הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, נְגַד שְׁמָא, אֲבַד שְׁמֵהּ. וּדְלָא מוֹסִיף,
יָסֵיף. וּדְלָא יָלֵיף, קְטָלָא חַיָּב. וּדְאִשְׁתַּמֵּשׁ בְּתַגָּא, חֳלָף.
He would also say: One, who advances his name, destroys
his name. One who does not increase, diminishes. One who does not learn is
deserving of death. And one who makes personal use of the crown of Torah shall
perish.
In the above Mishna Hillel castigates those that are deficient
or abuse their study of Torah. There are four phrases in the Mishna. It begins
and ends with predictions of ill for abuse of Torah study. The middle two
threaten those that fail to advance in their knowledge.
The Mishna opens by saying those that declare their name
destroy their name. Rabbi Ovadia of Bartenura comments that one who spreads his
name far and wide by means of being domineering and ostentatious will quickly
ruin his name because pompousness buries its master. In line with this the Rabenu
Simcha the author of the Machzor Vitry comments as follows:
“One who cultivates a reputation of Torah
and is engrossed in it in order to acquire status will not have a good
reputation. Similarly it says, ‘If you have been put to shame, you will be in
your ascendency; (Proverbs 30:32)’. Therefore if one engages in self-adulation
or is an upstart in the end he will be a lowlife. This is because all who chase
after power, power flees from him, and those that preempt are preempted
themselves, as we saw with Korach, Avshalom, and Adinya ben Chagit”.
The idea is that the nature of Torah is to be humble and
modest. Because of this the evil inclination incites people to do the opposite,
specifically to be arrogant and showy with the Torah.
The next phrase more or less says that one who does not go
forward in Torah goes backwards. The idea is that one should always be adding
to the amount of Torah that he has learned as well as often meditating on that
which he knows in order to receive new insights. The Hebrew word, יסיף, though, is understood in various ways
among them “to end”. Therefore commentaries will say homiletically that one who
is stagnant in Torah will end his life. However the central message of the
Mishna is that one cannot remain stationary in religion. If they do not advance
they will begin to forget the things that they have learned and go downhill.
The third phrase is more extreme. It says that one who
does not teach Torah should be killed. In somewhat scholarly form the Bartenura
brings a quote from the Talmud (Pesachim 49:) that it is okay to cut up and
hang an ignoramus like a fish. The Machzor Vitry says that this is referring to
somebody that in all of his days has never learned Torah. The simple
understanding of Hillel is that one who knows Torah has an obligation to share
the knowledge with others. The extreme language though captures the feelings
towards people who keep others in the dark for their own selfish purposes.
The final phrase returns to the subject of misuse of
Torah. It is generally understood to mean that bad things will happen to one
who uses religion for his own personal purposes. The basic idea is that the
Torah is a code of life as well as a path to knowing and pleasing the Holy One
Blessed be He. These are the only legitimate reasons to study it and carry out
its precepts.
Prestige is considered the crown of Torah. It is
considered a serious transgression for a person to accumulate religious wisdom
for the purpose of being vain and garish. Another abuse is to use its wisdom
and attendant air of trustworthiness to do things like pry into the affairs of
others, cheat them out of their money, or humiliate them. Hillel states that
one who does these things will fade or change (חלף).
The Machzor Vitry comments that the world will generally disturb him and he
will pass like a nonexistent shadow.
The idea that Torah changes a person is an important one.
If a person doesn’t learn Torah, he will empty himself of even the talents he
was born with. A person who misuses Torah will change into something different
and strange. On the other hand one who learns Torah and shares it with others
will develop his natural talents and accumulate new ones. In the end a crown of
glory will be placed on his head like the dew descends onto the grass below
without anybody’s effort and even without notice.
לע"נ
הדוד לייב הערש בן אהרן ז"ל נלב"ע יז תמוז תשמ"ב
העלון ניתן לקבל בדואר אלקטרוני וגם באתר
http://dyschreiber.blogspot.co.il
Blogger
English http://dyschreiber.blogspot.com/2016/07/pinchas-ethics-of-our-fathers-113-crown.html
Blogger
Hebrew
YouTube https://youtu.be/j0jo6iuoJak
No comments:
Post a Comment