Avot348

נושא: Avot

BET MIDRASH VIRTUALI

He used to say: five years of age for bible; ten years of age for Mishnah; thirteen years of age for mitzvot; fifteen years of age for Talmud; eighteen years of age for the ĥuppah; twenty years of age to pursue; thirty years of age for power; forty years of age for understanding; fifty years of age for counsel; sixty years of age for old-age; seventy years of age for grey hairs; eighty years of age for might; ninety years of age for a bowed back; one hundred years of age – it is as if [the person] were dead, gone, and out of this world.

10:
Fifteen years of age for Talmud. It is possible that this phrase is yet another indication that our mishnah does not belong to the age of the Tannaïm at all. Of course it is true that the term Talmud occurs quite often in our classical sources, including the Mishnah. But most often, when the term is used in Tannaïtic literature it is a synonym for the Written Torah. It is only in the period of the AmoraÏm that the term Talmud really beings to take on the meaning that we would naturally ascribe to it today: the developmental study of the Mishnah. This came about after the death of Rabbi and the establishment of the first great Yeshivah in Sura, in modern Iraq, by the first of the Amoraïm, Rav. You can read about the revolution in the study of the Unwritten Torah effected by Rav in Berakhot 115. At any rate, it is clear from the progression in our present Mishnah that the idea is that a youngster should begin to study the oral tradition as it developed after the Mishnah when he reaches the age of 15. This yields five years for the study of the biblical text and a further five years for the study of Mishnah before embarking upon post-Mishnaic studies.

11:
Eighteen years of age for the Ĥuppah. The term ĥuppah, of course, designates the suggested ideal age for marriage. Not that this age for marriage was uncontested. In the Gemara [Kiddushin 29b-30a] we find the following discussion:

Rav Ĥisda commended Rav Hamnuna to Rav Huna, saying that he was a great man. Rav Huna replied, "When he is next with you bring him to me." When Rav Hamnuna came Rav Huna noticed that Rav Hamnuna was not wearing headgear. He asked him, "Why are you not wearing headgear?" Rav Hamnuna replied, "Because I am not married." Rav Huna turned his back on him saying, "You shall not be received into my presence again unless you are married!"

This incident requires elucidation. The 'headgear' to which the passage refers is a length of cloth which was expertly wound round the head, similar to a turban. It seems that this kind of headgear was reserved for married men. The Gemara now continues with this explanation:

Rav Huna was just being consistent, because he says that if a person reaches the age of twenty and is still unmarried his whole life is spent in sin!

The Gemara is startled by this hyperbole and tries to soften it down:

Could he really mean 'in sin'? Better say that his whole life is spent thinking about sin.

The idea is that when a man reaches the age of twenty and is still unmarried his life is filled with thoughts of sex. The Gemara continues:

Rava says (and this had also been taught in the Bet Midrash of Rabbi Yishma'el): Until a man reaches the age of twenty God sits waiting for when he will marry; but once he has reached the age of twenty and has not yet married God says 'blast his bones!'

The phrase 'blast his bones' occurs quite often in Amoraïc literature. It is not as harsh as it sounds. It is more or less the equivalent of our modern phrase "Let him to go Hell", where all it means is "I'm done with him." So, it appears that the maximum age for marriage was seen as being twenty. However, the Gemara continues:

Rav Ĥisda said, "I am better than my colleagues in that I married when I was sixteen; and if I had married at fourteen I would have been able to tell Satan to go to Hell."

It is interesting to note that it was Rav Ĥisda who had introduced the bachelor Rav Hamnuna to Rav Huna. What he means in his present pronouncement is that he was saved from lascivious thoughts because he married early, and had he married even earlier he would never have had such a thought in his life! The Gemara now returns to Rava.

Rava told Rabbi Natan bar-Ammi, "While your son is still under your control [see that he is married], and that age is between sixteen and twenty-two." (Others say that he said "between eighteen and twenty-four".)

At any rate, it is clear from this discussion in the Gemara that the age of eighteen was not necessarily held to be the age of marriage. A disturbing note in all this discussion is the underlying reasoning that when a man has "bread in his basket" – has a wife in his bed – he is freed from thoughts of sex. This is made quite clear by a statement [Yevamot 63a] made by Rabbi Ĥiyya, who had a wife who was a termagant:

It is enough that they raise our children and save us from sinful thoughts.

To be continued.

There is still time for you to send me your suggestions and requests concerning the next tractate to be studied.

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