Meiri on Avot: a new translation

Last week Beit Knesset Hanassi, Jerusalem, hosted a book launch both live and on Zoom. The book in question was Meiri on Pirkei Avos, an English translation of the relevant parts of Rabbi Menachem ben Shlomo Meiri's Beit HaBechirah commentary on the Talmud. Hebrew editions preface this commentary with a long and detailed historical introduction which, for technical reasons, was not included in this new work. However, from comments made at the launch, it seems that there is a reasonable prospect of publishing an English version of this introduction in a follow-up volume.   

This work, dedicated to the memory of Max and Jenny Weil, has a long history of its own, taking nearly ten years from start to finish. A Feldheim title, it started out with ArtScroll who later dropped the project on the ground that it would require too large a team of scholars to complete the work to the required standard. As it turns out, it seems that a prodigious amount of effort was expended by Rabbi Yehudah Bulman in seeing the work to its successful conclusion.

Rabbi Berel Wein, Rav of Beit Knesset Hanassi, a great admirer of the Meiri and himself the author of a large and accessible tome on Pirkei Avot, welcomed this new work and gave it his blessing. 

The book itself is some 650 pages in length. The text of the Meiri's comment is printed in large, clear Hebrew text which is fully and accurately pointed and punctuated, making it far easier to read than the minuscule print that is found in many editions. 

Further information about this work can be accessed on the Feldheim website here and Jerusalemites in search of a purchase can pick up their own copy from Pomeranz Books here. If you want to know a bit more about the Meiri, look here.

It's only worms

The menagerie that is Pirkei Avot features no fewer than three different species of worm -- the rimah, the tole'ah and the shamir. One does not appear in Tanach at all. That is the shamir, which gets a name-check at Avot 5:8. This worm, whose natural habitat is the Talmud and midrash, is traditionally taken to have been employed in the construction of the First Temple, where the use of metal cutting tools was prohibited because of their affinity with weapons of war. Until recently the existence of this little rock-splitting worm was regarded as being far-fetched, the shamir being the stuff of myth and legend. However, discovery in the Philippines of the shipworm lithoredo abatanica has changed all that. Here is a tiny creature that actually burrows into stone and digests it, excreting it in the form of sand. Strictly speaking, while lithoredo (right) may look like a worm, it is actually a bivalve of the genus teredinidae. These species bore into wood and stone but not, it seems, into us.

Of more immediate concern to humans are the rimah (Avot 2:8, 3:1, 4:4) and the tole'ah (Avot 3:1). These are more conventional worms that dine upon corpses. The precise difference between them is unclear. It may be that the rimah burrows into the body from outside, while the tole'ah burrows out of the body from within (see Rabbi Yitzchak Zoller, cited in the compendium Mishnat Avot). The general function of the references to worms is essentially to remind us to be humble: however important we are (or, more usually, think we are) in our lifetimes, we all end up on the à la carte menu of miserable little creatures that are synonymous with lowliness and with being of little worth. 

It has been argued that worms play an additional role in Avot, this being to threaten that they will make a meal of the wicked, causing great pain in the process. There is a considerable body of rabbinic discussion on whether the dead feel anything after they have died, on the sharpness of worms’ teeth and on their ability to inflict pain (see e.g. Berachot 18b, Shabbat 13b and the discussion in Baruch She’amar al HaSiddur at Avot 2:7). Suffice it to say that, while these discussions are fascinating, they are something of a distraction. This is because there are no worms that possess teeth--a fact that would quite likely have been known to the sages of the Mishnah, who were no mean anatomists.

The reason why I felt it appropriate to mention this point now is that there have recently been a number of articles and news items concerning worms' teeth (see e.g. "Worm’s teeth conceal odd mineral material", here; "Bloodworms Make Their Teeth From Metal And Now We Know How", here; "Scientists discover how bloodworms make unique copper teeth", here). These headlines are misleading and do not disprove the rule that worms have no teeth. The bloodworm glycera (left), which is carnivorous, feeds by extending a large proboscis that bears four hollow jaws--and it is these jaws, mistakenly called "teeth", which contain copper. 

While the bite of the bloodworm is painful even to a human, because it injects venom when it clamps its jaws upon its victim, we humans can take comfort from the fact that they, in turn, are eaten by other worms.

Avot in retrospect: a summary of last month's blogposts

In case you missed them, here's a list of items posted on Avot Today in April 2022:

Friday 29 April 2022: It's only words. A bank's promotional material promises "excitement" -- but there isn't any. Does Avot approve?

Wednesday27 April 2022: Seeing stars. Being an Uber passenger has major implications for anyone who follows the precepts of :Pirkei Avot.

Sunday 10 April 2022: Pirkei Avot for Goths: Here's an imaginative and original approach to the Ethics of the Fathers.

