Avot225

1:
Rabbi Yoĥanan ben-Baroka was a Tanna who lived during the earlier part of the 2nd century CE. He was a student of Rabbi Yehoshu'a ben-Ĥananya, whom we met at length in Chapter 2. He was proficient in both halakhah and aggadah, and although not too many halakhot have been handed down in his name most of them were accepted into law by his colleagues.

2:
The Torah [Leviticus 22:32] legislates most succinctly:

This verse contains two mitzvot: one is the duty to sanctify God's Name; that is to say that we must hold God to be holy and in reverence. The other is its negative alternative: we must refrain from desecrating God's Name. In Mishneh Torah [Yesodé ha-Torah 5:1] Rambam codifies this most succintly as well:

And he quotes both parts of the verse from Leviticus.

3:
While neither the Torah itself nor the sages in their exposition of it make a great bother of these two mitzvot that does not mean that they were not to be taken as being truly momentous. It just means that it was assumed that the import of these two mitzvot (which are just mirror images of each other) was obvious. The main halakhic ramifications were concerned with the two aspects of the law which are mentioned in our present mishnah by Rabbi Yoĥanan ben-Baroka: the public desecration of God's Name – usually under coercion – and the private desecration – usually voluntary. These legal ramifications need not concern us here.

4:
The great moral importance of this law is perhaps best indicated in connection with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. In Mishneh Torah, again [Teshuvah 1:4], Rambam explains as he codifies: sincere repentance is an absolute pre-requisite for any atonement granted on Yom Kippur. There can be no atonement without repentance. However, although repentance is always a necessary condition for atonement it is not always a sufficient condition for gaining God's pardon.

Rambam explains that there are some sins which are 'automatically' pardoned by the incidence of Yom Kippur where there is true repentance. However, there are other, more serious sins, for which atonement is not so easy. In some cases Yom Kippur effects a conditional atonement which only becomes absolute after the culprit has suffered for his sin (through illness or adversity). Then he adds:

To be continued.

In Avot 221 I wrote: In bygone ages it would be enough to suggest that the delight one gives God when one performs one of His mitzvot is sufficient reward in itself. Today, of course, such a suggestion will not wash, as they say – except possibly in certain fundamentalist circles.

Michael Lewyn writes:

But today, the "certain fundamentalist circles" include much more of the population than they once did. I cannot speak with much authority about Israel. But in America, the fundamentalist minority is growing, more secular people drop out of religion entirely, and non-fundamentalist religious movements (liberal Protestantism, Conservative Judaism, etc.) are declining – both in Judaism and in Christianity.

I respond:

I think 'fundamentalism' has always been a concomitant of organized religion. But I do agree with Michael that life and mores in the modern secular world seem to have created a backlash of increased fundamentalism. However, if Michael is correct in his evaluation that because of this increased fundamentalism "more secular people drop out of religion entirely" then there is an acute danger here for Jewish fundamentalists. For if (and I do not know that this is so) their religious behaviour is so extreme that it is making other Jews antagonistic towards Judaism then they are in great danger of desecrating God's Name – as we shall see, God willing, in our next shiur.

Because of the incidence of Yom Kippur the next shiur in this series will be, God willing, on Thursday, 5th October.

Let me take this opportunity to wish everybody an easy fast – because the fasting is the easy part of Yom Kippur: it's true repentance that is the hard part. May we all be sealed for a good life in 5767 – a life of health, contentment and good deeds. Amen.