Transcription
[Music]
It's customary between Passover and Shavuot to study Pirkei Avot, Ethics of Our Fathers. The reason is because before one receives the Torah, one has to be an ethical person. Therefore, we begin to study Ethics of Our Fathers before the holiday of Shavuot.
Furthermore, we also study Ethics of Our Fathers throughout the entire summer months. The reason is because in the summer, people go out to play, and therefore there are the temptations of the flesh. To overcome these temptations, we study Pirkei Avot.
Ethics of Our Fathers, in chapter one, Mishna number one, it goes on to say: "Moses received the Torah from Sinai, and he gave it over to his disciple Joshua. Joshua gave it over to the elders, and the elders gave it over to the prophets, and the prophets gave it over to the men of the Great Assembly. They said three things: You should be deliberate in judgment, you should establish many disciples, make a fence around the Torah."
Now, it seems to be that this Mishna is two separate Mishnayot, two separate concepts. First, it begins with the history of Moses going down to the men of the Great Assembly, and then it goes on to say what the men of the Great Assembly said. So why are these two concepts in one Mishna?
Furthermore, the author of the Mishna is Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, who lived in the latter part of the second century and the early part of the third century. So Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi was the one that redacted the entire Mishna. There are six tractates of the Mishna; Ethics of Our Fathers is only one tractate of the Mishna.
Now, the reason why we have the introduction to Ethics of Our Fathers that Moses received the Torah from Sinai is because, being that we're dealing here with ethics and not specific laws in Torah, one may think that this is a book of ethics that the rabbis fabricated or concocted on their own, just like many other professors of the discipline of ethics created their own term or their own discipline. So too, the rabbis created their own book on ethics.
Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, the author of the Mishna, says, "No, these ethics are not something that they made up on their own, but rather they came from Moses on Sinai. They came directly from God."
But yet, we only find here five different generations: Moses, and then Joshua, and then the Elders, and then the Prophets, and then the men of the Great Assembly. If you look into the Moses Maimonides, he says that there were 40 generations from Moses down to the writing of the Talmud. And from Moses down to Ezra, who put together the Mishna, you have also many, many generations. And from Moshe to Ezra, you have 21 generations. In other words, from Moshe to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, the author of the Mishna, you have 34 generations. And from Moses to Ezra, who is the leader of the men of the Great Assembly, you have 21 generations. Yet here in the Mishna, we only write five generations.
And therefore, we must say that it's not only to tell us that the Torah came directly from Sinai, but rather Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, the author of the Mishna, is actually giving us the ethics of Torah, the ethics of how to study Torah, and how to convey Torah to the next generation.
And so, we begin with Moshe. Who is Moshe? Moshe received the Torah from Sinai. Now, first of all, did Moshe receive the Torah from Sinai? Sinai is a mountain. Did the mountain actually give Moses the Torah, or was it God who gave the Torah to Moses on that mountain? So let's try to understand why the Mishna here says, "Moses received the Torah from Sinai."
And we know that the Torah can be interpreted on four or five different levels: the simple level, then the Remez, and so the esoteric, and then the Sod. Interpretation. So let's understand the word "Sinai" on five different levels.
On the simple level, the concept of Sinai and the level of Pshat is to teach us that just like when the Jewish people were standing at Sinai, they saw thunder and lightning, and they began to tremble and shiver in awe of God. The same is true. We are told every time one studies Torah, you should have that same awe of God, that same fear and trepidation, as if God is giving you the Torah today. It's not simply a book, a novel that you're reading for pleasure and to have a good time, but as you read the Torah, you have to realize God is giving you the Torah right now, and God is talking to you directly. And therefore, you have to learn Torah with tremendous awe and tremendous trepidation. That's the first interpretation.
What is the Remez? The Remez is the hint of why it says, "Moses received the Torah from Sinai," to tell us that the entire Torah was given on Sinai. In other words, God told Abraham to circumcise himself. Abraham happened to be 99 years old, and he said, "Now, after you circumcise yourself, your children that are going to be born to you should be circumcised on the eighth day." Is that why we circumcise ourselves today? Says Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, "No, that's not why we circumcise ourselves today, but rather because God gave us the Torah on Sinai. The entire Torah and the commentary were given on Sinai." So therefore, the second reason of why Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, who redacted the Mishna, says, "Moses received the Torah from Sinai," is to tell us that you should know that all the laws and all the Mitzvot that we do today are done because they were given to Moses by God on Sinai.
