Avot255

1:
The teaching of our present mishnah is perhaps one of the boldest and one of the most meaningful of all mishnayot that deal with some aspect or other of human philosophy. So it is unfortunate that of the author of this teaching we know almost nothing. Rabbi Yannai is mentioned only once in all the six orders of the Mishnah – in our present mishnah! And he is mentioned once more in the Tosefta. (He is mentioned several times more in the Mishnah and the Tosefta simply as the father of Rabbi Dostai.)

2:
The issue dealt with by Rabbi Yannai in our present mishnah is of enormous import, both philosophically and theologically: how are we to explain the fact that bad people seem to lead successful lives while good people seem to suffer? And his answer is simple: we don't know. We cannot explain this. Throughout the ages people have tried to tackle this question, among them great rabbis and philosophers. More often than not the solution that they offer – whatever it may be – is unsatisfactory in that it fails to convince. Only Rabbi Yannai says quite simply: it's something that we cannot explain.

3:
The Bible tells us that God judges the world and those in it with equity. Twice every day the religious Jew recites the second parashah of the Shema, in which we are told that if we behave ourselves and observe God's commandments all will be well with us; but if we disobey God's laws we shall suffer. And the reward and the punishment are linked to material prosperity:

And yet our own experience tells us that it is not always the case that the righteous enjoy a prosperous life while the wicked do not.

4:
Rabbi Yannai, of course, was certainly not the first to raise these questions. In the bible itself we find such teachings questioned on more than one occasion. The prophet Jeremiah – a perfect example of a righteous man suffering – questions God directly about this [Jeremiah 12:1]:

A good question deserves a good answer. But God does not give the prophet a direct answer. God responds with a rhetorical question [Jeremiah 12:5]:

God's response relates to the prophet's predicament vis á vis his mission: You are only at the start of your mission and things are going to get a lot more tough than they are right now. If you ask this kind of question now, when the going is relatively easy, how will you manage when we get to really dangerous situations? Clearly this is not an answer to the question; it is an evasion of the question.

5:
Another biblical figure who poses a similar challenge to God is Job. Job is the epitome of the righteous man who suffers terribly. In Avot 211 I wrote about this:

When I taught in class my rather humourous and not-so-reverent summation of the book of Job was as follows: throughout the book Job asks God "Why?". At the very end God answers him: "Because!" It seems to me that the ultimate message of the author of the book of Job is that mortal man can never understand the ways of God because we and our ability to comprehend are just too finite.

To be continued.

In Avot 251 we noted that some of our greatest heroes were flawed as people, despite their high office. Jacob Chinitz writes:

The fact that David could develop into a folk hero, despite his obvious sin, while Saul is not rehabilitated in the tradition, and Solomon, despite his faults, is accepted as the author of three Biblical classics, while Moses, despite his failures enumerated in scripture and adumbrated in Midrash, is still the greatest prophet and the transmitter of the Torah – all these variations in virtue and fault resulting in different grades of immortal, or immoral, memory – raise the question: how is ultimate standing with God and Man determined? Are the good deeds and bad deeds counted, quantitatively or qualitatively? Does God and do the people play favorites and bestow the status of winner upon David and the onus of loser on Saul arbitrarily? Is Moses the Ish Elohim [Man of God] and the Eved Elohim [Servant of God] because that was his role at Sinai, and before and after? Why is the peaceful Aaron chastised by Moses for giving in to the mob, while his violent grandson Pinchos gets the Peace Prize?

I respond:

It seems to me that our great heroes were first and foremost human beings, with the frailties "that flesh is heir to". Unlike most other ancient epics the bible makes no attempt to hide the defects in the character of our great ones. And as regards to man's standing before God Kohelet [Ecclesiastes 12:13] says: