A hard life and a hidden patriarch

An anonymous baraita in the sixth chapter of Avot (Avot 6:4) praises a tough, ascetic lifestyle as the path to happiness through Torah study. It reads:

This is the way of Torah: eat bread with salt; drink water in moderation; sleep on the ground; live a life of hardship and toil in Torah. If you do so, "you will be happy and it will be good for you” —happy in this world, good to you in the World to Come.

Much has been written on this prescription for happiness the hard way and many questions have been asked on it: for example, is it addressed to the rich as a message that they should change their ways or to the poor as a message of consolation? Is it the exclusive way of the Torah or are there others? Does it apply for all time or was it specific to the era of the Tanna who authored it? Should it be taken literally or is it steeped in metaphor and symbolism?

This post considers a novel question: is there a subtext waiting to be discovered?

Let us conjecture that this baraita has someone in particular in mind, a role model (as it were) whose life fits the parameters of happiness laid down here. After all, the demands it makes suggest that, if it refers to anyone, that person must be possessed of extraordinary human qualities.

I venture to suggest there is some textual evidence in favour of this teaching pointing us to the patriarch Jacob. How is this so?

The Torah describes Jacob as “a quiet man, dwelling in tents,” which the commentators have traditionally taken to mean that he was a man who conscientiously studied at the yeshivah of Shem and Ever. We also know are that he slept on the ground, that he could manage without sleep and that he lived a life of great hardship. Was he happy? His final sentiments were those of a man who died content in the knowledge that he was not only reunited with his beloved son Joseph but saw his grandsons too —a formula for peace of mind.

The only element of this baraita to which the Torah makes no specific allusion is that of drinking water in moderation, but water in moderation is part of his heritage: the blessing that Isaac gives Jacob, assuming him to be Esau, is that God should give him “the dew of Heaven.” Though dew is also a blessing, it is a moderate one since its impact is more limited than that of rain.

A further hint that Jacob is the archetypical Torah scholar of our baraita is provided by the source of the proof verse: the 128th chapter of the Book of Psalms. Virtually every part of this short psalm (it has just six verses) points straight to him. Let us look at it in its entirety. The text of the psalm is bold:

1. A song of ascents [It is Jacob who dreams of the ladder with its ascending and descending angels]. Blessed are all who fear God [Jacob fears God ], who walk in his ways [Jacob literally goes wherever God tells him ].

2. You will eat the fruit of your labour [Jacob toiled hard as a shepherd ]; you will be happy and it will be good for you [his flocks and sheep-breeding programme made him a remarkably wealthy man].

3. Your wife [Jacob’s wife Leah, from whom the psalmist King David was descended] will be like a fruitful vine [“fruitful vine” is part of Jacob’s blessing to Joseph; the term “fruitful vine” is also symbolic of one’s children being without blemish, like those of Jacob ] within your house [Leah being one of the four “women in the tent” in Horayot 10b]; your sons [12 in total] will be like olive shoots around your table.

4. Thus is the man blessed who fears God [see first verse].

5. May God bless you from Zion [God blesses Jacob on Mount Moriah] all the days of your life [God says: “I’m with you, I will not leave you”]; may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem,

6. And may you live to see your children's children [Jacob lives to see a total of 54 grandchildren and great-grandchildren ]. Peace be upon Israel [God changes Jacob’s name to “Israel”].

It is the second verse of this psalm that is the proof verse for this baraita.

It is acknowledged that there is no tradition that connects this psalm to Jacob. However, anyone seeking a take-away message from this baraita could do worse than seek to emulate at least some of this man’s outstanding character and qualities.

Artwork: Jacob tending Laban's flock, after Castiglione: landscape with sheep, goats, and cows standing at a watering place, on the left Jacob brandishing a rod, and a young woman riding a donkey by his side. c.1743/63. Original with the British Museum. 

Can we really be altruistic when we know there's a reward coming up?

The first Baraita in the sixth chapter of Avot praises the person who learns Torah for its own sake and not for any personal advantage or ulterior motive. After saying in general terms that, for such a person, the world is his oyster, it lists some 29 praises, virtues and attributes with which this good soul is garlanded: these include wisdom, power, glory, integrity and (this is handy in today's difficult world) an ability to forgive insults. 

It may seem strange that all the wonderful virtues and praises listed in this Baraita come only to someone who does not learn the Torah in order to acquire them even though, as a student of the Torah, he knows that they will inevitably come to him. This conundrum is similar to the conceptual basis for one of the earliest mishnayot in Avot (1:3), which teaches that we should not serve God in order to obtain a reward — even though we know full well that a reward automatically follows our service. 

In our lives we all face this situation in one form or another when we have the opportunity to do things that benefit us but we nonetheless do them for the sake of another. A typical situation in which this may happen is where a parent seeks to calm a screaming baby at three o’clock in the morning: while the parent knows that he or she will not be able to return to bed until the baby is placated, parental feelings of love, concern and empathy for the baby’s unarticulated anguish may completely swamp any selfish feelings of self-interest. This is the altruistic basis upon which we should seek to serve God and — as this Baraita indicates — the way we should seek to learn Torah. 

Learning Avot in yeshivot -- a rewarding experience?

Many people in serious Torah learning treat Avot as a lightweight proposition. While other tractates of the Mishnah are assiduously studied, either by themselves with serious commentaries or as a springboard to the Talmud that comes to explain them, Avot -- which has no Talmudic masechta to call its own -- is little more than a handy place to find snappy quotes (or misquotes). If you were to ask a typical yeshivah bachur if he was learning Avot in his elevated place of advanced tertiary Torah education, his first reaction would quite likely be one of laughter.

This is why I was so pleased to learn this week that the massive and popular Jewish educational organisation Dirshu is vigorously promoting the study of Avot in yeshivot. According to The Yeshiva World website, this is

" ... an unprecedented venture, which will encompass the entire Jewish world, from Israel to South America, Europe, and Australia. As part of the program, the yeshivah bachurim will learn Pirkei Avos .... The learning will be followed by a test on the material, and monetary prizes will be awarded to those who succeed".

Once the yeshivah students have opened the pages of Avot, learned it thoroughly, passed the test and become entitled to their rewards, an interesting question arises: what will they make of the famous mishnah at Avot 1:3 in which Antigonus Ish Socho teaches that a person should not serve his Master on condition that he will receive a reward, or the equally famous mishnah at Avot 4:7 that he should not use his Torah learning as a spade to dig with?

The Jerusalem Post here
The Yeshiva World here