What is Drash? What is the Drash? The Drash is that Sinai is a mountain. Why does it mean Sinai is a mountain? There are those who say, "Who am I to study the Torah? I'm not righteous, I'm not pure, I'm not holy. I never had a Yeshiva education. I don't keep all the laws of the Torah. Who am I to learn this holy book, this holy knowledge that God gave on Sinai?" So we're told, "You should know God gave the Torah on Sinai, and therefore you have to be like a Sinai, you have to be like a mountain." And even though your friends and your neighbors tell you, "Ha! You think you can master the Torah? You think you understand Torah? You think you have the right to study Torah?" You have to be like a mountain. You have to be bold, you have to be proud. As it says in the Code of Jewish Law, in the very first chapter, not to be intimidated by those who laugh at you, even though perhaps sometimes it's your family, it's your father, it's your mother, it's your brother, your sister, your child. "Ha! You think now you're going to start learning Torah?" So therefore, you have to be bold like a mountain.
On the other hand, Sinai was the smallest of all the mountains. As it says in the Midrash, when God wanted to give the Torah in the desert, all the mountains became before God and said, "Put the Torah on me." The largest mountain said, "God, I'm the largest mountain, put the Torah on me." The most beautiful mountain that was filled with flowers said, "Put the Torah on me." God said, "Both of you mountains are blemished because you think you're the biggest and the most beautiful. That is the biggest blemish, and therefore you don't deserve that the Torah should be put on you." So Sinai was on the side and Sinai was quiet. It didn't say a word. God said, "To Sinai, why are you so quiet?" Says Sinai, "If you didn't put the Torah on the biggest mountain and you didn't put the Torah on the most beautiful mountain, you're not going to put the Torah on me?" God said, "Yes, Sinai, you are the one because you are humble."
So comes the question to mind: If it's about humility, he says, "So put the Torah in a valley." A valley is even more humble. So the lesson is, on one hand, you have to be bold like a mountain. On the other hand, you don't want to be like a doormat. You don't want to be like a valley, totally, totally a nothing. So you have to have this combination: on one hand, to be bold; on the other hand, not to be too bold and too arrogant. On the other hand, to be bold, but on the other hand, not to be a pushover either. And therefore, you have this balance in Sinai.
And then you have the fourth interpretation, which is Sod, the esoteric. According to the esoteric, according to Kabbalah, the word "Sinai," if you add up the letters of Sinai, it equals 130. 130 is five times the number 26. What is 26? 26 is the name of God's name, the Tetragrammaton, which equals 26. The Yud is 10, and the Hey is five, and the Vav is six, and the Hey is five. These four letters of God's name are the numerical computation of 26. 26 times 5 is 130, which is the Gematria of Mount Sinai. Because Sinai is Samech, which is 60, and Yud is 10, and Nun is 50, and Yud is 10, which is 130. In other words, that on Sinai, God gave all five levels of the Torah. Not only did He give the simple and the Drash, etc., etc., but He also gave the teachings of the Sod, that would be revealed through the Nevi'im, and primarily, which is the teachings of Mashiach that will be revealed after Mashiach comes. So all of these five levels were introduced on Sinai and revealed on Sinai and given on Sinai. Some were given in a very, very apparent way, and some were more concealed, but all of them were already introduced on Sinai.
Therefore, we say, even though a Mashiach will come, he will introduce a whole new level of Torah. That after we learn the Torah through Mashiach, we realize that the Torah that we learned up until then was it was it was nothingness and not compared to the brilliance of the new insights that Mashiach will reveal. At the same time, we know that there'll never be another giving of the Torah. There'll never be another Torah. On the contrary, there was only one Torah, and that was given already on Sinai. But in that Torah, we have the seeds of all the teachings of the Torah that will be introduced for all generations to come.
