His son Shim'on used to say: All my life I have grown up among the sages and I have found nothing to be of greater physical benefit than silence. It is not the study which is essential but the performance. The more you say the more you sin.
10:
One very surprising statement that is contained in our present mishnah is the teaching of Rabban Shim'on ben-Gamli'el that "it's not the study which is essential but the performance". The Hebrew term that Rabban Shim'on ben-Gamli'el uses for 'study' is
midrash. At the very beginning of our study of this tractate we noted that it was the adoption of the method of
midrash ha-Torah that essentially characterized the Pharisaic movement and that so angered the Sadducees. It was this method which was considerably developed by Shemaya and Avtalyon and which was organized and classified by their student the great Hillel. (See
Avot050 for further remarks on the system of
midrash ha-Torah.) So it is very surprising to find Rabban Shim'on ben-Gamli'el here denigrating – even in the most mild terms – the system of
midrash.
11:
About fifty years after the death of Rabban Shim'on ben-Gamli'el we find the Gemara [Kiddushin 40b] recording a discussion on the same topic between several illustrious sages.
Rabbi Tarfon and the elders were dining in the upper apartment of Bet Nataza in Lod. The question was posed to them as to whether study was great or performance was great. Rabbi Tarfon spoke to the effect that performance was the greater. Rabbi Akiva claimed that study was the greater. Then all present agreed that study is greater since study leads to performance.
It has often been suggested that in Judaism the greatest sin is ignorance (and we shall return to the idea in a much later mishnah). One cannot perform the mitzvot properly if one does not know them or understand them. Therefore 'study' is an essential prerequisite to 'performance'.
In our last shiur I made some comments about the problematica of the democratic system, especially as regards
lashon ha-ra. Three people have written to me (so far) about my comments. The first comment comes from
Jim Feldman. I must admit that I do not understand everything that he has written since, as a non-American, I am not
au fait with the more recondite aspects of the American system to which he relates. This is what Jim has written:
I read the 10-14 pasuk on lashon ha'ra with great interest today, having watched the last of the Presidential Debates last night. While I understand the point that you make in more-or-less saying to the local candidate: "OK, he's not so good; tell me why you are better," I find the simplicity of the pasuk definition of lashon ha'ra unconvincing in public political debate. For Kerry to say: "Your taking us into war in Iraq ill prepared to win the peace has created a disaster," is absolutely essential to the process. Bush promptly attempted to rebut that charge by saying something about bringing democracy to Iraq. The differences between the two candidates was exactly what we were looking for. Kerry also went on to say, in the 2 minutes that the debate rules allotted, what he would do that is different. While over the three debates some of the candidates charges were inaccurate, there were few examples on either side (in the debates) of ad hominum attacks.
Generally, US laws of libel differentiate strongly between public and private figures. On that basis, plenty of lashon ha'ra
gets safely said and written, but if you run for office, you essentially have no one to blame but yourself. One of the more
interesting cases of libel and the definition of who is public, was the suit Werner von Braun brought against the satirical song writer, Tom Lehrer. In his song about von Braun, he had the deliciously evil line:
When the rockets are up,
Who cares where they come down.
That's not my department,
Says Werner von Braun.
("Braun" is carefully pronounced "Brown" in Lehrer's rendition.)
At the time, Braun was on staff at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama, working on both military and space-program rocketry, and, heaven help us, a US citizen. The court found that he was a private citizen, and once that was established, Lehrer had no case.
I respond:
Judging only from what he has written, I am not sure that Jim understood what I wanted to say. Very telling is the way Jim reproduced my comment to the local candidate: I did not say, "OK, he's not so good; tell me why you are better". What I wrote was as follows: "He began by telling me everything that was wrong with all the other candidates and their policies. I politely stopped him and asked him to advance his own case rather than speak of the others." In other words, I asked him not to speak of the other candidates at all, but to concentrate only on his own projected policies. Jim gives his opinion that "over the three debates some of the candidates charges were inaccurate". This may well be so, but even if all the statements were accurate that would not prevent them from being lashon ha-ra. Indeed, When Jim explains how useful the debates were for highlighting for the ordinary citizen the differences between the two candidates he unwittingly states very clearly why the democratic system inevitably involves lashon ha-ra.
The comparatively few snippets from the American presidential election campaign that have been broadcast in Israel suggested to me that there were very many instances of statements being made whose purpose was to denigrate. From the Halakhic point of view, for example, the speech that Bill Clinton gave on behalf of John Kerry in Philadelphia yesterday (Monday) was replete with lashon ha-ra, and the democratic system made this almost inevitable. However, I certainly must admit that the tenor of the statements that were broadcast here in Israel were comparatively innocent when compared with the wholesale and vitriolic use of lashon ha-ra in the Knesset by all members, certainly including the religious members.
I shall bring more of your comments on the democratic system and lashon ha-ra next time.
Even though I am officially on vacation I hope to send out as many shiurim in this series as possible. Please forgive me if here and there I should fail in my good intentions
.
