Avot336
of the Rabbinical Assembly in Israel
RABIN MISHNAH STUDY GROUP
TRACTATE AVOT, CHAPTER FIVE, MISHNAH EIGHTEEN (recap):
Anyone who causes the public to act virtuously, no sin will be brought about by him. Anyone who causes the public to sin will not get the opportunity to repent. Moses acted virtuously and caused the public to act virtuously: the virtue of the public is ascribed to him, as it says [Deuteronomy 33:21], "He executed God's righteousness and His judgements for Israel." Jeroboam sinned and caused the public to sin: the sin of the public is ascribed to him, as it says [I Kings 15:30], "because of the sins which Jeroboam committed and which he caused Israel to commit."
EXPLANATIONS (continued):
5:
According to the account in the first book of Kings Jeroboam had erstwhile been an official of King Solomon but he had rebelled against the king's extravagant building programme and had sought asylum in Egypt. It was this same Jeroboam who led the revolt of the northern tribes against the hegemony of the tribe of Judah. The story is well known how Solomon's son, Rehoboam, refused to lighten the tax burden on the northern tribes (a tax burden which was not shared by the tribe of Judah); the result is described in the bible:
When all Israel saw that the king had not listened to them, the people answered the king: "We have no portion in David, no share in Jesse's son! To your tents, O Israel! Now look to your own House, O David." [1 Kings 12:16]
Foolishly, Rehoboam tried to impose his authority by sending his tax collector north from Jerusalem. The poor man was stoned to death. The biblical account continues:
Thus Israel revolted against the House of David, as is still the case. When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned [from Egypt], they sent messengers and summoned him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the House of David. [1 Kings 12:19-20]
6:
Jeroboam felt the need to offer his subjects a religious centre to replace Jerusalem. It was his activity in this sphere that earned him the lasting condemnation of Jewish tradition.
So the king [Jeroboam] took counsel and made two golden calves. He said to the people, "You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough. This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!" He set up one in Bethel [just north of Jerusalem, on the border between the two kingdoms] and placed the other in Dan [in the far north of his kingdom]. That proved to be a cause of guilt, for the people went to worship [the calf at Bethel and] the one at Dan. He also made cult places and appointed priests from the ranks of the people who were not of Levitical descent. He stationed at Bethel the priests of the shrines that he had appointed to sacrifice to the calves that he had made. And Jeroboam established a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month [rather than the seventh month as commanded by the Torah]… On the fifteenth day of the eighth month – the month in which he had contrived of his own mind to establish a festival for the Israelites – Jeroboam ascended the altar that he had made in Bethel. [1 Kings 12:28-33]
This was the sin that never could be forgiven. Not only had Jeroboam gone over to idolatry but he had also been the facilitator of the idolatrous practices of all his subjects. Not only did he sin, but he also caused the public to sin.
7:
Our mishnah teaches that such a grievous sin can never be expiated by repentance. This is a truly novel idea in Judaism and it will be the subject, God willing, of our next shiur.
To be continued.
DISCUSSION:
In Avot 332 the mishnah discussed love "which is not dependent on something". Tamar Dar writes:
I am wondering whether love of God is the answer to 'love which is not dependent on something'. In my opinion our scrupulous observance of the commandments – and not always all of them – is prompted by each person's desire to belong somewhere (socially); and belonging is something that it is hard to live without. Belonging gives meaning to life, and values too, and a destination for daily behaviour.
I respond:
Of course every human being needs to belong. Being bereft of human society is social death, as the great Amora Rava once said [Ta'anit 23a]: "Either companionship or death!" But I do not see why Tamar assumes that the achievement of such companionship is a conscious motivating force in religious observance. It certainly may be a result of such observance, but I doubt very much whether people say to themselves, for example, "I shall eat kosher food for the sake of companionship" – even though the observance of the mitzvah may well have positive social repercussions.
NOTICE:
Because of the incidence of Purim, the next shiur in this series will be, God willing, on Tuesday March 25th. Purim Same'aĥ! 
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