Avot Chapter 3 (1998)

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Another Insight into Torah Umadda (2004)

This Shabbat we read Avot – Rabban Gamliel, the son of Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, says: Beautiful is the study of Torah with derekh eretz, for the toil of both makes sin forgotten. And any Torah that does not come with work will ultimately be nullified and lead to sin. The peshat is quite clear and requires no elaboration. So Rashi implies: if one is occupied with both Torah and derekh eretz or, in our parlance, madda, he will be so exhausted that it will paralyze the otherwise hyperactive yetzer hara. This standard interpretation of the Mishnah is based on the word meshakachat meaning: to cause to forget. However, the same root in Aramaic has a completely different meaning: to find, to discover, to make manifest. Thus, a standard Talmudic phrase is heikhi meshakachat lah – where is it found? How is it possible? Similarly, the Talmudic lament, chaval al d’avdin v’lo mishtakchin. In that case, the Mishnah may be using an Aramaism, thus: whoever occupies himself with Talmud Torah im derekh eretz will discover sins or lacunae. By this I mean that in the confrontation of Torah and madda, Torah will guide us to evaluate properly the surrounding madda culture – guiding us in what to accept, what to reject, what to change. It will, therefore, make it possible for us to identify the avon in the world of madda. By the same token, madda will be of service to Torah – in telling us what interpretations are to be taken literally and what, because not in accordance with scientific knowledge, must be taken metaphorically. Example: Rambam, in Moreh Nevukhim, says that if Aristotle could prove the eternity of matter (and thus deny beriah yesh me’ayin), he would accept that doctrine and reinterpret Bereishit to fit into it. However, since the eternity concept is neither proven nor disproved, he prefers to accept the Biblical doctrine as understood by the mesorah.

Pirkei Avot Torah Umadda

Torah and the Ways of the World (1974)

We read in Chapter III of the Ethics of the Fathers: אם אין תורה אין דרך ארץ ואם אין דרך ארץ ,אין תורה “Where there is no Torah, there is no Derekh Eretz, and where there is no Derekh Eretz there is no Torah.” Elsewhere in Avot, we read a similar statement about the relation of these two items: יפה תורה עם דרך ארץ, the combination of Torah and Derekh Eretz is beautiful. R. Samson Raphael Hirsch gave a classical interpretation to this Mishnah when he said that for us, Derekh Eretz refers to secular learning, to the culture and science of the Western World. Both the sacred studies and the profane studies, the study of Torah and the study of Western culture, must be combined in the Jew, and when they are, that is beautiful. Of course, that is not what the Tanna originally intended by the words Derekh Eretz. The term itself admits of a variety of interpretations, the most recent of which is manners or courtesy. But the original intention undoubtedly was: occupation, sustenance, earning a livelihood. Yet, Hirsch’s interpretation does accord with the spirit of the Mishnah. It tells us that we must somehow combine sacredness and worldliness, our growth in the spiritual world of Judaism together with our engagement in the mundane – whether financial and economic, or academic and intellectual.It is, indeed, this ideal which characterizes all of us, and the community that is known as “Modern Orthodox.” It is expressed in our communal educational institutions from Day Schools through Yeshiva high schools through Yeshiva University.But the question we ought to ask is: is this merely an accommodation forced upon us by social and cultural and economic pressures, or is it something deeper than that? Is there an inherent ideal involved?My response is that Torah and Derekh Eretz is a more fundamental value, and not one dictated solely by vocational interests. I would like to locate the conceptual rationale for this value in an insight of a great Hasidic teacher – R. Zvi Elimelech S…

Kedoshim Pirkei Avot Torah Umadda