He [also] used to say: The more flesh the more worms, the more property the more worry, the more wives the more witchcraft, the more maids the more lewdness, the more menservants the more theft; the more Torah the more life, the more study the more wisdom, the more counsel the more understanding, the more charity the more wellbeing. If one has acquired a good name one has acquired it for himself. If one has acquired Torah one has acquired life eternal.
EXPLANATIONS (continued):
7:
The second part of our present mishnah presents the opposite view of that presented in the first part. In the first part of the mishnah the view is presented that the amassment of worldly goods and the pursuit of status symbols bring in their achievement more trouble that blessing. Now in the second part of the mishnah Hillel relates to spiritual desiderata. If you chase after la dolce vita and social status symbols you are also liable to achieve all the negative properties that accompany riches and wealth; but if you store up riches in the intellectual spirituality of Judaism you also achieve positive benefits.
8:
Torah is life. Well-known is the verse from the bible [Proverbs 3:18] which describes the Torah:
It is a tree of life to those that hold it; those who support it are contented.
'Study' and 'counsel' are not synonyms. Study refers to the intellectual effort made by the individual in pursuit of knowledge. Counsel refers to the discussion that must take place with at least one other person in order for the study of the individual to be strengthened and honed. In Avot 036 I wrote:
The second element in study "the Jewish way" is to study in tandem. After we have done our best to learn what has come before we must test our understanding of that learning against the understanding of someone else. It is for this reason than traditionally Jews try to learn in pairs, what is called in Hebrew ĥavruta. Inevitably, when we have to evaluate what we have learned we tend to assume that our own understanding of the material is the only one possible, or at the very least is the best understanding of all those understandings of the material which are possible. It is only by forcing my own understanding to be challenged by the understanding that someone else has of the same learning material that I will be able to best evaluate what most likely is the correct understanding of what has come before – in all its multifarious ramifications.
9:
The duty of being charitable is a prime duty in the Jewish way of life, and in the realm of commandments between one person and another it is surpassed in importance, perhaps, only by the commandment to behave towards others in a kindly manner. (The latter involves physical involvement, the former monetary kindness.) The Hebrew term which I have translated as "wellbeing" is shalom. Shalom means more than just 'peace'. I can do no better than to repeat here what I wrote when we studied Tractate Pe'ah [Pe'ah 005]:
It has been said that there are two social values which may be indicated as supreme values in the weltanschauung of the Torah: Justice and Peace. The Hebrew word for peace, 'Shalom' does not indicate a mere negative state: absence of conflict and war. It rather indicates a general sense of well-being and tranquil security. Furthermore, it does not merely indicate a passive state – a state in which one wishes to live one's life. It also indicates a duty to be active in order to bring about this state as much as possible. If one may paraphrase William Shakespeare, in the Jewish tradition peace is not 'a desideratum devoutly to be wished', but rather a desideratum actively to be pursued. This is best exemplified by the advice and encouragement of the psalmist [Psalm 34:15]:
Avoid wrong and do good, seek peace and pursue it.
And a much later sage in a well-known midrash [Leviticus Rabba 9:9] amplifies these words: "seek it in your own place and pursue it in another place".
And an even later sage, Rashi [in his commentary on Leviticus 26:6] notes that "if there is not peace, there is nothing".
DISCUSSION:
In Avot 111 we had occasion to note the possible different connotations of the Hebrew terms ish and adam. Both Daniel Kirk and Jim Feldman have related to this matter in a similar fashion. This is what Jim Feldman wrote:
I was fascinated and delighted by your discussion of the interpretations of "Adam" and "Ish." I knew well that "adam" referenced "man" in the sense of "mankind," whereas "ish" would fit well with that smoothest of segues starting the second chapter of "Return of the Native": "Along the road there came a man." In that case, "man" not "woman." What I was totally ignorant of was the pejorative use, where "adam" implied "peasant" and "ish" one of higher class. This discussion leads me to ask you for equivalents I have long sought in both Hebrew and English for that word from the Yiddish (although its origin is clearly German): Mensch. As I hear it used, not only by American Jews but by lots of literate American goiim, it has the the sense of a person of unusual compassion and moral strength. In American, one certainly hears: "She's a mensch," though obviously never on BBC. Does either Hebrew or English have a word with such weight?
I respond:
When I first came to live in Israel I happened to spend an afternoon in the living room of a friend. His 8 year old sabra son was sitting quietly on the floor in a corner looking at a magazine. Suddenly, as if struck by a strange thought, the youngster looked up and asked, "Simchah, how do you say 'helicopter' in English?" The child spoke in Hebrew, of course, and he used the word 'helicopter' as if it were a Hebrew word. (The correct Hebrew word for 'helicopter' is masok, but most Hebrew speakers at that time used the word 'helicopter' – accented on the last syllable.) The youngster was completely oblivious of the fact that he was using an original English word.
The same, surely, applies to the use of the Yiddish word 'mensch'. I have little doubt that the Yiddish word 'mensch', when it has the implication of ethical superiority, was directly influenced by the Hebrew word ish when it bears the meaning which we described in the original shiur.
The next shiur will be sent, God willing, on Wednesday 15th June.
