Avot230

10:
Of course, after having read Rambam's encomium concerning the virtues of "Torah with no ulterior motive" (Torah lishmah, Torah for it's own sake) many will be asking themselves how it is possible to reconcile the absolutely clear values of Rabbi Zadok and Rambam with the situation which we know prevails today among most of those who study in Yeshivot and 'administer' Torah. Before I try to explain the phenomenon let me make the pristine halakhic situation quite clear by quoting Rambam from his great code Mishneh Torah [Talmud Torah 3:10]:

I think that it would be difficult to find the pristine halakhah expressed more clearly and more succinctly.

11:
However, Rambam's rather idealistic (and perhaps rather aristocratic) view is vitiated by another view which derives from an aggadic midrash [Bamidbar Rabba 13:16]. (For an explanation of the terms connected with Midrash please see the Brief Introduction in our archives.) This midrash is concerned with the imagined relationship between the two tribes of Zebulun and Issachar. Zebulun, a sea-faring tribe [Genesis 49:13] chose to support the tribe of Issachar so that the latter could devote itself entirely to the study of Torah.

This midrash in some quarters became the prime ideal according to which even the stern requirement of Rambam can be set aside. I hope that it is obvious that Rambam's halakhic determination seems to be more attuned to the ethos of Conservative Judaism: Torah study should be lishmah (for its own sake) and one should not set out to derive material benefit – money, position, influence etc – from one's study of Torah or the knowledge gained from that study.

12:
But even in the time of Rambam the situation was hardly as noble as he says that it should be. When he comes to comment on our present mishnah in his Mishnah Commentary he embarks upon a very long comment, which begins thus:

Rambam then enters into a long description of how people found ways and means to obviate the clear instructions of our present mishnah, and deals with them one by one. I do not think that it is necessary for us to enumerate all the sophisticated wiles that were invoked to make it possible for people to be paid for learning and teaching Torah.

To be continued.

In Avot 228 I brought the comment of Orin Rotman concerning Moses and humility. Art Kamlet adds the following:

Perhaps the rabbis who wrote the Passover Haggadah agreed with this statement about Moses. They carefully limited the only mention of Moses in the Haggadah to a Biblical passage calling him God's Servant.