Friday 8 April 2022: Avot Online: a media round-up: Avot Today looks over the scale of citations of mishnayot and baraitot from Pirkei Avot online over the past quarter. What's hot and what is not?

Wednesday 6 April 2022: Two people but just one photo: Avot in the real world: Two people are requesting charity. One may be less than honest. Avot can provide some starting points for deciding what a donor should do, but it cannot give the whole answer.

Monday 4 April 2022: Arrogance and Humility: the dream team? The Pele Yo'etz depicts a scenario in which a man is strengthened to do the right thing by summoning up both sides of his character.

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Avot Today blogposts for March 2022 here
Avot Today blogposts for February 2022 here
Avot Today blogposts for January 2022 here
Avot Today blogposts for December 2021 here
Avot Today blogposts for November 2021 here
Avot Today blogposts for October 2021 here

It's only words

Pirkei Avot has much to say about words: essentially ,it's best to say nothing (1:17), one should minimise one's words (1:15) and keep them honest and truthful (). Idle chatter should be avoided (5:9, 6:6); questions should be to the point and answers to them should be relevant (ibid).

All of the guidance stated above was formulated within the context of personal relationships. These might be within the family, the community or in the course of commerce -- but the words of the Tannaim can and should be a yardstick against which promotional and material and advertisements are measured.

Last week I received an email from my bank which opened with the following news about my account:

Hello Jeremy,

Some exciting new changes are on the way. We’re switching all our customers over to Debit Mastercard and your shiny new card will be with you soon, so look out for it in the post.

The email did not list these exciting new changes but invited the reader to click through to a web page that provided further particulars. I clicked the link, sat back and prepared myself for the excitement that was sure to follow. What I read was this:

We’re switching to Debit Mastercard and all our customers will soon receive a shiny new replacement debit card. Nothing is changing with your account, and your card will work in just the same way.

So the "exciting new change" that the bank is offering me is that there will be no change.

The best one can say in favour of this sort of promotional pitch is that, in an era when so many changes are for the worse, a change that makes no change is quite exciting in its own right. While that might sound cynical, I recall a previous communication from the same bank informing me that, for my happiness and peace of mind, the spending limit of my credit card was to be reduced since it was not my practice to use it to the hilt when making my purchases. On this basis, the fact that I faced no obvious personal detriment from this change was definitely welcome, if not literally an excitement.

In reality this sort of promotional puff looks more like sichat hayeladim (Avot 3:14, per Rabbi Dosa ben Horkinas). That phrase, which literally means "the chatter of children", is understood by Midrash Shmuel to mean the childish, immature chatter of adults. Rabbis Avraham Azulai (Ahavah beTaanugim) and Yaakov Chagiz (Etz HaChaim) explain that this is vain or exaggerated speech, words that have no purpose or inherent worth.

Seeing stars

Like many good folk today, I occasionally engage the services of Uber when I need to be driven across London or ferried to or from one of its many airports. So far, my experiences have all been positive: the cars have been clean and comfortable, the drivers courteous. They have to be, since passengers are invited to rate them on a scale of one to five stars and to give them a tip if merited. The power to rate drivers is not without consequence: when selecting a driver, the prospective passenger can check how well he or she has scored with previous fares and choose the driver accordingly.

Drivers also score their passengers on the same scale and can avoid responding to a call from someone whose low rating indicates that they are not great to have on board. I had quite forgotten that the rating system was reciprocal and was therefore both surprised and delighted to get an email informing me that, over my first ten Uber rides, all my drivers had given me a five-star rating. For all I know, this is a regular occurrence for most Uber users, but it left me once again thinking about the part played by Pirkei Avot.

I have never sought to ingratiate myself with drivers of any sort of taxi service and I am not a generous tipper. However, I always greet them by name and with a smile; I say "please" and "thank you" wherever necessary, and wish them well when they drop me off at my destination. Greeting people warmly with a smile is recommended practice (Avot 1:15, 3:16); it is part and parcel of recognising that everyone -- hired drivers included -- is created in the image of God (3:18).

Two of my Uber rides were a little bit out of the ordinary.

In my very first attempt to engage a car without the assistance of my children, I summoned a car that was too small for our luggage. The driver reprimanded me and I thanked him for letting me know and for showing me how to avoid any repetition of this offence in the future. Loving acceptance of rebukes is one of the 48 elements of gaining the Torah (6:6).

On my next trip (Luton Airport to North West London) we were within sight of our destination when an over-enthusiastic Mercedes rammed into the back of our Uber while it was making a right turn. We were most surprised to receive an email from Uber, apologising for the incident, refunding our fare and stating that the driver would be reprimanded for his negligence. Our driver was very much the innocent party and we had taken our own photos to demonstrate that this was the case, but we had to go through two levels of authority within the Uber administration before the company conceded that their man was indeed the innocent party. Again, Avot emphasises the importance of agreeing to the truth (5:9) and sticking up for it (6:6). Truth and justice are two of the three values that keep the world going (1:18).

