Pirke Avot

Divre Harav – March/2019

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Rabbi Simeon says, “Be meticulous in the recitation of the Shema and the Amidah. When you pray, don’t make your prayer a prescribed routine, but let it be a [plea for] mercy and grace before the Blessed Holy One. As it is said, ‘For God is gracious and merciful, patient and abounding in love, taking pity on evildoers’ (Joel 2:13). Do not regard yourself as an evil person.” Pirke Avot 2:18

There are two main elements of traditional morning (or evening) prayers. The first, the Shema, is not technically prayer. Rather, it is the recitation of three Biblical passages whose function is to first accept God’s authority over our lives; second, to accept the obligation of mitzvot; and third, to use tzitzit as a concrete reminder of mitzvot. To summarize: Love Adonai, your God, with all your heart by listening to God’s commandments and tying tassels to the corners of your garments as a reminder of those mitzvot.

The Amidah is the name for the prayer section of our service, defined as a time when we are speaking directly to God, at least partly with a petitionary agenda. Although our liturgy has a fixed text for the Amidah, Rabbi Simeon’s instructions are to make the words of prayer our own. Put your heart into your prayers, focusing on asking for love, mercy, and grace not just for ourselves, but primarily for others around us. To focus only on our own needs during prayer is not only selfish, but also indicates that we think we have some special deficit that God needs to address. God may take pity on evildoers, but Rabbi Simeon cautions us not to assume that we are one of those evildoers in need of God’s special attention. Thus, most of our prayer should be focused on the needs of others rather than our own.

There has long been tension between fixed liturgy and prayers of the heart, or in Hebrew, between keva and kavanah. Keva describes fixed themes of prayer and can guide us towards non-selfish prayer. Kavanah encourages us to engage in a conversation with God in which we can share our particular burdens and joys. Individual, spontaneous prayer reflects the highs and lows of our spirit in the moment; fixed prayer reflects ongoing self-reflection and the highest ideals and aspirations of our relationship with God’s world.

Finally, the word tefillah connotes some degree of self-reflection. When we prayer, we not only offer petitions for our and the world’s needs, but we also reflect on how well we have done living up to our potential, living fully as one created in the image of God.

Hebrew Words of the Month:

  • Tefillah – Prayer, self-reflection
  • keva – fixed liturgy
  • kavanah – focused direction of thought and prayer

Divre Harav – February/2019

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Rabbi Yose says, “Let your colleague’s money be as precious to you as your own. Prepare yourself to study Torah, for it will not come to you as an inheritance. And let everything you do be for the sake of Heaven.”
Pirke Avot 2:17

My assumption is that each teaching of Pirke Avot contains a life lesson from the rabbi who shared it. So what is Rabbi Yosi trying to teach us?

  • That it is your responsibility, not your colleagues, friends, family, or government, to put forth the effort to earn a living.
  • That nothing worthwhile comes without effort; there is no such thing as a free lunch.
  • And that the effort you expend in order to potentially acquire something valuable is worthwhile, even if ultimately you receive nothing.

I don’t mean to say that as a society, we ought not provide a safety net to support those who otherwise would not have enough money for food or shelter. People do have legitimate reasons for not being able to find a job that pays a living wage. But when we accept public resources or loans from Jewish institutions, we may not forget that the funds are precious gifts of tzedakah or taxes, and we are obligated to use them responsibly for the intended purpose.

Lottery winners and trust fund babies aside, we earn a living, literally or metaphorically, by the sweat of our brow. Unless we’ve been blessed with unearned funds, acquiring enough wealth to retire in comfort demands effort. Acquiring the precious gift of knowledge also demand effort. For this acquisition, there is no shortcut, no way to inherit knowledge from parents.

We’ve all had the experience of working hard for something, only to have the deal fall through at the last minute. Were our efforts entirely in vain? No – we learn something from the experience that will help us in the future. If we failed because of our own mistake, we can learn from that. If we failed because we could have worked harder or smarter or produced a better product, we can learn from that. The bottom line is that we created something, learned a new skill, gained valuable experience, or learned a lesson that might help us in the future. Imagine all of life’s challenges as opportunities to learn potentially valuable lessons in and of themselves, so any financial benefit becomes an additional unexpected reward.

Of course, Rabbi Yosi is applying this lesson to the acquisition of Torah in particular. So here is an additional lesson:

  • Treat the wisdom of your colleague with the same honor as your own, even if you come to different conclusions.
  • Work hard to acquire the wisdom of Torah. It is an inheritance that comes no other way.
  • And the highest form of learning is to study Torah for no reason other than the pure joy of learning.

Hebrew Words of the Month:

  • mamon – money
  • kesef – silver
  • zahav – gold
  • yahalom – diamond

Divre Harav – January/2019

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Rabbi Joshua says, “The evil eye, the selfish impulse, and hatred for people take a person out of the world.” Pirke Avot 2:16

Rabbi Joshua gives us three things to avoid, all behaviors that take a person out of the community and isolate him or her from society. Being a part of a community is a major part of the teachings of Pirke Avot. In the language of this mishnah, being a part of the world means being a part of a community.

The words ‘evil eye’ might bring up associations with superstitions, sorcery and magical curses. On a less mystical level, I think of the ayin hara as an eye roll, a look of contempt, the wordless gesture denigrating the very essence of the person towards whom it is directed. It’s the snide comment and the sotto voce comment about someone at a meeting. The problem with such behavior is not only that it is disrespectful, but also that it does not open up a conversation that might lead to learning by all parties. Disagreeing respectfully means sharing your disagreement openly, creating room for a discussion, and perhaps coming to a resolution or compromise.

