Avot178

5:
Clearly, as far as Rabbi Dosa ben-Hyrkanos is concerned, anyone who has the time and the inclination to sit down in the middle of the day to indulge in a wine-fest is not doing what he should be doing. In all probability, the thought of Rabbi Dosa is that such a person should be busy earning his keep. The sages set much store at being constantly involved in Torah, and certainly they expected to have serious study sessions both by day and by night; but they recognized that most Torah study would be at night. In Mishneh Torah [Talmud Torah 3:13] Rambam even codifies this:

Time for study during the day would be at a premium because one must earn a living.

6:
The concept of a "professional" rabbi was unknown to the sages of old and would probably shock them to the core. The sage was expected to earn a respectable living so that he would not be dependent on the charity of others. Again, Rambam [Talmud Torah 3:11] codifies this:

7:
The sages seem to have deliberately chosen simple jobs that they could perform manually but that would leave their minds free for going over their Torah again and again. Once more, Rambam writes [Talmud Torah 1:9] that

Rabbi Akiva was a shepherd; Rabbi Yehoshu'a was a charcoal burner…

Thus anyone who has time to spend in drinking wine when they should be earning an honest living is sinning, and such behaviour "will take a person out of this world".

To be continued.

What I wrote in Avot 174 produced quite a bit of mail.

I wrote: We can easily recognize two types of Torah-observant Jews. Yehuda Wiesen writes:

Would that the mishna was more clearly written. I do not see this easily, if at all.

I respond:

The words are mine, not those of the mishnah; and their purpose was merely to introduce the topic. I did not mean to imply that there are only two types of Torah observant Jew, but that among the many types we will find these two.

Yehuda continues: What does will not endure mean? The person will cease to be Jewish, or his children will cease to be?

I respond:

When the mishnah says that the wisdom of him whose fear of sin takes precedence over his wisdom will endure, but the wisdom of him whose wisdom takes precedence over his fear of sin will not endure, I think that the meaning is that if 'fear of sin' takes precedence over a person's wisdom or philosophy when it comes to observance of a mitzvah, even though he permits 'fear of sin' to take precedence in doing so he will also ensure the continued viability of his 'wisdom'. If he does not do so the opposite will be true.

Yehudah, yet again: …Conservative movement… corporate wisdom decides that the observance of a certain mitzvah must be modified, curtailed or annulled. What are legitimate reasons for such changes? What proportion of the changes are due to responses to our broader social milieu (e.g., egal), and what proportion to mere inconvenience (e.g., carrying, techum, bishul akum, hand washing – all seemingly ignored by the CM)?

I respond:

Our Torah is a Torah of Life, and throughout the ages the sages and rabbis have recognized that times change, habits change, ethics change, society changes and so forth. The very fact that the Torah itself [Deuteronomy 17:11] accords to the rabbis the possibility of "updating" the Torah ensures its constant vitality and relevance. There are elements of our tradition which were very important in days gone by which today are ignored even by the most orthodox of people; conversely there are elements which such people today hold to be essential which is days gone by were not considered so to be. Unfortunately, the framework of a response that is already too long does not permit me to expatiate. But this is a topic with which we have dealt on many occasions over the years.

I wrote: When we – corporately – know that something is inherently wrong. Yehuda asks: Have we switched to a democratic approach rather than the consensus of those who are observant?

I respond:

In a certain sense Judaism is democratic, but that is not relevant here. When there is a pervasive and general feeling that "something is inherently wrong" the rabbis must investigate halakhic precedent in order to discover legitimate ways in which this feeling can be accommodated. For me, this is the essence of Conservative Judaism and that is why I see Conservative Judaism (and not modern orthodoxy) to be the continuation of the traditional rabbinic Judaism that we inherited from the middle ages.