Ultimately we had made ten Uber drivers happy enough to give us five-star ratings, not by doing anything exceptional but just by behaving in accordance with the Jewish code of morality that is the Ethics of the Fathers. The last word however goes to Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa (3:13): if other people are pleased with you, then God is pleased with you too. It was good to reflect on the possibility that one can please God by making 10 Uber drivers happy.

Pirkei Avot for Goths

Last week I spotted a curious item in the Jewish News of North California that bore the striking title "Artist 'Maimonides Nutz' spins Talmud into social media gold". You can read it in full here.

This article tells of San Francisco artist Sophia Zohar and her decision to transfer the goth aesthetic to the sphere of Jewish interest. It writes about the reawakening of her interest in Judaism and her involvement in art and the social media, then says:

Zohar is about to go more public. Starting April 26, she’s teaching a class presented by the Torah Studio online learning platform. “Pirkei Avot for Goths,” which consists of six sessions between Passover and Shavuot — the traditional time to study the ancient text on ethics — is already full up. While Zohar teaches kids in Hebrew school, it’s her first time teaching adults.

She adds:

"I think with a lot of Pirkei Avot study, the impulse is to go very academic, so the subversive nature is really rooting it in emotion. But I could be wrong about that!"

Does Pirkei Avot have a "subversive nature" and, if so, what does it seek to subvert? These are refreshing and stimulating questions for the student of Avot and they are not as outlandish as one might at first imagine. Commentators such as the Maharal, Rabbi Moshe Almosnino and Maharam Shik have made some quite challenging statements about the teachings of Avot, a tractate that was not compiled for the sake of delivering a comfortable read to people who were at home with their own assumptions about life and their role in it.

If any readers have enrolled for this programme, Avot Today would be delighted to hear from them about what it's like and what they can learn from it. 

Avot online: a media review

Whenever I see a reference to Pirkei Avot in the media, my interest is always piqued. I want to know why it is being cited, by whom and for what purpose. I ask myself “can I learn something from this citation?” Accordingly, since the beginning of the calendar year 2022, I have been conducting a review of citations of Pirkei Avot in the English-language online media.

The material I have reviewed includes Jewish local and national papers, synagogue and organisational newsletters and the occasional weblog (naturally excluding the Avot Today blog). Quite a lot of this material has nothing to do with religion in general or Judaism in particular: sayings from Avot crop up in political analyses and sports reports too.

With the aid of Google Alerts for ‘Avot’, ‘Avos’ and ‘Ethics of the Fathers’ and other search terms, I have picked up data from which I have the following findings on the citation of teachings from Avot cited online in the First Quarter of 2022:

The total number of citations of Pirkei Avot from 1 January to 31 March was 46 (18 in January, 11 in February and 17 in March).

As between the six chapters of Avot, the distribution of citations was as follows:

Perek 1: 17    Perek 4: 10        

Perek 2: 12    Perek 5: 3

Perek 3: 2      Perek 6: 2  

Which were the most popular mishnayot? Leading the pack with six citations is Avot 1:6 (Yehoshua ben Perachya: “make for yourself a rav, acquire for yourself a friend and judge all people by their merit”). Second place is shared by three contenders with four citations apiece: Avot 1:14 (Hillel’s “If not now, when?”); Avot 2:21 (Rabbi Tarfon: “It’s not for you to finish the work, but nor are you free to desist from it..”) and 4:1 (Ben Zoma: “Who is wise/strong/rich/honoured...?”). In fifth place, with three citations, is Shimon HaTzaddik’s teaching at Avot 1:2 (“The world stands on three things: Torah, service to God and acts of kindness”).

Hillel is actually the most frequently-cited contributor to Avot, which is unsurprising given that he is attributed as the author of seven mishnayot in Avot, more than anyone else. He has been cited a total of seven times, followed by Yehoshua ben Perachya on six, Rabbi Tarfon on five and Ben Zoma on four.

The first quarter also saw two mis-citations. One was the maxim of “Talmud Torah keneged kulam” (“the study of Torah is equivalent to all of them”), which belongs to Shabbat 127a and Pe’ah 1:1. The other was that words, like arrows, once shot cannot be called back (Midrash Tehillim 120).

The data set for this quarter was bound to be relatively small since the weekly recitation of chapters from Avot had not yet commenced. The "season" for Avot traditionally runs from Pesach through to Rosh Hashanah, so figures for the next two quarters should reflect far more references to its teachings.

