In the first chapter of Ethics
of our Fathers the second Mishna and the last Mishna are similar. The earlier
one states that on three things the world stands עומד;
on the Torah, on the service, and on bestowing kindness. The later one states
that on three things the world exists קיים;
on judgement, truth and peace.
Rabbi Ovadia of Bartenura
comments concerning “the world stands” that the world was not created except
for these three things. Similarly Maimonides says these are the things that fix
the world, put it in order, and place it on the path of perfection. When
considered with the later Mishna the word “stand” seems to imply the things
that we are supposed to be doing on an ordinary day to day basis.
The simplest understanding of
Torah is the five books of Moses as the Lord said to Joshua, “This book of the
Torah shall not leave your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night, in
order that you will keep and do all that is written in it; for then will you
succeed in all your ways and then will you prosper”, (Joshua 1:8). More generally Torah can be understood as all
religious doctrine which instructs us how to live in harmony with nature and at
peace with our fellow man. Without it the world would revert back to desolation
and jungle (cf. Mordechai Dov Rabinowitz commentary of Maimonides Mishna
Torah).
The second pillar is
“service”. The Bartenura understands this as the sacrifices that were brought
in the Temple and mentions that the Holy One Blessed be He promised not to
bring another flood on the world after he smelled the aroma from the sacrifices
brought by Noah. The sacrifices are often associated with prayer which is
considered the labor of the heart. The idea seems to be that our labor is
getting our hearts into the right place. In other words it is uprooting our bad
qualities and placing our good points of view on our lips. Another aspect of
sacred labor is performing the mission for which our soul was sent down into
this world.
The third pillar is acts of
kindness. The Bartenura brings the examples of entertaining a bridegroom,
consoling mourners, checking up on the sick, and burying the dead. He quotes
Psalms (89:3), “a world of kindness He will build”. More generally the idea is
using a person’s unique superior abilities to help others who are weak in those
same areas. There is story told in yeshivas about the difference between heaven
and hell. In hell all of the people are at a banquet but they can only partake
of it with spoons that are so long that they cannot bring the delicacies to
their mouth. In heaven it’s the same banquet and the same spoons except that
the people are feeding each other.
The Me’am Loez sees a hint in
this Mishna to the foundations of Judaism. Torah corresponds to a person’s
beliefs and fundamental opinions. Service corresponds to the mitzvahs governing
a person’s relationship with the Omnipresent. Acts of kindness are the mitzvahs
between one man and another. These are the basics for the existence of the
world.
The last Mishna makes use of
the word קים. It is often understood as existence but
can also mean establishment or fulfillment. Because it is similar to the word
“stand” עומד, the importance of the qualities of
judgement, truth, and peace can be viewed as similar to the importance of the
qualities of Torah, service, and kindness. However it is possible to view the
qualities of the last Mishna as being the underlying foundations of the world
as well as the goals in this age of humanity. The difference between the two
Mishnas is like the twelfth of the 13 ways that Rabbi Yishmael analyzes the
Torah. Specifically there are things which are learned directly from the
material and things that are learned based on the likely conclusions of the
material.
The terms in the last Mishna
are fairly straight forward. Judgement דין
commonly refers to a court case but it is a variant of the word “discuss”. The
idea is that people need to be able to discuss things with each other. The next
quality is truth, which means that the parties to a discussion cannot be liars
and must be realistic. The third quality is peace, meaning that the results of
the discussion must be peace between the parties.
The Machzor Vitry brings the
conclusion of the Mishna, a quote from the prophet Zechariah (8:16), “truth and
the ethics of peace you will judge within your gates”. Ethics משפט are prescribed standards. It notes that the prophet uses ethics
not as an independent quality rather as an adjective of peace. Based on this he
says that the essential thing is peace and that the other things are vehicles
to obtaining it. The world was created for blessings and this will be realized
in the day of universal peace as it says (Mishna Uktsin 3:12): HaKadosh Baruch
Hu did not find a vessel that could contain the blessing for Israel except for
peace as it says, “the Lord will give strength to His people, the Lord will
bless His people with peace”, (Psalm 29:11).
לע"נ בן דוד שמואל בן נח ז"ל
נלב"ע טו באב תשס"ט.
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