Avot218

10:
Who is rich? Wealth is a very illusive concept. There are poverty stricken people for whom one hundred shekels is a fortune and there are millionaires who envy those who are billionaires. It is common practice for people to look upon those who have money and property as being wealthy. But Rabbi Shim'on ben-Zoma once again turns popular thinking on its head: since most people think that they can never have enough wealth the truly wealthy person is the one who is content with what he has and makes do with what God and his own industry have given him.

11:
The proof text that Rabbi Shim'on offers for this thought comes from Psalm 128:2 –

Actually, this short psalm is an idyll concerning domestic bliss. The truly happy man (yes, the psalmist concerns himself with the paterfamilias) is he whose own industrious toil allows him to provide for all the needs of his family, and he enjoys the fruits of his labours surrounded by his wife and children:

12:
We have already mentioned that the sages were always concerned with the minutiae of textual analysis. Therefore it would never occur to them (or they would never permit it to occur to them) that "you shall be happy and you shall prosper" is just poetic tautology. For them, the seeming repetition of an idea must have some religious significance. Thus, ben-Zoma expounds the double happiness of the God-fearing man: he will be 'happy' in this life but he will also 'prosper' in the next.

13:
Most interesting is how later on an Amora took the idea of our Tanna one stage further. In the Gemara [Berakhot 8a] we read:

To be continued.

In Avot 215 I wrote: The reason why [Ben-Zoma] is almost always referred to simply by his patronymic is generally seen as a mark of disapproval by his colleagues that he never married. (It is interesting that this is true also of his colleague Shim'on ben-Azzai.)

Jordan Wosnik writes:

I'm very curious as to what the origin of this tradition could be. Does the Gemara itself state that he never married, or is there some kind of external report? How does referring to him by his patronymic imply disdain – is it merely because "Rabbi" is omitted?

I respond:

Rabbi Ovadya of Bertinoro says that the reason why ben-Zoma and ben-Azzai are not given the title 'Rabbi' is because they died before they could be ordained. However, this is patently wrong, because there are places where they are given their rightful title. I think 'disdain' is too strong a word to use in this context; perhaps 'disapproval' would better serve our purposes.

Regarding ben-Zoma's colleague ben-Azzai there is a telling incident recorded in the Gemara [Yevamot 63b]. Ben-Azzai offers a glowing midrash on the duty of marriage and procreation. The other sages retort: