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Week 134 - Wednesday - 19 June 2002

PIRKEI AVOT: CHAPTER 3: MISHNAH 6

Rabbi Halafta of Kefar Hananyah said: When ten sit and occupy themselves with Torah, the Divine Presence rests among them, as it is said, (Ps. 82:1): "G-d stands in the congregation of G-d." And how do we know that the same applies even to five? As it is said (Amos 9:6): "and has founded His band upon the earth." And how do we know that the same applies even to three? As it is said (Ps. 82:1): "He judges in the midst of the judges". And how do we know that the same applies even to two? As it is said (Mal. 3:16): "Then they that feared the Lord spoke one with another, and the Lord listened and heard." And how do we know that the same applies even to one? As it is said (Ex. 20:21): "In every place where I cause My Name to be mentioned, I will come to you and bless you."

Kehati

Rabbi Halafta of our Mishnah was probably a disciple of Rabbi Meir. (See B.M. 94a where Rabbi Halafta cites the opinion of Rabbi Meir.) His home village, Kefar Hananyah, lies on the boundary between the Upper and lower Galilee.

Rabbi Halafta of Kefar Hananya said: when ten sit and occupy themselves with Torah, the Divine Presence rests among them - a Divine inspiration descends to enlighten their minds (Tiferet Yisrael, and see our explanation above, Mishnah 2) as it is said: "G-d stands in the congregation of G-d" - the term edah (congregation) denotes a minimum of ten (see Mishnah, Sanh. 1:6).

And how do we know that the same applies even to five? - who sit and occupy themselves with Torah, that the Shekhinah rests among them. As it is said: "and has founded His band upon the earth" - The verse begins with: "It is He Who builds his upper chambers in the heaven" i.e., the Shekhinah, which is in heaven, descends to the earth when there is a "band", comprising five, who sit and study Torah; agudah, "band" denotes what a man can grip (ogged) with one hand, which has five fingers (Bartenura. Rambam).

And how do we know that the same applies even to three? - who are occupied with Torah, that the Shekhinah is among them? As it is said: "He judges in the midst of the judges" - 'Judges' denotes a court of three officers (see Ex. 2:7-8), in whose deliberations, we are told, G-d participates. An alternative version of our Mishnah reads: And how do we know that the same applies even to five? As it is said: "He judges in the midst of the judges." i.e. the three judges and the two litigants, yielding five; And how do we know that the same applies even to three? As it is said: "and has founded His band upon the earth" - 'band', unspecified, implies three items, e.g. a band (agudah) of hyssop which consists of three sprigs, or the agudah of the lulav (on Sukkot), which consists of a palm-branch, myrtle and willow sprig.

And how do we know that the same applies even to two? - who are occupied with Torah, that the Shekhinah rests with them? As it is said: "Then they that feared the Lord spoke one with another, and the Lord listened, and heard" -"one with another" means two, of whom it is said, "and the Lord listened, and heard," indicating the presence of the Shekhinah.

And how do we know that the same applies even to one - who sits down to study Torah, that the Shekhinah rests with him? As it is said: "In every place where I cause My Name to be mentioned" - wherever I prompt your mind to refer to My Name (Rashi). According to the Ritva, azkir (I will mention) should be rendered tazkir (you will mention, since the Hebrew letters aleph and tav may be interchanged (by the method known as atbash): "I will come to you and bless you" - 'you' in the singular. According to the Gemara (Ber 6a) the merit attached to each group mentioned here differs, as we learn from the supportive verses: Thus when two discuss the Torah, their words are entered in the heavenly records, as it is written: and the Lord listened and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before Him, but no such written record appears in the case of one who studies Torah alone: The three denote a civil court, whose adjudication, or search for a peaceful compromise, are here equaled with Torah study. However, whereas at the gathering of ten, the Shekhinah hastens to arrive even before all have gathered, with the three this occurs only once they sit down to discuss the case. Other commentators interpret the above biblical verses as follows: Of one who studies the Torah it is said: I will come to you and bless you, meaning that having blessed the solitary student, the Shekhinah immediately departs, just like a king who enters a city, and having graced his favorite with a few presents, immediately moves on. Of two who study Torah it is said: and the Lord listened, and heard, i.e., He extends His visit in order to hear them. Of three it is said: He judges in the midst of the judges, i.e., G-d joins them for the course of their deliberations. Of five it is said: and has founded His band on the earth, i.e., G-d lays the foundation of a building, just like a king who comes to a city and establishes a permanent residence there for his occasional visitations. Of ten it is said: G-d stands in the congregation of G-d, i.e., He establishes his central residence there (Rabbi Yosef Ya'avetz).