What I call the ‘selfish impulse’ is more often called the evil impulse or the evil inclination. But the yetzer hara is not as simple as an evil part of our nature to be searched out and destroyed from our being. It is also described as a necessary part of our human nature, our sexuality, our drive to earn a living. It is the part of us which seeks pleasure and comfort. So Rabbi Joshua’s caution is not to focus only on our selfish needs without taking the needs of others into account.

Finally, Rabbi Joshua adds a general term for hatred of people, which can also mean hatred of all of God’s creations (human and animal). I think of sin’at habriyot in terms of racist, sexist, homophobic, antisemitic, Islamophobic statements, in which a person expresses hatred towards large swaths of humanity.

Judaism is a rich tradition of ritual commandments, prayer, holiday celebrations, and life cycle events, but again and again, we see our classical rabbis summarize the essential point of all of our Jewish behaviors as encouraging us to be decent people. We see that here in Rabbi Joshua’s teaching. Don’t be derisive, selfish, or hateful. Be a contributing member of a loving, supportive society. In Hillel’s words, ”All the rest is commentary.”

Hebrew Words of the Month:

  • yetzer – urge, inclination
  • tov – good
  • ra – evil
  • briyot – creatures – human, animal, reptile, rodent, insect.
  • motzi – take out

Divre Harav – December/2018

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[Rabbi Eliezer continues,] “Warm yourself by the fire of the sages, but be careful of their coals, so you don’t get burned. For their bite is the bite of a fox, and their sting is the sting of a scorpion, and their hiss is like the hiss of a snake. And everything they say is like fiery coals.” 

 Pirke Avot 2:15b

Rabbi Eliezer was known for stubbornly sticking to his position despite the opposition of all of his colleagues. After one particular episode, his colleagues excommunicated him. Subsequently, the Talmud describes him as tearing through the world leaving a wake of destruction behind him.

A good discussion can be invigorating, warm and fun. But a debate between two hard-headed stubborn know-it-alls can be vicious. Each one is so convinced of the correctness of his thinking that he doesn’t bother to listen to his opponent’s responses. Each response is steeped in sarcasm, demeaning his opponent more than responding to his argument.

The epilogue of this mishnah, which departs from the expected pattern of three teachings from each sage, is most likely not originally part of Rabbi Eliezer’s teachings. A later editor, knowing Rabbi Eliezer’s propensity to engage in destructive argumentation, took the opportunity to warn us to beware of those who know so much that they think they can never be wrong, who refuse to learn from anyone else, whose every conversation is a lecture. Every sentence seeks be be a gotcha, a bite, sting, or strike. This is a common feature of dialogues on Twitter and in Facebook comments streams.

The holiday of Hanukkah celebrates the quality of stubbornness and zealotry in connection with the Maccabees, the name for the Hasmonean family who led the revolt against the Hellenized Syrian King. In the short term, their zealotry led to victory and saved Judaism. In the long term, their addiction to power created the circumstances which led to the Roman destruction of the Temple about two centuries later. It was the sages who opposed Rabbi Eliezer who created the Rabbinic Judaism which survived the loss of the Temple and dispersion of Jews.

Remember this lesson on Hanukkah. We celebrate not only the light of religious freedom from the darkness of tyranny, but also the fundamental values of our Jewish tradition, especially the idea of spreading love through our engagement with mitzvot.

Hebrew Words of the Month:

  • • Hakham – sages, scholars
  • • Hazal – An acronym for Hakkhameinu, zikhronam livrakha, our sages, of blessed memory
  • • Davar – word
  • • D’var Torah – a word of Torah, a lesson from Torah

Divre Harav – November/2018

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Rabbi Eliezer says, “Let your respect for your fellow be as precious to you as that for yourself. Don’t be easy to anger. Repent one day before you die.”

 Pirke Avot 2:15a

Rabbi Eliezer opens with the fundamental truth that unless you have respect for yourself, unless you believe that you have inherent worth and value, you will never be able to fully respect other people. Those with a poor self image, project their self-hatred onto others. Those who believe that they themselves are not worthy of respect, internalize the assumption that others carry the same internal flaws and are equally deserving of contempt.

Is it correct to say that no human being is flawless. This is one of the wise lessons implicit in the Hebrew Bible, suggested by the fact that it contains no perfect characters. Everyone, including God, has flaws. Everyone, at times, struggles with anger, regret, judgementalism, dishonesty, defensiveness, greed, forgetfulness, laziness, ungratefulness, timidity, and a host of other negative character traits. But when we consider and evaluate ourselves, we need to remember that we are also generous, benevolent, capable, empathetic, caring, loyal, hardworking, and strong. With focused attention, our positive traits can outweigh our negative traits, and can remind us that this is true of others as well.

For many, the strongest negative emotion is anger. Self-righteous anger makes us feel alive and important. It gets us noticed. It appeals to the primitive limbic center of the brain rather than the higher thinking upper cortex. We don’t make our best decisions when we are angry. That’s when we send email and texts that we later regret. That’s when we say things that later we wish we could take back. Rabbi Eliezer’s second piece of advice, to calm our instinctive anger response within our animal selves, is to encourage us to be fully human, rational, compassionate, thinking, beings.

Finally, Rabbi Eliezer understands that each of us will feel remorse over things that we have said and done today. Don’t save them up for next Rosh Hashanah. You might not make it, you might forget before then, or the person you have wronged may not be around any more. As a spiritual exercise, he suggests taking time each day to review what we have done, and do teshuvah immediately. Sound advice!

 

Hebrew Words of the Month:

  • kavod – respect
  • Haviv – cherished, beloved
  • Teshuvah – repentance