Avot280

Today's shiur is dedicated by Jay Slater and Ellen Goldmuntz
in honour of the wedding of their daughter
Sara Rose Slater to Nicholas Alexander Block.
The wedding took place last Sunday, 1 July 2007, 15 Tamuz 5767.

Mazzal Tov!

1:
It is possible that Chapter 5 of Tractate Avot is an additional chapter that was not part of the original scheme. The first four chapters of the tractate have two distinguishing features that are lacking in the main format of Chapter 5: apart from the very end of Chapter 5 the mishnayot are not attributed to any sage in particular; nor is there any attempt in this chapter to maintain a chronological sequence.

2:
This does not mean that the chapter does not have a format of its own: the format of Chapter 5 is a series of midrashei aggadah which are based on typological numbers. Almost all the mishnayot in Tractate Avot are of the 'aggadah' type: they seek to teach values and ethics rather than rules of conduct. The typological numbers that inform the mishnayot in Chapter 5 are ten, seven, four and three. The first six mishnayot are based on the number ten; mishnayot seven, eight and nine are based on the number seven; mishnayot ten to fifteen have the number four as their base. There follow three mishnayot which do not belong to this pattern. Then mishnah nineteen has the number three as its base. As already mentioned, the last three mishnayot in this chapter revert to the format of the previous chapters.

3:
Our present mishnah is based on the fact that in the creation story [Genesis 1] the phrase 'and God said' appears ten times, when God requires a further element of the creation process to come into being. (The Latin word fiat which has been used in the English translation means 'let something be done'.) For the sake of completeness let us note that the ten fiats refer to the following acts of creation: light [verse 3], sky [6], dry land [9], vegetation [11], luminaries [14], reptilians and avians [20], animals [24], mankind [26], procreation [29] and sustenance [30].

4:
Not all the sages were in agreement that the world was created in ten successive stages. There is a view that is most respectable that there was only one single act of creation. When we examine the text of the creation story we cannot help but be struck by a seeming contradiction. The first verse proclaims that "In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth", which would suggest a single act of creation. However, the subsequent unfolding of the story – with its recurring refrains of "And God said 'let there be'…" suggests that there were a series of creative acts. The collection of midrashim known as Bereshit Rabba contains the resumés of 'sermons' on the text of the book of Genesis as delivered in the synagogues of Eretz-Israel during the first few centuries of the currant era. In one of these [12:4] there is recorded a very interesting maĥloket [difference of opinion] between two sages (both former prize students of Rabbi Akiva) on the internal contradiction that we have mentioned.

5:
Rabbi Yehudah [ben-Ilai] espouses the interpretation of the text that sees many individual acts of creation, each individual act being the result of a new divine fiat – rather like an artist who paints one picture and being satisfied with his performance now decides to paint another picture – and so forth. This, of course, is also the view adopted by the anonymous Tanna of our present mishnah. Rabbi Neĥemyah, however, espouses a view of the text that there was but one single and never-repeated creative act. In this machloket Rabbi Yehudah, of course, points out to Rabbi Neĥemyah that he seems to be ignoring the plain meaning of the text: how would his view cope with "first day", "second day" and so on? – which seem to be indicating so clearly many successive acts of creation. Rabbi Neĥemyah responds that in his view there was but one fiat, one single and never-to-be-repeated act of creation, within which everything was potentially created. From then on things just developed, evolved, "like figs coming to ripening, each one at the right time". In Bereshit Rabba Rabbi Berekhyah now approvingly draws the obvious conclusion from Rabbi Neĥemyah's exposition: "Thus when the Torah says [Genesis 1:12], 'And the earth brought forth…" it was just bringing forth something that was already in it'.

6:
In his commentary on our mishnah Rambam spends much time on solving the problem of how to identify the fiats and comes to the conclusion that the very first verse is also a fiat: "Let the universe come into existence!". This is similar to the view of Rabbi Neĥemyah in the midrash in Bereshit Rabba. Rabbi Ovadyah of Bertinoro concentrates more on elucidating how the wicked destroy the world. He brings two suggestions. His first suggestion is that the Mishnah [Sanhedrin 4:5] teaches that "Whoever destroys one soul it is as if he had destroyed the whole world" – and the wicked destroy their soul. His other suggestion is that since by their deeds the wicked bring the whole world into 'debit' on the divine scales of merit they are, as it were, destroying the world.

7:
The moral that the author of our present mishnah seeks to teach is that when God comes to punish the wicked 'who destroy the world' it will be possible to multiply their punishment tenfold. Conversely, when God comes to reward the righteous 'who sustain the world' it will be possible to multiply their recompense tenfold.