Avot 2:2

It’s a custom in the weeks between Pesah and Shavuot to study the section of Mishnah known as Pirke Avot, the Ethics of the Ancestors. This is a collection of rabbinic aphorisms, pithy wisdom on how one is to act in the world. The full text is available on-line; one such translation is here.

Since next week is Shavuot, I wanted to make sure to mention this custom and learn a little Avot with you before the Omer period passes. Picking one sort-of at random, here is chapter 2, mishnah 2, with a bissel commentary as we go along:

Rabban Gamaliel the son of Rabbi Judah the Prince said: Great is study of the Torah when combined with a worldly occupation, for keeping oneself busy with both puts sin out of mind. All study of the Torah which is not supplemented by work is destined to prove futile and causes sin.

The first sentence is as we would expect, that one who is busy with worldly endeavors – work, family, Facebook – is also obligated to carve out time for the study of Torah, for that’s what keeps one grounded in the eternal truths which form the foundation of our people and indeed of all commonly accepted morality. The second sentence – that Torah study without worldly work is also dangerous – might seem a little more unusual, until we remember that there is no monastic tradition in Judaism. Torah study and (as will be included in a moment) communal responsibilities are to be part and parcel of one’s daily life, not something reserved for rabbis or priests or monks or whatever.

As a (somewhat gratuitous) aside, those “Torah scholars” in Israel who are supported by the State, who don’t work or serve in the army, seem to me to be in clear violation of this rabbinic precept.

Continuing:

Let all who occupy themselves with communal affairs do so for Heaven's sake, for then the merit of their ancestors sustains them and their righteousness endures forever. And as for you, God will then say: I count you worthy of great reward as if you had done it all yourselves.

Here the question is, why do we do what we do for the community? The Mishnah seems to countenance the possibility that there are people who would be active on behalf of the community for self-aggrandizing reasons – ego or accolades or social climbing or whatever. I have known people like this in my time: there was a person in another community I served who reminded everyone regularly about the fairly large contribution she had made to the community about 15 years earlier.

But in all honesty, people like this are few and far between, I find. Most people who work on behalf of Jewish community (or for other worthwhile causes) really are doing it because they believe in what they’re doing, they believe in what the communal organization is doing, and because involvement in congregations or Federations has rewards that go far beyond temporal record-keeping – spiritual rewards, one might call them, whether or not one considers oneself particularly “religious.”

“Their righteousness” – who does the pronoun refer to: is it the ancestors’ righteousness that endures by the actions we take on behalf of community, or our own? And the answer is: yes.

And then the conclusion: Every wonderful thing that everyone did to get us here – to get the Jewish people here, to get the Wichita Jewish community here, to this place at this time – will be counted to the benefit of the people who are involved in this work today, as long as the work we do is for the good of the whole – or as the Mishnah puts it, “for Heaven’s sake.” That’s a lot of merit to acquire – at not a lot of cost!

And that reminds me of another powerful Mishnah from Avot (2:21), which is also worth keeping in mind: You are not required to complete the task, but neither are you free not to undertake it.

Shabbat shalom.