally assume that what this means is that we can’t take anything with us, as it were, on our way to Olam HaBa—and that we certainly can’t take our worldly wealth. However, we can bring with us the intangible benefits that we have accrued in our lifetimes through our Torah learning and our ideally good behaviour.

Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Ferber however has another explanation, which is found not in Higionei Avot, his commentary on Pirkei Avot, but in Sichot Tzvi, his commentary on the siddur, in the first volume in a discussion of the words דבקנו במצותיך (“attach us to your commandments”). There he writes that, when our baraita speaks of our Torah learning and good deeds accompanying us “alone”, it teaches that our learning and our good deeds come with us only if it is they who are “alone”, that is to say, that they are not conjoined to ulterior motives for doing them.

This will be a disappointment for those of us who find it difficult to disentangle their Torah and good deeds from the myriad motives that trail in their wake: these include the wish to avoid disapproval for falling behind in one’s daily daf, the choice of a pleasurable good deed in order to skip attendance at a less than inspiring shiur, and the giving of a charitable donation to a collector in order to be expeditiously rid of him.  Ultimately, it may be fair to say that we set ourselves high, and in some instances uncomfortably high, standards but hope that God will judge us more leniently than we might feel obliged to judge ourselves.

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Your wife might follow you -- but the Torah won't!

At Avot 4:18 Rabbi Nehorai teaches that a person should be exiled to a place of Torah and not say that, wherever he goes, the Torah will follow him. This is because learning Torah is a shared activity and it is only when one learns Torah together with others that it will "stick". Many explanations have been given over the ages as to what this means. Here is a somewhat unusual one that does not normally see the light of day, possibly on account of the current demands of political correctness. It is however interesting in its own right. It goes like this.

The last chapter of the Book of Proverbs contains one it its best-known passages: a set of verses which commence with each letter of the Hebrew alphabet in turn, from aleph to tav. These verses, often referred to as Eshet Chayil (“A Woman of Worth”), praise an ideal wife and mother in terms that are taken by some to be literal, but by others as an allegory in which its author, King Solomon, praises his mother, the Sabbath or the Torah.

Taking this proverbial “woman of worth” to be one’s wife, Rabbi Eliezer Papo (the "Pele Yo’etz") has an ingenious and quite dramatic explanation of how the Torah differs from the Eshet Chayil. In the first place, he says, when a husband storms off in anger against his wife, she will go after him in order to appease him; the Torah, however says “If you leave me for one day, I’ll leave you for two” (Jerusalem Talmud, Berachot 9:5). Secondly, a wife has only one husband at a time and may have no-one to whom to turn if her husband leaves her, while the Torah is always followed by a multitude of admirers and enthusiastic suitors. Thirdly, it is the husband whose role is to support his wife and provide for her needs while, in contrast, it is the Torah that provides for those who are wedded to it. Finally, the wife is presumed to be less knowledgeable and less intelligent than her husband, while it is the Torah that imparts her knowledge and wisdom to those who pursue her.

This comparison reflects the social and economic reality of the Ottoman-ruled Balkans in the early 19th century but may appear inappropriate, if not offensive, to those who read it two centuries later. However, the punchline is as powerful now as it was then: don’t treat the Torah as though it was dependent on you, for the truth is quite the reverse. The Torah owes you nothing and has no need for you at all. If you do not continue to study its content and fail to practice its principles, you can hardly expect it to cling faithfully to you—particularly if you run off in pursuit of other activities and pleasures in places where the light of Torah is rarely, if ever, seen.

There is a touch of irony in the Pele Yo’etz’s explanation here since this Mishnah reflects an element of role reversal: it was actually Rabbi Nehorai’s wife who decided to live in the leisure resort of Diomsit -- and it was he who followed after her.

Source note: R' Eliezer Papo did not include this explanation in his Pele Yo'etz. It can be found in a partial commentary on Avot that is interspersed within the second volume of his Torah Commentary Elef HaMagen.