Avot274

4:
It seems that the previous mishnah, our present one, and the next one form a concatenation in which each teaching reflects on the previous one and builds on it. Indeed, in most editions of the Mishnah they comprise one mishnah. (I think that it is quite possible that the placing of the teaching of Elisha ben-Avuyah just prior to our present mishnah was a decision of the editor, because Elisha actually belonged to a different generation and is out of place in the time sequence where he is now.)

5:

Since the previous mishnah was about the difference between teaching a child and teaching an adult our present mishnah is also about teaching and learning. However, it is not as straightforward as it seems at first sight. Rabbi Yosé is not referring to learning in general, but to Torah learning. If an adult has to learn Torah from a child he will not be able to get the full flavour of the teaching because of the child's relative immaturity. Much better to learn Torah from a sage.

You may recall that in the discussion section of Avot 266 Jacob Chinitz presented a critique of the teaching of Rabbi Ya'akov which had been presented in Avot 260, and I invited responses to the questions Jacob Chinitz had raised. In Avot 270 I presented the response of Motti Laxman and in Avot 271 I presented another response from Amnon Ron'el. It is only right that I now present you with the response of Jacob Chinitz:

I appreciate the reaction to my remarks about R. Yaakov and his seemingly double attitude to this life and the next. For a long time I too relied on memory, leaving behind good things, as one of our colleagues put it, as the rock-bottom reality of immortality after all the doubts about actual post-life-life are given their due. When my wife died last year, I wrote an essay on Between Oblivion and Resurrection, implying that Between to be Memory. However, sad as it is, for me and for all husbands who lose good wives, Memory is pale, flimsy, ghostly – compared to life, present, palpable and alive. Not to be overly cynical or bitter, we have the Memory, but do they, the now and forever dead, share that Memory? I apologize for being negative, but I would rather be honest than homiletic about this.