I shall continue to keep an eye on Avot citations over the year, at the end of which I shall see what generalisations can be made about the use to which Avot is put and its utility as a source of wisdom and/or soundbites for authors of material published online

Two people but a single photo: Avot in the real world

Like many Facebook users within Jewish circles, I have FB friends who belong to one of Africa’s Jewish communities. Many of them message me to share their interests and their concerns. Some seek support for communal institutions such as schools, orphanages and healthcare facilities. Others hope to pursue their education abroad. Others again are looking for funding for their business initiatives or to cover medical expenses. I am not a major philanthropist and in any event have my own lengthy list of charitable priorities, but I am always happy to give them moral support and to pray for their well-being.

What does this have to do with Pirkei Avot? Let me explain.

In the past week I have received two requests to cover medical expenses. Let’s say that they came from Albert and Basil. Each sent an accompanying photo of themselves in a state of apparent distress. The problem is that, while Albert and Basil are different people, the supporting photograph of each was identical to that of the other.

Rejecting the improbable scenario that Albert and Basil were identical twins, separated at birth, who had met with the same misfortune, been bandaged in the same manner and posed in the same way, in the same location, for coincidentally identical photos, it can be concluded that at least one of Albert and Basil had falsely depicted themselves to be the subject of their accompanying photo. It is also possible that the person represented in the photograph is neither Albert nor Basil and that the image has been lent to them by a mutual friend or downloaded via Google Image.

Yehoshua ben Perachya teaches (Avot 1:6) that one should judge other people according to their merit, and this is widely taken to mean that one should give them the benefit of the doubt. Does that teaching apply here and, if so, how?

In the first place there exists a mitzvah to give charity. This mitzvah can be fulfilled by giving even a small sum to the recipient. Ideally its parameters are governed by factors such as the means of the donor, the needs of the recipient, the claims to entitlement on the part of other potential recipients and the ability of the latter to secure help from elsewhere. Whether a potential recipient is acting in good faith is also a factor, but it is one that tends to come into consideration mainly when the sums involved are large. We tend to assume good faith in the case of small transactions. For example, when a woman carrying a baby is soliciting donations, people do not normally make inquiry as to whether the baby is hers or is borrowed for the occasion.

Secondly, if a potential recipient deliberately tells a lie or makes a false representation in order to obtain money that is genuinely needed, should that person be allowed to get away with this or should he or she be penalised? This is a big moral question that lies way beyond the content of Pirkei Avot. We learn that truth is one of the three things that keeps the world going (1:18) and that a failure to accept the truth is one of the seven signs of a golem (5:9). On the other hand, another of the three things that keeps the world going is peace—and the telling of lies in order to establish peace is one of the midrashic hallmarks of Aaron, a major figure from our history who remains an important role model in Avot (1:12).

Realistically, the number of possible outcomes is not large. The following are all outcomes that are grounded on one reason or another:

·         Give to Albert and to Basil, since at least one of them is a needy case and should not be penalised by the perfidy of the other;

·         Give to neither, on the ground that one should distance oneself from all forms of falsehood;

·         Give half to each even though the honest one will get less than you would have liked to give him and the liar will get more, since this may have been the outcome that they both contemplated in the unproved event that one of them had lent the photograph to the other;

·         Toss a coin and give the money to Albert if it comes up ‘heads’ and Basil if it comes up ‘tails’, thus acknowledging the power of hashgachah peratit and inviting God to ensure that the money goes to whichever petitioner truly deserves it.

All of the foregoing suggests that, while the teachings in Avot may provide helpful pointers and can assist in framing an analysis of a problem, they do not of themselves provide the answers. Ultimately we must consult a wider body of halachic and mussar material -- as well as our own consciences.

Readers’ responses to this issue are warmly welcome.

Arrogance and humility: the dream team?

It is fair to say that, on the whole, arrogance gets a pretty bad press at the hands of Jewish sages. It's a shame that there's not much demand for arrogance, since it is usually in plentiful supply. Humility, in contrast, is highly praised for its efficacy both in our dealings with God and for how we relate to our fellow humans—but it would regrettably appear to be in short supply.

In his work Elef HaMagen, Rabbi Eliezer Papo (better known as the Pele Yo’etz) tells the story of a man who, when rudely insulted by another, refused to respond to this provocation. When asked how he managed what must have looked like a huge feat of self-restraint, he explained as follows:

When the man insulted me, I was not alone. On one side of me stood Arrogance, and he said to me ”how can you find it within yourself to pay any attention to this person? Surely it is well beneath your dignity to retaliate against a meaningless attack by a worthless individual! Treat him with disdain and just ignore him”. To the other side of me stood Humility, who said to me “is this not the time to demonstrate how meek and humble you are, bearing in mind the wise words of our sages who say that it is far preferable to be among the insulted than to be classed among those who do the insulting”.