So this is the concept of Sinai. Moshe received the Torah of Sinai. And we go on to say that there are five levels. There are five levels in the ethics of how to acquire Torah.
Number one is Moshe. Who is Moshe? Moshe is the most humble person on the face of the earth. As we explained earlier, Moshe received the Torah from Sinai. In other words, he also had those qualities of Sinai. On one hand, he knew that God chose him. He knew that he was more brilliant than any person in his generation. However, he also knew that the knowledge that he had was God-given. So how could he be arrogant? He didn't acquire it on his own. It was given to him as a gift from God. And furthermore, if another person would have received his qualities and his talents, that person would have gone beyond him. So therefore, he was humble.
So Moshe represents the concept of humility, which is, in general, the meaning of humility according to Kabbalah. To know that the talents that we possess as a person, either as a scientist or as a teacher, a mathematician, a singer, a dancer, whatever it is, these are talents that God gave us. And if someone else would have these talents, that person would be better than us. And therefore, we have to acknowledge our talents, but yet not to be arrogant. So Moshe represents the quality of humility. The first way, the first step to acquiring the knowledge of God, which is infinite. How can my finite mind acquire an infinite knowledge? So the vessel to that is humility, and that is Moshe. That is step number one.
And that's why it says in the Code of Jewish Law, when a child begins to talk, what do you teach him? What's the first thing you should teach him? It's not "Daddy." The first thing you teach a child when he begins to speak is you teach him the verse that "The Torah that Moses gave us is an inheritance to the children of Jacob," because that is the concept of humility.
And then from humility, we go to Joshua. Who was Joshua? Joshua was a successor of Moshe. The Midrash tells us that when Moses was about to die, he turned to God and said, "God, who is going to be my successor?" He was hoping that God would say, "Your successor is your child. You have two sons, right? Gershom and Eliezer. These are the two children that you have. One of them should be the successor." Yet God said, "No, it's going to be Joshua." Why Joshua? Because Joshua never left the tent of Torah. He was a diligent student, he was totally devoted day and night to the study of Torah. So even though Moses' children were very knowledgeable, and they were brilliant in the word of Torah and the teachings of Torah, yet they did not have that same bit, that same humility and same dedication that Joshua had to the Torah. And therefore, the Midrash goes on to say that God tells Moses, "The one that protected the Fig Tree, he is the one that will eat from the Fig Tree." Being that Joshua protected your knowledge and your Torah, therefore he will be the one that will become the leader of the generation.
So Joshua represents that after we have the introduction of humility, a young child, when he begins to learn Torah, does not really have an appreciation for the Torah. He doesn't understand the Torah. His mind has not yet developed. But he must be like Joshua to dedicate himself to the study of Torah as much as possible.
And then you go to the level of the Elders (Zekinim). Zekinim is the third quality in the Mishna. What is the Zekinim? Elders. This represents who is an old person? One who acquires wisdom. And this means that a person begins to appreciate the knowledge of Torah. He sees the brilliance behind it. He sees the insights. He sees the godliness in the words of Torah, and he begins to appreciate it. And therefore, the next level is the concept of true understanding in the knowledge of the Torah, and to do one's best to truly comprehend it, and to truly love it, and to truly appreciate it.
From the third level of Zekinim, of Elders, we go to the level of Prophets (Nevi'im). What does prophecy mean? On one hand, we're told that "The Torah is not in heaven." There's a famous story in the Talmud that a Rabbi was arguing with his colleagues and said, "I am right in my opinion." And to prove it that I'm right, you'll see this cedar tree will bend over, and the cedar tree bent over. And he said, "If I'm right, then the stream will change its course," and the stream changed its course. And he said, "If I'm right, a Heavenly voice will come along and say I'm correct." And a Bat Kol, a Heavenly voice, came out and said, "Yes, this Rabbi is correct." And still, all his colleagues said, "We don't agree with you." Why? "Torah is not in heaven. Torah must be comprehended down here in this world."
So why does Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, the author and the redactor of the Mishna, come along and say that the fourth level is the level of Prophecy and Prophets? Even though many prophets were great teachers, but it wasn't the element and the attribute of prophecy that gave them their authenticity. On the contrary, it was the fact that it was understood, it was logical. So why here does the Mishna say that the fourth level is prophecy?
