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Week 138 - Tuesday - 16 July 2002

PIRKEI AVOT: CHAPTER 5: MISHNAH 20

Yehudah ben Tema said: Be bold as a leopard, light as the eagle, swift as the deer, and mighty as the lion, to do the will of your Father in heaven, He used to say: The shameless are for Gehinnom and the bashful are for Gan Eden. May it be Your will, O Lord our God, that Your City be rebuilt speedily in our days, and grant us our portion in Your Torah.

Kehati

Our Mishnah, which ends with the prayer "May it be Your will' appears to mark the conclusion of this Tractate; the following Mishnayot may be later additions. Yehudah ben Tema is not mentioned anywhere else in the Mishnah. In the Gemara (Hag. 14a) the Sages expounded Isaiah's expression "prop and staff" (Is. 3:1) thus: prop, this refers to the masters of Scripture; staff, this refers to the masters of Mishnah such as Rabbi Yehudah ben Tema and his colleagues. The tractate Avot de Rabbi Natan (Chapt. 41) contains additional statements in his name: "You should love Heaven, and revere Heaven; tremble and rejoice in all the mitzvot. If You commit a slight wrong against Your fellow let it be great in your sight; but if he does you a grievous wrong, let it be slight in your eyes. A sponge and a tarred vessel (which does not loose a drop) –these are the Torah scholars. A funnel and a tube (into which liquid pours in at one end only to escape at the other) - these are the wicked. Train yourself to accept suffering and be forgiving when insulted."

Yehudah ben Tema said: Be bold as a leopard - do not be shy to ask your teacher whatever you fail to understand (Bartenura). Alternatively, bold as a leopard – to repel those who ridicule your performance of the mitzvot (Baal Haturim); light as the eagle - to review your lessons tirelessly (Bartenura) and according to Baal Haturim to distance yourself from evil; swift as the deer - in pursuit of mitzvot, both light and weighty; and mighty as the lion, to do the will of your Father in heaven - to conquer your passions.

He - Yehudah ben Tema, used to say: The shameless to Gehinnom - though we are urged to be bold as a leopard, this is confined to action undertaken in emergencies, for the sake of heaven; but boldness (shamelessness) as such is rejected, since boldness induces man to resent those who reprove him, and to renounce the right path (Hameiri); hence, paves the road to hell: and the bashful to Gan Eden - as the Gemara (Ned. 20a) notes: Whoever is bashful does not readily fall prey to sin, as it is written (Ex. 20:17): "that the fear of Him may be with you and keep you from Sin." Indeed, bashfulness draws man to associate with virtuous and honest people, for he would be ashamed of himself and of others, were he to acquire a bad reputation for any reason (Hameiri).

May it be Your Will, O Lord our God, that Your City be rebuilt speedily in our days, and grant us our portion in Your Torah - Rambam comments: Having praised the quality of bashfulness, our Tanna now prays: O Lord our God, just as You bestowed upon us this quality, so also grant us that Your City be rebuilt speedily in our days, Tosefot Rabbi Akiva Eiger, citing the Radak, explains the prayer at the end of our Mishnah in the following way: In study, one requires boldness, as we have learned: nor can the bashful learn; but in the time to come, the earth will be filled with true knowledge, and we will have no need of boldness even in the study of Torah. Now, since our Tanna said: the shameless to hell, and yet Torah calls for boldness (shamelessness), therefore he prayed: May it be Your will that Your city be rebuilt and that You restore the Temple service to its place, and then boldness could be entirely eliminated. Tiferet Yisrael notes: Throughout the entire Mishnah we find no prayer except this one, and the explanation may be found in the Rabbinic statement (Sotah 49b): "In the footsteps of the Messiah, insolence will increase." Hence the Tanna prayed: May it be Your will that You Yourself rebuild Your City in Your great loving-kindness, and let it not rise by the insolence of the shameless. And likewise grant us that our portion, i.e., that part of boldness which resides in our souls, be employed by us solely for the enhancement of Your Torah.

PIRKEI AVOT: CHAPTER 5: MISHNAH 21

He used to say: At the age of five, (one is ripe) for Bible; at ten, for Mishnah, at thirteen, for mitzvot; at fifteen, for Talmud; at eighteen for the marriage canopy; at twenty, for pursuit; at thirty, for vigor: at forty, for understanding; at fifty, for counsel; at sixty, to be an elder; at seventy, for gray hair; at eighty, for strength; at ninety, to bend over; at one hundred, as if he had died and passed away and disappeared from the world.

Kehati

In this Mishnah man's years are divided into periods, so as to urge fathers to teach their children at the appropriate times. Incidentally, we are also told of the natural developments which occur with the passage of time. (Hameiri).

He used to say - according to Tosefot Yom Tov, citing Midrash Sh'muel, the source of these statements is not Rabbi Yehudah ben Tema, but Shmuel HaKatan. Accordingly, the entire Mishnah does not belong to this tractate, but constitutes a later Rabbinic addition. Some versions place at this point the Mishnah cited above (Chapt. 4, Mishnah 19): Shmuel HaKatan said: Rejoice not when your enemy falls. etc.

