Pirke Avot

Rabbi Melanie Aron

May 24, 2003

There is only one story in the entire book of Pirke Avot, Ethics of the Fathers. The rest of this book from the Mishnah, which we study each year between Passover and Shavuot, is made of sayings of the rabbis and important teachings organized by or for example:

The typical format is either:

• Rabbi Yehovshva used to say
• Rabbi Akivah used to say

Numbers:

• Ten things created on the eve of the first Sabbath
• Seven qualities of the wise person
• Four types among the givers of charity

Only at the very end of the book, in the second to last paragraph do we find a short story from the life of Rabbi Yosi, the son of Kisma.

One commentary suggests that this is because no one remembered Rabbi Yosi ben Kisma teaching anything of particular significance - but that this story of him turning down great wealth was memorable.

I think there's a little more to it than that - but first let me share the story with you.

Rabbi Yosi, the son of Kisma told this story:

Once I was walking on the road and was met by a certain person who greeted me and I returned the greeting. He said to me: Rabbi, from what place are you? And I said to him, I am from a great city of sages and scribes. He said to me: Rabbi, if you are willing to live with us, I will give you a million golden dinar and unlimited precious stones and pearls.

I said to him: "Even if you were to give me all the silver and gold and precious stones and pearls in the world, I would not live anywhere except in a place imbued with Torah."

One way of understanding this story comes from considering the historical situation in which the Mishnah was edited. Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, redactor of the Mishnah, lived in Israel in the second century of the Common Era. This was a time of great hardship for the Jews of Israel as life under the Romans following Bar Kochbah's failed rebellion was marked by severe restrictions and poverty. Some people, including some well know rabbis were choosing to move to Babylonia, where things seemed better at that time. Perhaps this story was included to discourage people from leaving the historic centers of Jewish learning in Israel.

A second explanation relates to the custom at that time of combining "Torah ve Derech Eretz", the study of Torah and a worldly occupation. No one was paid to be a rabbi in those days. You were a rabbi and a farmer, a rabbi and a blacksmith, a rabbi and a tanner. Being a rabbi was an extra-curricular activity as it were, like playing soccer or perhaps a better analogy, like being a volunteer and serving on a Temple board. Rabbi Reuven Byka commenting on this story asks: Why didn't Rabbi Yosi take this man's money, move to that city, set up his own yeshivah and lure other rabbis with great salaries. After all, it's what universities do today! This might not have been an attractive option to Rabbi Yehudah, the Mishnah's editor. He wanted people to study Torah for its own sake - not ________(?). In his words "as a space with which to dig" i.e., not for personal financial gain.

Finally, there is one additional explanation of this story from the sephardic commentary Meam Loez. Perhaps this isn't a real story at all. After all, who could really offer "a million golden dinars and unlimited precious stones and pearls?" Perhaps this is an allegory about every person, and about the yetzer haraah - the evil inclination, which tries to lure us off course with impossible schemes that look good on the surface.

Think of how many Americans get lured in even today by those on-line offers to earn big money by helping a Nigerian government official transfer funds.

When a variety of alluring schemes threaten to drive us off course, we are to remember that what is most important isn't great wealth, but Torah and good deeds. By increasing Torah and good deeds one makes one's real contribution to the world. This leads us naturally tot eh final paragraph of the book, which speaks about our human role in making God's glory apparent in the world.

God was pleased because of his righteousness, expanding Torah and making it beautiful.