And the answer is that we find that the great sages of old, before they actually conveyed a teaching, they saw this teaching in heaven. They had the ability to go into the Chamber of Knowledge in heaven where this teaching was taught, and they had the ability to see it there and then convey it down here in this world. However, they first understood it through their intellectual faculty. They studied it on their own. They didn't simply say, "This is the way they teach the Torah in heaven." They had the ability to truly comprehend it in a very logical way, and then they gave it over.
And that is why we find that it says that in the Talmud, when the Rabbis could not come to a conclusion, they would say "Teiku." What does "Teiku" mean? "Teiku" is an acronym for "Tishbi Yetaratz Mashia." Which means that Elijah the Prophet will come and he will answer all these questions in the future. And here too, the question comes to mind: Why do we need Elijah the Prophet? The Torah is not connected with prophecy. On the contrary, it's connected with comprehension. And the answer here too is that it doesn't mean it's going to be answered through prophecy. He will have the ability to see the way the answer is in heaven, but understand it through his intellectual faculty and give it over.
And therefore, we too nowadays, when we study Torah, after the introduction of being like Moses with humility, we also have to have the quality of being a prophet. What does that mean? To have that ability to rely on God and to trust in God, and to realize that the intellect is an intellectual concept that comes from a Godly place. Many people, once they begin to understand and master Torah, unfortunately, they use that intellect to pervert and to manipulate the law. They say, "Well, I know the law, and this is the way I understand it, and it doesn't really mean what it says." And unfortunately, we know many great scholars who were very well-versed in the knowledge of Torah, yet they caused many people to go astray and violate the laws of Torah. Why? Because they lacked this quality of prophecy. In other words, they lacked this quality of accepting the Yoke of Heaven and asking God to give them the true insight and the correct approach to understanding the knowledge of Torah. And that is the meaning of Nevi'im, the meaning of prophecy. Just like a prophet sees his vision from God, so too when we study Torah, we ask God that our understanding should be like a prophet. It should come directly from God Himself.
And finally, we come to the fifth level, which is the level of the men of the Great Assembly. Why were they called the men of the Great Assembly? Was it because they were truly a great assemblage? We know that Ezra, Ezra the Scribe, gathered 120 of the greatest rabbis of that generation, including many prophets like Daniel and Mordechai, the famous hero of the story of Purim. All of these prophets were part of the Great Assembly of Ezra the Scribe. But that's not why they were called the men of the Great Assembly. The Gemara says why they were called the men of the Great Assembly. The tractate of Yoma, on page 69, side B, it says over there as follows:
That Moses prayed to God and Moses called God, "God, who is big, one who is strong, and one who is awesome." And "big" by the way is a metaphor for kind. God is a kind God, and He is a strong God, and an awesome God. Came along Jeremiah the Prophet, after the destruction of the First Holy Temple, and he says, "What? God is called awesome? How could God be called awesome? How does He allow these enemies of the Jews to dance in the Holy Temple? If He's allowing these enemies, these Babylonians, to destroy the Temple and dance in the Temple, He's no awesome God to me." And he took away the name "awesome." Came Daniel, Daniel the Prophet, and said, "God, God is Gibor, God is strong. How is God a strong God? How could a strong God allow the enemies of the Jewish people to put His children into exile and to put them into slavery once again?" So if the Babylonians brought the Jews into slavery, God is not Gibor, God is not a strong God.
Came along the men of the Great Assembly and said, "On the contrary, God is kind, and God is strong, and God is awesome." And that is the way we pray today in the Amidah, three times a day. And they went on to say, "What does it mean that God is strong and God is awesome?" And they went on to say, "Because we are still a nation. Even though there are many nations out there who try to destroy us, many nations have risen and many nations have fallen. Look today at the Romans, look at the Babylonians, look at the Byzantines. They're no longer here, but the Jewish people continue to exist." So we see that God is truly awesome, God is truly great and strong, because we today are a small nation, but yet we are united and we continue to flourish.