The Pele Yo’etz ties this in with the first two teachings of Yehoshua ben Perachya (Avot 1:6):

“Aseh lecha rav, ukoneh lecha chaver”: עֲשֵׂה לְךָ רַב, וּקְנֵה לְךָ חָבֵר

These words are usually translated along the lines of “make for yourself a teacher (or master) and acquire for yourself a friend”. The word rav has the additional meaning of “great”, so the first part of this teaching can be taken at a pinch as meaning “make greatness for yourself”, i.e. “make yourself arrogant”. As for kaneh lecha chaver, the word kaneh—which means “acquire”—has the same three-letter root (קנה) as kanah, a reed. The reed is a symbol of humility since it bows and bends in the breeze. So the man who faces insult and abuse but follows the path to which this Mishnah alludes is able to summon up both arrogance and humility in order to reach the right behavioural conclusion.

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Illustration from Thesaurus.plus

Avot in retrospect: a summary of last month's blogposts

In case you missed them, here's a list of items posted on Avot Today in March 2022:

Thursday 31 March 2022: Having a care for another's prayer: Do you get disturbed by other people when you are trying to pray? If so, Rabbi Shimon ben Netanel may have a message for them.

Sunday 27 March 2022: Finding a perfect match: What advice does Avot have for a young man who believes that the best way to find a wife is to secure a blessing from his rabbi?

Wednesday 23 March 2022: It doesn't take great brains...: mastery of the Torah takes a good memory, a massive capacity for comprehension and analysis, vast patience and total dedication -- but there are other things we ordinary mortals can achieve without so much talent, for example the art of humility.

Monday 21 March 2022: A home for all? Does Avot advocate opening one's home to Ukrainian refugees? The answer is a qualified "yes".

Wednesday 16 March 2022: Purim and Pirkei Avot 3: Drinking wine at midday: The Purim festivities invariably involve the consumption of alcohol, and in Jerusalem on a Friday that means drinking at noon. Avot warns against this. Why, and what does it mean?

Tuesday 15 March 2022: Purim and Pirkei Avot 2: Citing a teaching in the name of its originator: The only verse from the Book of Esther that is cited in Avot deals with the need to acknowledge one's sources. But there's a paradox here ...

Monday 14 March 2022: Purim and Pirkei Avot 1: rejoicing over the downfall of enemies: At 4:24, Shmuel HaKatan cautions against having the wrong motivation for one's celebration of Haman's demise -- so what should we really be celebrating?

Thursday 10 March 2022: A good telling off? No way!: What does learning from other people (Avot 4:1) have to do with reprimanding them?

Tuesday 8 March 2022: From the Garden of Unearthly Delights: Two Books: A recent visit to my local Jewish bookshop unearthed a couple of titles on Pirkei Avot that I hadn't seen before -- one brand new and one from 1983.

Sunday 6 March 2022: Pirkei Avot comes to Instagram: can memes be used effectively as a means of attracting attention to people -- particularly the young -- who don't know Pirkei Avot exists or what it teaches?

Friday 4 March 2022: Testing man, testing God. A pair of teachings in the fifth chapter of Avot focus on two aspects of tests. We ask the question: are all tests designed to establish the same thing?

Wednesday 2 March  2022: Rabbis: what do we really need them for? How do communal rabbinical appointments fit in with the scheme of "get yourself a rabbi"?

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Avot Today blogposts for February 2022 here
Avot Today blogposts for January 2022 here
Avot Today blogposts for December 2021 here
Avot Today blogposts for November 2021 here
Avot Today blogposts for October 2021 here
Avot Today blogposts for September 2021 here

Having a care for another's prayer

 One of the less-discussed provisions of Pirkei Avot is the first of Rabbi Shimon ben Netanel's three teachings at Avot 2:18:

Be careful in recitation of the Shema and tefillah (prayer).

The three paragraphs of the Shema are a fundamental element of Jewish belief. Among other things, they affirm the existence and the unity of God, the principle of rewarding adherence to His commandments and punishing disobedience to them and His instrumental role in bringing the Jewish people out of Egypt so that He could be their God. As for tefillah, this word is the mishnaic shorthand for the standard template of the morning, afternoon and evening prayers.

What does this teaching actually teach?

Why should Rabbi Shimon ben Netanel take the trouble to teach us to take care over these recitations, given their universally acknowledged importance in the Jewish world? And what use is this teaching if it tells us to be careful but doesn't tell us how? Is it not a bit like telling someone to be careful how they cross the road -- something we should all do and which is so obvious -- but without giving any hints or guidance as to how best to do this?

Many commentators struggle to find anything exciting to say about this part of the mishnah. Indeed the Rambam, Alshich, Chida and Rabbi Chaim Volozhin are among those who say nothing at all.

The Meiri and the Maharal take it as an introduction to the second teaching in this mishnah, that one's tefillah should not be recited by rote but should be said with passion and feeling. The Rashba, Sforno and Rabbi S. R. Hirsch read it as a wake-up call, to remind us of God's greatness, thereby enhancing feelings of gratitude and fear of sin.