PIRKEI AVOT: CHAPTER 3: MISHNAH 7

Rabbi Eleazar of Bartota said: Give unto Him what is His, for you and yours are His. And thus David said: (I Chr. 29:14): "For all things come of You, and of Your own have we given You." Rabbi Shimon said: He who walks along a road studying, and interrupts his studies and says: 'How beautiful is this tree!' or 'How beautiful is this field!' - the Torah considers it as though he transgressed against his own soul.

Kehati

Rabbi Eleazar of Bartota is identical with Rabbi Eleazar ben Yehudah (see Mishnah, Orlah 1:4), a disciple of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Hananyah and a colleague of Rabbi Akiva (see Mishnah, Tevul Yom 3:4). In the above saying he exhorts man to be generous when giving charity, or contributing to a religious cause. He himself practiced what he preached, as we read in the Gemara (Ta’an. 24a) that the charity wardens habitually avoided him, since he would unfailingly give them all he had. Once he went to the market to procure the requirements for his daughter's wedding. Again, on sighting him the charity wardens began to slip away, but he pursued them and said: "I hereby adjure you to tell me what is your business." They said to him: "We are dealing with the marriage of two orphans." He said: "On my oath, they take precedence over my daughter" and he took out all he had and gave it to them.

Rabbi Eleazar of Bartota - a village in Upper Galilee, said: Give unto Him what is His - give to G-d of what He has granted you, i.e., give charity, or spend money on a mitzvah in the knowledge that you are not parting from yours, but from what belongs to G-d, for you and yours are His - whatever you possess you received from Him, and by His grace you live and are sustained, as our Sages expounded the verse (Job 41:3): "Who has given Me anything beforehand, that I should repay him?" Did you affix a mezuzah on the doorpost before I gave you a house? Did you perform the mitzvah of erecting a railing before I gave you a roof? Or did you fulfill the mitzvah of tzitzit (fringes) before I gave you a garment?" (Vayikra Rabba 27:2). Others comment that Rabbi Eleazar refers to a man's person as well as to his possessions, viz., that he should not withhold his personal or material contribution to religious causes, seeing that he does not provide of his own, as man's possessions are but a deposit left in his care by G-d (Rabbenu Yonah).

And thus David said - when he approached his subjects for donations required for the building of the Temple: "But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly, for all things come of You and of Your own have we given You" - whatever we offer derives from the power of Your hand.

Rabbi Shimon said - an alternative reading has, Rabbi Yaakov said i.e., Rabbi Yaakov Kurshai or ben Kurshi (see Hor. 13b), the teacher of Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi (TJ., Shab. 10:5), and this version is accepted in most editions. He who walks along a road studying - i.e., applying his mind to the Torah, and interrupts his studies - on seeing luxuriant vegetation or a plowed field, and says: How beautiful is this tree! or how beautiful is this field! - this applies to any disruption of his studies; the author merely chose a common example, since travelers generally comment on what their eyes behold (Bartenura). Having disturbed his studies with such irrelevancies, the Torah considers it - the source is cited in the next Mishnah: "Only take heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things" (Deut. 4:9), as though he transgressed against his own soul - as if he had entirely neglected the Torah, thereby risking his very existence, because man is naturally drawn after vanity and idle talk, and these might lead him to an utter rejection of his obligations towards the Torah (Hameiri). Moreover, the disregard of study through idle talk is tantamount to desecration of the Torah (Rashbatz). Indeed, since the Torah constitutes the very life-blood of the Jew, and he who ceases to study it departs from the source of life, such action denotes a transgression against one's soul.

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