And therefore, the men of the Great Assembly, they were the ones that took the Torah and put it into law. What were the laws that they said? They said three things:
Number one: "You should be deliberate in judgment." And that is when a judge sees a case come before him, he shouldn't simply dismiss it, "Ah, I've seen a similar case like this. You're right, and you're wrong." But rather, judge each case on its merits. Hear every detail of the case, because every detail is very valuable.
The second thing they taught was: "You should have many, many disciples." And therefore, bring all the disciples he can and teach them Torah.
And the third thing is: "Make a fence around the Torah." So that a person will not violate the law. For example, we light candles Friday evening 18 minutes before sunset. Why? So that we should not make a mistake and light it after sunset. That's an example of putting a fence around the Torah.
But how do the rabbis of the Great Assembly bring the Torah to all generations? If we look around today, it's true, we're living in the Ba'al Teshuva movement, the Ba'al Teshuva generation, a time when many people are coming back to God in Judaism. At the same time, unfortunately, we have children who went to Yeshiva, who were raised in Jewish homes, and are leaving the fold. How do we encourage? How do we excite the generation to come back to God and to participate in Judaism and in Torah?
So therefore, the rabbis say: Number one, "You should be deliberate in judgment." And in other words, when it comes to judging a person, those, "Yeah, he's a bad person. He doesn't keep Shabbat, doesn't keep Kashrut. I'm not going to talk with him." On the contrary, maybe he never went to Yeshiva. Maybe he never had a father. Maybe he had bad friends. Maybe he had a bad experience. You can't judge him for what he's doing right now. On the contrary, look at him that he's a good person. He has a holy soul. He's a child of God, and he has love in his heart. And therefore, you got to bring him in. Judge each person on his own level.
Number two is: "Establish many students." We're not only saying here to establish quantitatively, to have many, many students, but also many kinds of students. There are those students who will pray three times a day. There are those students who will come to the synagogue once a year. There are those students who go to a Torah class once a day. There are those students who go to a Torah class once a year. But each one of them should feel connected. Each one of them should feel that they belong. Even though they come once a year, you have to make them feel that connection, make them feel important.
And finally: "Make many fences around the Torah." What does that mean? Give them many opportunities. Judaism has 613 Mitzvot and many, many, many fences around them. In other words, make Judaism accessible for people. You don't want to come to Shabbat? So make a Havdalah party. You don't want to come for Purim? Make a Purim party. You don't want to come to Pesach? Make a Pesach party. Get out, Mitzvah to your friends. You don't want to come to Shul? We'll come to you. We'll put a Mitzvah tank in the street. We'll stop you and we'll put on Tefillin in the street. Not a problem. You could find the Mitzvah anytime, anywhere, any place. You don't want to go to Israel? You want to go to Timbuktu? Okay, we'll have a Sukkah for you there. You want to go to Tibet? You're looking for spirituality on top of the mountain? You'll have a Kabbalah house. We'll put on Tefillin on top of the mountain. Anything you want, any place, any time. And that is the meaning of "make fences around the Torah." In other words, give people many opportunities to be able to connect with Torah.
So therefore, we have five different generations, not only the five generations, but rather five different types, alluding to the five levels of Torah. And furthermore, according to Kabbalah, Moshe represents, which is the spiritual wisdom. Joshua represents the lower wisdom. The Elders represent intellect. The Prophets represent the attributes of Chesed and Gevurah, which is the two attributes of Victory and Acknowledgement. And then you have the men of the Great Assembly, which allude to the level of Malchut, the level of Kingship, which also is a level of speech and action, because they were the ones that brought the Torah, the knowledge of Torah, into the practical laws.
And this is the first Mishna of Ethics of Our Fathers. And by learning this and studying the Mishna and reviewing the Mishna, this will truly give us the proper ethics that we need to learn Torah and to acquire Torah and to understand Torah properly. And this is God's gift to humanity that even though God is infinite and we are finite, through the fact that we have the humility of Moshe, we will have the ability to study God's knowledge. And not only the knowledge on the level of Pshat, on the simple level, but also the level of Remez, the esoteric level, and also the level of Sod, the way the Torah will be introduced when Mashiach will come. With the coming of Mashiach, speedily in our days.