The Bartenura, the commentary ascribed to Rashi and the Anaf Yosef take it to mean that these two recitations should be made at the right time for doing so. According to the Me'am Lo'ez, this means ringfencing one's time for these recitations so that not even one's Torah studies will encroach upon them.

Still on the theme of time, some rabbis had a slightly different text before them, as Tosafot Yom Tov observes. Rabbenu Yona's text stated that one should be more careful when reciting the Shema, since the window of time for its optimal recitation is shorter than that for tefillah.

A novel explanation

Rabbi Shimon ben Netanel's words are susceptible of a wider interpretation. This is because, while they urge us to take care in the recitation of the Shema and tefillah, they do not specify whose Shema and tefillah they mean. They need not be limited to one's own devotion. What does this mean?

Two days ago, while I was reciting my own Shema in a local synagogue, a charity collector was working his way round the congregation to solicit funds. His stated aim (which will itself be the subject of a later post) was laudable: he was soliciting funds for the relief of Ukrainian refugees who are currently pouring into Israel (by mid-March the figure had topped 12,000, of whom the majority are not Jews). The collector's enthusiasm was so great that he pushed a printed notice bearing details of his cause right into my face and brought my recitation to a halt. Had he noticed that I, together with the rest of the congregation, was reciting the Shema, he might have held off for a few moments until we had finished. As it was, my normally adequate focus on the Shema was lost; I had involuntarily replaced it with a review of Avot 1:6 and the need to judge other people in accordance with their merits.

So much for taking care of other people's Shema. The need to take care of other people's tefillah is far more frequently relevant. Anyone who prays in a synagogue these days will know how often one's silent prayer is punctuated by the sound of ringtones of phones left unmuted by their owners, by the impatient drumming of fingers against the furniture by those who, having finished their own prayers quickly, are impatient to progress to the next part of the service, and by congregants who imagine that, if they drift to the back of the prayer hall, their conversations cannot be heard by those at the front.

Within the literature of our sages I have yet to find any support for such a wide application of Rabbi Shimon ben Netanel's words. I do however take comfort from the fact that neither have I found anything to challenge it. In the meantime, if anyone has found a sure way of being able to retain their focus on their tefillah when their thoughts must compete with the stirring sound of a bugle call from a nearby smartphone, can they please let me know.

Finding the perfect match

My mind keeps returning to a brief conversation I had with a young man a couple of weeks ago. He mentioned to me that he was hoping to get married so I asked him if he had a particular young lady in mind. No, he replied. I asked him what steps he had taken so far towards finding himself a wife. He told me that he had asked for, and received, a blessing from his rabbi. Apparently he wasn't about to take any further steps towards matrimony. Having received his blessing, he was awaiting the appearance of the woman who would fulfil it and be his "intended".

Sadly, the circumstances of our brief meeting did not permit me to question him further. I wanted to know if he seriously expected a wife to drop out of the sky and into his lap, as it were, without exerting himself in any way. I was also curious to ask whether a wife, in his opinion, was an acquisition, or a working partner in a relationship of mutual love and respect. There were other questions, too many to list here.

I now find myself wondering what aspects of Pirkei Avot might be brought to bear in analysing this young man's conduct and perhaps in advising him how to proceed in his quest for his heart's desire.

It is clear that having faith in the chachamim -- the wise (and by implication his rabbi) -- is praised as a virtue (Avot 6:6), but this is in the context of acquiring Torah rather than that of finding a wife. However,he notion of using a rabbi's blessing as a means of procuring a wife falls outside the scope of Avot entirely.

Would Avot actively advise a young man to ditch the blessing route and make the effort to find a wife for himself? The idea of being self-sufficient in fulfilling one's needs rather than leaving things to others can arguably be linked loosely to Hillel's broad teaching at Avot 1:14 ("If I am not for me, who is for me? And if I am only for me, what am I?"). Ben He He's mishnah at Avot 5:26 ("According to the effort, so is the reward") might suggest that our friend could get a better wife if he made more effort, but that is well outside the scope of usual Torah-related interpretations of it.

I shall continue to dwell on this fascinating issue. in the meantime, suggestions are welcome from readers of this blog as to how Pirkei Avot might best advise this young man.

It doesn't take great brains...

In the past few years the Jewish world has lost two giants of Torah scholarship—Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman ztz”l and Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky ztz”l. Obituaries have praised their virtually unmatched knowledge of Jewish law and their contributions to its further and deeper understanding, as well as their dedication and respective leadership roles within and often well beyond the confines of their traditional constituencies.

It is improbable that any reader of this post can equal the scholarship of these two remarkable men, but there is one aspect of their lives in which I believe there is a chance that we can match them. Let me explain.

