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June 20, 1990

Humility - Is It Good for the Jews? (1990)

Behaalotcha Pirkei Avot Character Development Passionate Moderation The Rabbinate
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Avot Perek Bet and Dalet (1969)

This mishnah has a parallel in Chapter IV, where, in the name of R. Elazar HaKappar, we read of three similar qualities that “take a man out of the world” – עין רעה, יצר הרע, ושנאת הבריות. If we accept this parallelism, then “the evil eye” should be understood not in its usual context as a kind of “jinx,” but rather as a sense of begrudging which harms the perpetrator much more than its intended victim. Jealousy – the evil eye – eats away at the innards of the one who is jealous and slowly destroys him, not only psychologically and spiritually, but even physically. יצר הרע and תאווה are obviously related. And the pursuit of honor usually implies a desire to be superior to others – hence שנאת הבריות. But why only these three? And what is the meaning of the strange phrase “take him out of the world”? Should not the mishnah have mentioned three worse crimes – perhaps the three cardinal sins? I believe that the Tanna was aiming specifically at three qualities or dispositions which lend themselves to misinterpretation. The cardinal crimes or the great virtues are simple enough to observe. The blacks and the whites of life are not what make up the “world” – which is for the greatest part comprised of shades of gray. It is rare that, in crisis, we are confronted with clear-cut options: good and evil, right and wrong. Normally, we have to make subtle distinctions; we are faced with paradoxes and ambivalences and are forced to choose amid uncertainty and confusion. This confusion and ambivalence are most oppressive when we deal with ideas and qualities that can serve both the ends of good and of evil, of the right and of the wrong. At such times, not only is there an element of uncertainty as to whether we are using or abusing a certain quality, but there is a tendency for us to submit to rationalization – to abuse a quality and to assume we are doing the proper thing. Since the world is constituted mostly of such uncertainties and such qualities of double nature, when we c…
Pirkei Avot Character Development General Jewish Thought Passionate Moderation

Article

Pride, Humility, and Meekness (1990)

Maimonides' theory of character, as formulated in his Commentary on the Mishnah (the section on Avot, more popularly known as "The Eight Chapters") and later in his magnum opus, the Mishneh Torah, posits the famous rule of the mean as the key to character. The Middle Way is identified by him as the derekh Hashem, the "way of the Lord," and thus the way man must follow in forming his own character. Maimonides allows for only two exceptions, in which it is mandatory to go to one of the extremes. In each of the cases, Maimonides declares the Middle Way to be inoperative; here, in these two instances, one must necessarily go to the extreme. Thus, in the case of pride, Maimonides posits three points on the character bar: pride on one end, humility or lowliness (shiflut) on the other, and a mid-point he calls anavah. This last is the compromise between arrogant self-importance and self-debasing humility. Yet, while ordinarily the Middle Way calls for just such a moderate balance of traits, that does not hold true for this case of one's self-image, and also not for temper where too one must go to the other extreme. Maimonides offers two proof texts for his assertion of this exception. The first is the character of Moses in the enigmatic accusation against Moses by his brother and sister, Aaron and Miriam. We are not privy to the details of the siblings' complaint, but what is underscored is the remarkable reaction of Moses: he does not say a word, despite all temptation. Thus, Moses earns the Torah's encomium, והאיש משה ענו מארד מכל האדם אשר על פני האדמה, Moses was very anav, more so than any man the face of the earth. Since the Torah qualifies the anav sobriquet with the intensifier "very," that means that this mid-point must be extremely anav, which means: humble or lowly. And later, in Avot (chapter 4), we read: רבי לויטם איש יבנה אומר מאוד מארד הרה שפל רוח שתקרת אנוש רימה—r. Levitas of Yavneh said: Be very lowly of spirit, for the hope of man is naught but the worm. N…
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Outline

Radical Moderation: Avot Chapter 2 (1989)

A wave of extremism is sweeping the world. America and the American Jewish community – to say nothing of the Israeli community – have not remained unaffected by it. Indeed, the pressures of a resurgent extremism affect every facet of our lives – political, social, religious, educational. In this dangerous climate we must ourselves become radicals and reassert our Centrist position with all force and vigor. What Yeshiva University has taught – the joining of Torah learning and Western culture under the rubric of Torah U’Mada; openness to the environing culture; ahavat haTorah plus ahavat Yisrael; the appreciation of tolerance and the abhorrence of bigotry; a critical but loving commitment to the State of Israel – all this is a deliberate philosophy of life, not a compromise foisted upon us. In the language of Halakhah, this approach is le’chat’chilah and not bi’diavad. As a le’chatchilah we must project ourselves as the standard bearer of moderation in Jewish life. We must stand not only for Torah U’Mada – a broader and more comprehensive vision of Torah as expressed in a particular curricular philosophy – but also for sanity and for moderation; for the conviction that Maimonides’ “middle way” applies not only to personal dispositions and character traits, but also to communal conduct and public policy; for an appreciation that life is filled with ambiguities and complexities and resists black-and-white simplism.We of the Centrist community are often chided that our policy of Centrism and our philosophy of moderation contain implicit hidden dangers. This is true; the study of worldly culture can sometimes lead questioning young people astray. An openness to non-observant Jewish neighbors, or to non-Jews, implies that they are as human as we are, and that can sometimes have a negative effect on our attempt to maintain our traditions. Agreed. But all life is dangerous, and unless one is determined to raise one’s child in a hermetically sealed Skinner box, safe from g…
Pirkei Avot Passionate Moderation