Avot257

Today's shiur is prayerfully dedicated for the speedy and complete recovery of
Rabbi Jacob Chinitz,
ha-Rav Ya'akov Moshe ben Malka ve-ha-Rav Avraham Aharon,
Who is hospitalized with a cardiac problem.

1:
We have seen on several occasions that at the height of the persecution initiated by the Roman Emperor Hadrian after the débâcle of the Bar-Kokhba revolt (136 CE) several of the young sages fled the country and only returned when the danger was past. Clearly there must have been many more who were not so famous and are not mentioned. However, some of these sages did not return to Eretz-Israel after the death of Hadrian (138 CE) but settled down in whatever part of the diaspora they found themselves. One of them was Rabbi Matya ben-Ĥeresh.

2:
Matya is clearly a more familiar form of the name Matityahu. Apparently, the young Matya studied under Rabbi Yishma'el and it may well have been Rabbi Yishma'el who gave him semikhah (ordination), together with two more of his students, Rabbi Yoshiah and Rabbi Yonatan. While these two last remained in Eretz-Israel Rabbi Matya ben-Ĥeresh eventually settled in the heart of the Empire, in Rome. It has been suggested that he was taken there as a slave, but this is most unlikely because very soon he founded in Rome a Bet Midrash and a Bet Din to serve all the Jews who had found their way to Rome. When sages for Eretz-Israel visited Rome he would up-date himself on what had been said in the sessions of the Sanhedrin.

3:
He is only mentioned on one more occasion in the Mishnah. In the last chapter of Tractate Yoma [Yoma 8:6] he is quoted as holding a liberal opinion concerning medical treatment on Shabbat. He is not quoted at all in the Tosefta, but his views are reported in several baraitot that have been preserved both in the Babylonian Talmud and in the Talmud of Eretz-Israel. Many more times is he quoted in the various collections of midrashim because he was quite prolific in aggadah.

4:
Our present mishnah is the only other occasion where is teachings are preserved in the Mishnah (apart from the reference in Yoma mentioned above). Our mishnah contains two clauses, which do not necessarily seem to be related. The first clause is concerned with simple politeness: one should always try to be the first to offer greetings of peace to those one meets during the day. In some ways this is different from the impression gained from other sages. For example, would the dour Rabbi Shim'on ben-Yoĥai have interrupted his halakhic thinking in order to greet some peasant when their paths crossed? In Avot 168 we learned:

5:
Be that as it may, Rambam certainly agreed with Rabbi Matya ben-Ĥeresh. In his halakhic compendium, Mishneh Torah [De'ot 5:7] he lays down that

In his commentary on our mishnah Rabbi Ovadya or Bertinoro extends the scope of the teaching of Rabbi Matya. He says that 'every person' mentioned in our mishnah includes 'even a non-Jew in the market place'.

To be continued.

In [Avot 255 we quoted from the Shema the teaching concerning reward and punishment.

Yehuda Wiesen writes:

The English translation for the 2nd paragraph does not reflect the plural that is in the Hebrew. What significance, if any, is there of the use of the plural "you" and the communal nature of the punishments (e.g., drought)?

I respond:

The translation that I offered was that of the JPSA which tries to reflect modern English usage. In modern English there is not difference in the form of address: "you" applies to the individual and to the group.

Many of the commandments of the Torah are phrased, of course, to the group; that is, to the who people of Israel. Even when the Torah speaks directly to the individual (in the Ten Commandments, for instance) the sages interpreted this as meaning "each and every one of you". The fact that the commandments are addressed to all Israel suggested to the sages that a corollary would be that "every Jew is responsible for the behaviour of every other Jew' [Shavu'ot 39a]. The second parashah of the Shema deals with climatological disasters that will afflict us if we disobey God's rulings. In these days of global warming perhaps it is most timely to recall that we are all responsible for our collective behaviour.