It is universally agreed that both Rabbi Shteinman and Rabbi Kanievsky were humble. This quality is the subject of several teachings in Pirkei Avot:

• According to Rabbi Levitas ish Yavneh, a person should be extremely humble since the ultimate aspiration of the human is but the worm (4:4).
• Rabbi Meir emphasises that one should be humble towards all other people (4:12). He adds that, where a person studies Torah for its own sake and without ulterior motives, the Torah clothes him in humility (6:1).
• An anonymous Baraita lists humility among the 48 boxes that a person must tick in order to acquire mastery of the Torah (6:6).
  

While Pirkei Avot goes to considerable lengths to explain how one can acquire Torah and how best to learn it, there is no definition of humility—which makes it harder to know whether someone has it or not—and no explicit guidelines as to how to become humble.

In promoting the cause of humility we face a further problem. As children we learn a great deal about human qualities and characteristics, both positive and negative, and are thus easily able to recognise them. Even a small child will be familiar with concepts like fairness and unfairness, kindness and unkindness, happiness and anger, generosity and selfishness. The vocabulary relating to these traits is learned early too, as parents and teachers seek to reinforce good behaviour (“well done Moishe, that was so kind of you!”) and discourage that which is not (“You’ve had such a lovely long turn on the swing, Esti, so shouldn't you let your little brother have a turn now too?”). The concept of humility doesn’t seem to work the same way though. How often does one hear a child being told, “well done Moishe/Esti, that was a really humble thing to do”? Indeed, how old are most children today before they understand the word “humility”?

We should also consider whether, since "humility" is not a topic of daily conversation at home or at the workplace, whether it may be possible to assemble a sort of composite working definition of humility, based on compliance with several other provisions of Pirkei Avot that reflect aspects of the behaviour of a humble person. Thus we may hypothesise that such a person, for example, lets other people finish speaking instead of interrupting them (5:9), accepts that something is true rather than denying it (ibid.), gives others the benefit of the doubt (1:6), and greets people in a pleasant manner (1:15, 3:16, 4:20) both on the basis that they too are created in God’s image (3:18) and because God created no-one without some purpose (4:3). Moreover, a person should not consider himself entitled to act behind God’s back (2:1, 3:1, 4:5) and he should act in such a way that he should have no cause to regard himself as bad (2:17). Other provisions in Avot can also be marshalled into this composite identikit image of someone who is humble.

There is something inherently unsatisfying in describing humility only in terms of the aggregation of other human qualities, so readers’ thoughts are invited as to how they would describe someone as being humble in today’s terms. Meanwhile we can all take some comfort in the thought that, while none of us is ever likely to aspire to the pinnacle of Torah scholarship, it doesn't take great brains or years of study in order to be humble. All you need is the ability to behave properly towards your fellow humans, a large reservoir of will-power -- and a readiness to work hard at preserving your humility well beyond the point at which you feel so proud of having achieved it.

A home for all?

The Ukrainian refugee crisis has generated much sympathy from those fortunate enough to live outside the war zone. More than that, it has prompted many people to open their homes to the fleeing Ukrainians and offer them hospitality.

Pirkei Avot has something challenging to say about opening one's home to the needy. At the beginning of Avot 1:5 Yose ben Yochanan ish Yerushalayim teaches:

(i) Let your house be open wide and (ii) let the poor be the members of your household ...

[The mishnah continues with a third teaching, on the manner or extent to which a man should engage in small talk with his wife. Though some commentators have sought to link that topic with the first two, I do not propose to discuss it here but will leave it for a later post].

So what can we say about Yose ben Yochanan's guidance on hosting the poor?

Every child who receives a Jewish religious education is likely to encounter the popular story of how the desert tent of Abraham, the founding father of the three major monotheistic faiths, was open on all four sides in order to facilitate the entry of travellers so that he could offer them the hospitality and kindness for which he was famed. This tale, which is regarded as the paradigm of the sort of conduct that Yose ben Yochanan had in mind when composing this Mishnah (see Bartenura and Anaf Yosef) is deeply rooted in Jewish tradition and is of ancient origin (see Avot deRabbi Natan 7:1). Essentially, one’s hospitality should be available to all comers and it should be furnished on the basis of the needs of others, not the convenience or personal preferences of the householder.

This noble aspiration is not absolute: it is even subject to fine-tuning elsewhere in Avot, being subject to the qualification that one must exercise caution and discretion when contemplating whether to welcome a wicked person into one’s home or to keep him out (Avot 1:7).

Can we aspire to the lofty level of Abraham today? To keep one’s home as a truly open house to which all are welcome is a laudable ideal – but it is one which in practice very few people feel that they can live up to. Distrust and suspicion of strangers is nowadays both normal and accepted, following the breakdown of traditional communal and family bonds that has occurred in the decades following the Second World War, Additionally, contemporary householders have come to expect and appreciate a degree of privacy and personal space that was unknown and unimaginable in bygone times.

