Avot183

9:
Who shames another in public: the translation 'shames' is, in fact, an interpretation, for the Hebrew means 'to whiten', and perhaps should be rendered "who causes the face of another to go white in public". There is an interesting sociological nuance here. Rambam, in his commentary on our mishnah, simply assumes that one's face goes white when one feels shame. In western society today, I think, one would usually associate the whitening of a face with great anger. I am not competent to state whether these physiological changes vary from culture to culture and from age to age.

10:
Rabbi Ovadya of Bertinoro, in his commentary on our mishnah, tries to effect a synthesis: when one feels shame the first physiological change is for the face to go red; when one finds no recourse for that feeling and angry frustration takes precedence the blood drains from the face and becomes white. (However, it is more than possible that the text which Rambam – and Rashi too – had before them read "who causes another's face to go red" rather than "white" – as noted by Rabbi YomTov Lippmann Heller in his commentary on our mishnah.) Rabbi Ovadya may have based his interpretation on a passage in the Gemara [Bava Metiz'a 58b]:

Since the blood drains from the face the person who caused this is deemed as having shed that blood! When Rav Dimi, on a visit to Babylon from Eretz-Israel, was asked by Abbayyé which mitzvah is most carefully observed by the sages of Eretz-Israel he replied that they take great care to to cause the face of another to go white in public.

11:
In the Gemara [Yoma 87a] Rav Yitzĥak states that anybody who angers another in public is required to appease him [otherwise Yom Kippur will not effect forgiveness]. And in Makkot 24a the wholly ethical person is described as one who does not anger another in public.

12:
Of course, a sense of shame is very subjective. In Halakhah a person can claim damages in court from one who has shamed him, and the sages [Ketubot 40a] are very careful to note that we must judge the shame felt from the subjective point of view of the person shamed, not the person who caused the shame.

13:
One aspect of this issue is the behaviour of a person who has to remonstrate with another. On the one hand there is a clear biblical command [Leviticus 19:17] to do so:

Rashi interprets the last clause as warning us not to shame another in public when performing this mitzvah of remonstration. (Other commentators give the clause a different interpretation.)

To be continued.

In Avot 177, in response to a query, I quoted Rambam [Talmud Torah 3:10]:Anyone who decides to study Torah [exclusively] – not to engage in a trade but to live off charity – is desecrating God's name, bringing the Torah into disrepute, quenching the brightness of the faith, doing himself a disservice and denying himself the life to come… Any Torah[-study] which is not accompanied by earning a living in the end will be void and simply encourage sin. Ultimately such a person will be robbing the public.

Haim Lerner writes:

Are not those who occupy the ultra-orthodox "kollelim" in Bnei Brak and Jerusalem aware of the Rambam's admonition not to study Torah to the exclusion of earning a livelihood for one's self and one's family??

I respond:

We have dealt with this matter several times in the past. Please visit the Discussion segment in Avot 166 where you will find links to the other places where this issue has already been dealt with.

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Also in Avot 177 I wrote about Rabbi Dosa ben-Hyrkanos: As far as I am aware the teaching which is the substance of our present mishnah is the only statement attributed to this sage in our classical sources.

Shoshana Zucker writes:

By what might be considered a strange coincidence, I encountered Rabbi Dosa ben-Hyrkanos earlier today in Mishna Rosh Hashanah 2:8 where he appears in the dispute between Rabban Gamliel and Rabbi Yehoshua over the date of Yom Kippur.

I respond:

My face is red (but definitely not white)! Thank you so much for this correction. I have amended the original shiur in the archives accordingly.