At the age of five, (one is ripe) for Bible - according to some commentaries this means that at this age the child is ready to enter school and learn the alphabet and how to read (the Heb. mikra denotes both Bible and reading - tr.), but others hold that this should be done at the age of three, drawing on a Midrashic interpretation (Tanhuma Kedoshim, Vayikra Rabba) of the verse (Lev. 19:23): "And when you shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees ... then you shall count the fruit thereof as forbidden; three years shall it be as forbidden unto you; it shall not be eaten." This is interpreted as a symbolic reference to the fruits of Torah, as it is written (Prov. 27:18): "Whoso keeps the fig-tree shall eat its fruit." Here the tree represents the child, and the coming into the land his emergence into the world. The Torah then says that for three full years it shall be counted as orlah (lit. "closed" - tr.), and in the fourth year it shall be holy, for giving praise, i.e., when the child completes his first three years of orlah and enters into his fourth year, sanctify him to the Lord by teaching him the alphabet; And in the fifth year ... it may yield unto you more richly the increase thereof- meaning that at this point it is necessary to "increase" his training and introduce the pupil into the domain of the Bible (Hameiri).

At ten, for Mishnah - having studied Bible for five years, the child should now begin to learn Mishnah. And why did the Tanna determine a period of-five years? As our Rabbis noted (Hul. 24a): "A pupil who does not succeed in his studies within five years, will never succeed."

At thirteen, for mitzvot - he is considered an adult, and bound to keep the Divine commandments. Intimation of this is found in the Prophets (Is. 43:21): "This people which (am zu) I formed for myself, that they might tell of my praise" - the numerical value of zu is thirteen. Others claim that this is a Halakhah given to Moses at Sinai (Teshuvot Harosh).

At fifteen, for Talmud - the study of Gemara. This Mishnah is referring to the analysis and explanations by which the later Tannaim (Mishnaic Sages) endeavored to clarify the statements of their predecessors, since in those days the Gemara in its present format did not exist (Rambam, Sefer Hama'or).

At eighteen, for the marriage canopy - a hint of this is found by the Midrash in the verse (Lev. 21:13): "And he (vehu) shall take a wife in her virginity" - the numerical value of vehu equals eighteen. Rashi notes that in the account of Creation up to the statement: "because she (Eve) was taken out of man" the word "man" (adam) appears eighteen times.

At twenty, for pursuit - if unmarried by then, he should seek a match without delay, lest he be caught up in sinful thoughts (Hameiri). Alternatively, this statement refers to the pursuit of a livelihood - having studied Bible, Mishnah and Gemara, having married and fathered children, he must now strive to earn a living (Bartenura). Some interpret pursuit as that of the enemy, since at twenty a man is obliged to enlist into the army (Mahzor Vitri) as it is written (Num. 1:3): "From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel."

At thirty, for vigor - thus, the Levites entered the service in the Tabernacle at the age of thirty, as it is written (Num. 4:47): "From thirty years old and upward ... every one that entered in to do the work of service, and the work of bearing burdens in the tent of meeting."

At forty, for understanding - by then he is intellectually mature and able to make logical deductions. Thus, after forty years in the wilderness, Moses said to the children of Israel (Deut. 29:3): "But the Lord has not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, until this day." (See Av. Zar. 5b). A hint of this is also found in the phrase "and his heart shall understand" (ulevavo yavin)- the numerical value of levavo is forty (Melekhet Shelomo).

At fifty, for counsel- this involves two elements: 1. intelligence, and 2. experience. By the age of fifty, a person has had ample experience, while his intelligence is still vibrant and as a result, his counsel is distilled by the two vital components (Hameiri). Thus it is said of the Levites (Num. 8:25): "And from the age of fifty years they shall return from the service of the work, and shall serve no more; but shall minister with their brethren." What kind of ministration does the Levite render to his brethren? He advises and trains them how to perform their duty (Rashi).

At sixty, to be an elder - as it is written (Job 5:26): "You shall come to your graves in ripe age (bekhelah) whose numerical value is sixty. Others interpret: "an elder" to be a wise man who knows how to season his wisdom with reason and good sense, as it is written (Job. 12:12): "Wisdom is with aged men" (the Hebrew for aged men' yeshishim contains shishim 'sixty' - tr.).

At seventy, for gray hair (la-sevah) - as it is written of King David (I Chron. 29:28): "And he died (be-sevah) in a good old age," and David lived for seventy years.

At eighty, for strength - as it is written (Ps. 90:10): "Seventy, years is our life's span, eighty if our strength suffice."

At ninety, to bend over - by then a person's posture droops. Rabbenu Yonah reads instead of lashuah bent over', lasuah 'to speak', as in 'to pour forth his speech (siho)'. Thus, upon reaching ninety, it is proper to devote oneself entirely to prayer and praise of God - extolling His wonders, to perfect one's character, and to the pursuit of Torah and mitzvot.

At one hundred, as if he had died and passed away and disappeared from the world - by then his eyes have dimmed, his appearance has deteriorated, his source of intelligence has dried up, and he grows more and more foolish (Rashi). And if his mind remains clear, he has all the more reason to limit his activity to prayer, supplication and invocation (Hameiri).

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