There is also the question of cost. For those who are so rich that they can afford to offer unlimited hospitality, and for those who are so poor that they have nothing at all to lose, keeping open house poses fewer problems. However, for the very large number of people in the middle, the prospect of welcoming all and sundry – and in particular the poor, who cannot be expected to pay their way – is a prospect that is filled with financial threat and menace.

Householders may also be preoccupied by a further worry: what if the prospective beneficiary of the hospitality, being unknown to his putative host, is a criminal, a fugitive from justice or a person of bad character? Here we have to balance the advice to avoid associating with the wicked against the conflicting obligation to give people the benefit of the doubt unless their track record makes this impossible (Avot 1:6). That too is a laudable ideal, though being required to give others the benefit of any doubt as to their character is not the same as having one’s personal anxieties or suspicions quelled.

None of these issues and worries invalidate the ideal of keeping one’s home open, as Yose ben Yochanan urges us to do, and we have to appreciate that the guidance in this mishnah is one of several pieces of advice in Avot which, if we are honest with ourselves, we struggle to perform properly. The Torah itself concedes that the poor are always with us (Deut. 15:11) and, however many deserving and impoverished people we can shelter, there will always be more whose welfare lies beyond our means. Even so, this mishnah can be read together with the wise observation of Rabbi Tarfon (Avot 2:21) that the fact that a person cannot complete a task does not exempt him from starting it: in other words, each of us should do what we can, when we can, to assist and if necessary shelter those who cannot help themselves.

I should like to conclude with an observation on times of war and peace. During the Second World War and its aftermath, literally millions of people were displaced. For the most part they were impoverished, desperate for sustenance and clothes, and much in need of emotional support. Many were assisted or saved by the brave and often illicit hospitality and shelter offered by others, irrespective of considerations of religion and race. These courageous and meritorious actions have been the subject of countless books, movies and memorials. They also invite us to consider why it is that in wartime conditions, when it is so much more difficult to protect and succour the poor, so many people were prepared to put themselves out, sometimes at risk to their own lives, when it seems that far fewer people are able to rise to the same level of hospitality during periods of relevant peace and security.

Purim and Pirkei Avot 3: drinking wine at midday

This is the third and final short post that links Pirkei Avot to the festival of Purim (tomorrow for most of the world, Friday for Jerusalem and any city that was walled at the time of Joshua).

According to Avot 3:14:

Rabbi Dosa ben Horkinas used to say: "Morning sleep, noontime wine, children's talk and sitting in the meeting places of the ignorant drive a person from the world".

This mishnah makes no overt reference to the festivities of Purim. However, the se'udat Purim -- the generally alcohol-fuelled feast with which Purim concludes -- takes place during the day of Purim itself rather than in the evening that follows it, and before recitation of the ma'ariv (evening) prayers. This year, as inhabitants of Jerusalem are well aware, its celebrations will be taking place on Friday. To allow a little breathing space before Shabbat commences, Jerusalemites will be knocking back the alcoholic beverage of their choice in the middle of the day.

Does this mishnah cast a cloud of solemn sobriety over the fun-day which in Jerusalem immediately precedes it? The answer is probably "it all depends".

Jewish tradition adopts a variety of positions regarding wine. For example, in Psalms we learn that "wine gladdens the heart of man" (Tehillim 104:15). However,

“When a person drinks one cup of wine, he acts like a little lamb – humble and meek. When he drinks two, he becomes as mighty as a lion and starts to boast ‘Who is like me?’ When he drinks three cups, he becomes like a monkey, jiggling around, dancing, giggling and uttering obscenities in public, without realizing what he is doing. Finally, he becomes blind drunk and is like a pig; wallowing in muck and settling down in the mire” (Midrash Tanchuma, parashat Noach 13).

The Romans recognised the force of wine in loosening one's inhibitions, coining the Latin tag "in vino veritas" ("in wine there is truth"), which is reflected in the Hebrew tag “nichnas yayin yetze sod” (“In goes wine, out comes a secret": Eruvin 65a). But is truth a potential casualty of Purim? Many people follow the practice of drinking ad delo yoda -- up to the point at which they no longer know the difference between blessing Mordechai and cursing Haman. Needless to say, there are many opinions as to what this means, and as to whether "up to" means "up to but not including", "up to and including" or "up to and then well beyond".

Rabbi Dosa ben Horkinas would doubtless endorse the position that everything turns on a person's capacity to hold his drink and on how it affects his mood and intellectual cogency. Additionally, no-one's Purim alcohol intake should incapacitate them from performing further mitzvot. Rabbi Dosa's teaching suggests a downward sequence that commences with a person sleeping late and ends with him ending up in the company of people who will not elevate him in his religious commitment.

Happy Purim, everyone! Enjoy your drink, but do make an effort to drink sensibly.