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Week 136 - Thursday - 4 July 2002

PIRKEI AVOT: CHAPTER 4: MISHNAH 18

Rabbi Shimon ben Eleazar said: Do not appease your friend at the hour of his anger; nor console him while his dead lies before him; nor question him at the time of his vow; nor strive to see him in the hour of his disgrace.

Kehati

Rabbi Shimon ben Eleazar was a disciple of Rabbi Meir. He would say: "The staff of Rabbi Meir was in my hand, and it taught me knowledge" (T.J., Mo’ed Katan 3:1). He was a contemporary and friend of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi. In the present Mishnah, he teaches us how to behave toward a friend who is under mental strain, be it a fit of anger or sorrow, etc. This reflects an important principle of social conduct, to do everything in the proper place and at the right time; otherwise, it may do more harm than good, as our Sages put it (Yev. 65b): "Just as man is commanded to say that which will be listened to so is he commanded to withhold that which will not be accepted."

Rabbi Shimon ben Eleazar said: Do not appease your friend at the hour of his anger - because he will not accept your counsel and you may even raise his temper. Our Sages asked (Ber-. 7a): "Whence do we know that it is wrong to pacify a person when he is angry? Because it is written (Ex. 33: 14): 'My face shall go with you, and I shall give you rest' - God said to Moses: Wait until the anger has passed from my face, and I shall grant your request", nor console him while his dead lie before him - when no person is receptive to consolation.

Nor question him at the time of his vow - to find loopholes for a possible annulment of his vow because being incensed, and his mind set on his oath, he will insist on its unconditional implementation, and you will thereby forfeit any chance of later retraction.

Nor strive to see him in the hour of his disgrace - when he succumbs to sin, and wishes to escape notice. Thus, in the case of Adam, when he sinned, God did not address them (Adam and Havah) until after (Gen. 3:7): "they made themselves girdles," whereupon (ibid. 8): "they heard the voice of the Lord God."

PIRKEI AVOT: CHAPTER 4: MISHNAH 19

Shmuel HaKatan said: "Rejoice not when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles; lest the Lord see it, and it displease Him, and He turn away His wrath from him" (Prov. 24: 17-18).

Kehati

The Gemara relates (Sanh. 11a): "It happened when the Sages were meeting in the upper chamber at Yavneh, a voice from heaven was heard saying: There is one here who is worthy that the Divine Presence should rest upon him, but his generation does not merit it; and the Sages turned their eyes to Shmuel HaKatan. "Why was he called HaKatan - The Little? Two reasons are given in the Jerusalem Talmud (Sotah 9:13): i) "Because he belittled himself," i.e. because of his exceptional humility; ii) "Because he was less significant only than Shmuel the Ramatite (the Prophet Samuel)." At the request of Rabban Gamliel of Yavneh Shmuel HaKatan composed the Blessing against the Apostates (Ber 28b) in the Amidah: "And to the informers let there be no hope," which is directed primarily against the sectaries who afflicted Israel in those days. He used to say: "This world is like the human eyeball: the white represents the oceans which encircle the whole earth; the black part (iris) is the earth; the pupil of the eye is Jerusalem; and the image (reflected) in the pupil, is the Temple" (Derekh Eretz Zutta 9).

Rabban Gamliel, who held Shmuel HaKatan in great respect, once said "Summon to me at the upper chamber seven Sages for tomorrow early in the morning" (to establish the leap year). When he came in the morning and found eight, he said: "Whoever came up without permission, let him go down!" Shmuel HaKatan thereupon stood up and said: "I am the one who came up without permission, but I did not come up to join in declaring the leap year, but because I felt it necessary to learn the practical application of this Halakhah." Rabban Gamliel then said: "Sit down, my son, sit down! It would be in order for all the leap years (requiring intercalation - tr.) to be declared by you, were it not for the declaration of the Sages that the leap year may not be announced except by those especially summoned for the purpose." In reality, it was not Shmuel HaKatan who had come up without permission, but another man, whose embarrassment Shmuel HaKatan wished to spare (Sanh. 11a). The saying in our Mishnah is a verse from the Book of Proverbs, which Shmuel HaKatan used to quote to draw popular attention to these widely prevalent failings,

Shmuel HaKatan said - he was accustomed to repeat: "Rejoice not when your enemy falls - do not gloat at his discomfiture, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles - do not celebrate his failure; - lest the Lord see it, and it displease Him, that you grow arrogant at the downfall of your opponent and He turn away His wrath from him - and direct it against you. According to another version of this Mishnah the following is added at the end: it does nor say,· haron appo (the heat of his wrath, commonly used in Scriptures - tr.), but merely appo (His wrath), and this teaches us that all his sins (those of a mocked opponent - tr.) are forgiven him" (see Rashi, Rambam), According to this reading, this innovation, gathered from a close examination of the verse, is attributed to Shmuel HaKatan (Tosefot Yom Tov), The lesson thereby taught is that God forgives the sins of a person on account of his suffering, when his downfall is a source of joy to his adversaries (Rashbatz).

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