Avot279

1:
This last mishnah of Chapter 4 is perhaps the most insistent statement of the Pharisaic belief in the judgement at the end of days that we have in the whole corpus of Tannaïtic literature. Both its message and its style are very forceful indeed. There is good reason to suppose that originally Chapter 4 was the last of the chapters of Tractate Avot, and that Chapter 5 (and most certainly Chapter 6) were added on later. Clearly we shall have to address this claim later. In the mean time let us say that it is perhaps not surprising that this very forceful and imposing mishnah was chosen as the presumed original conclusion of Avot. The author of our mishnah is the same as the author of the previous mishnah: Rabbi El'azar ha-Kappar.

2:
On many occasions during our study of Tractate Avot we have mentioned and discussed this belief. Possibly the fullest account is to be found in Avot 021 and the sequential shiurim. The idea was that when people die their body will, like John Brown's, moulder in their grave. But at the end of time – at the culmination of history – God will resurrect all the dead of all the ages and there will be a Great Judgement.

3:
This, then, is what the sages meant when they referred to Teĥiyyat ha-Metim, the resurrection of the dead, and our present mishnah is so crafted as to give the most awesome expression to the implications of Teĥiyyat ha-Metim.

4:
Perhaps for the modern mind the most disconcerting segment of our present mishnah is that part which denies that a person is "the captain of his soul".

To such a claim Rabbi El'azar ha-Kappar says that it is palpable nonsense: no human being is master of his fate. For none of us were consulted as to whether we wished to be conceived or not; none of us were given the opportunity to decline to be born. And even while alive none of us can by his or her own act of will and conscious decision prolong his physical life beyond the occurrence of physical death. So, by what right can we claim to be masters of our fate?

5:
In one sense, certainly, Rabbi El'azar ha-Kappar would agree with W.E. Henley: whatever is written in that heavenly scroll it is I who, by my own decisions to do that which I know to be right or to refrain from doing that which I know to be wrong, have caused to be written there whatever is written there. However, Rabbi El'azar uses a different metaphor. His metaphor comes from banking: we shall be required to account for every single item of income and expenditure incurred during the course of our earthly undertakings. In his commentary on our present mishnah Rabbi Ovadyah of Bertinoro puts it this way:

6:
Unlike a human judge, when that great and awesome day of judgement arrives, it will not be possible to sway God's sentence away from strict justice: He cannot be bribed, He cannot be influenced.

7:
And with this we come, at long last, to the conclusion of our study of the fourth chapter of Tractate Avot. God willing, in our next shiur we shall commence our study of Chapter 5.