The Netivot Shalom on Pirkei Avot

"A person who wants to be saintly should fulfill the precepts of Avot" 1 1 Our sages have said (Bava Kama 30): "A person who wants to be saintly should fulfill the precepts of Avot" (Bava Kama 30a). We need to explain the significance of the fact that this tractate is called "avot." The Gemara states that if there are basic categories ("avot" ) it must be assumed that there are also "offsprings" ("toladot") or derivatives from these basic categories.2 Hence we can say that the rest of the tractates in the Mishnah are the 'offspring' of this one. This matter bears further clarification. In the Foreword to his "Eight Chapters" Maimonides wrote: "Besides, our Rabbis of blessed memory have said, 'He who wishes to be saintly, let him practice the teachings of Avot'. Now, there is nothing that ranks so high with us as saintliness, unless it be prophecy and it is saintliness that paves the way to prophecy; as our Rabbis of blessed memory said in the baraita of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair, 'Saintliness leads to holy inspiration.' Thus, their words make it clear that putting into practice the teachings of this tractate leads one to prophecy."3 We can see from his words the lofty status of the good middot which are presented in this tractate. Thus, someone who "fulfills the precepts of Avot" attains the highest level a person can reach, that of holy inspiration and prophecy. And the Holy Gaon Rabbi Chaiym Vital wrote ("Sha'arei Kedusha", Part 1 Gate 2) to the effect that the Torah does not mention the middot because the Torah was given after the rectification of the middot.4 The middot themselves are the vehicle

Translation based on the sichot kodesh on Pirkei Avot given during summer time by Rabbi Shalom Noach Berezovsky of Slonim (1911-2000) and published in Hebrew in "Netivot Shalom"
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, ; : "A person who wants to be saintly should attend to matters of liability. Rava said: to matters of Avot" (BT Bava Kama 30a) 2 "Seeing that PRINCIPAL CATEGORIES are specified, it must be assumed that there are derivatives." (BT Bava Kama 2a) 3 Rambam, "Eight Chapters" ("A Maimonides Reader", pp.362-3) The baraita mentioned is as follows: "Rabbi Pinchas Ben-Yair said: "Torah leads to watchfulness, watchfulness leads to zeal, zeal leads to cleanliness, cleanliness leads to abstinence, abstinence leads to purity, purity leads to saintliness, saintliness leads to humility, humility leads to fear of sin, fear of sin leads to holiness, holiness leads to divine inspiration, divine inspiration leads to the ressurection of the dead." (BT Avodah Zarah 20b) 4 "Behold, on the matter of middos, they are fixed in the lower soul which is called "foundation [soul]", which includes the 4 levels - domem (silent-as in rocks and metals), tzomachas (growing-as in plants), behemis (animal), and the medaberes (speaking-as in humans) (see Part 3 Gate 2). Because they (the levels) also are mixed with good and evil. And behold in this soul the good and bad middos depend. And they (the middos) are a chair, and foundation, and root to the higher "intellectual soul" in which depends the 613 mitzvos of the torah as mentioned earlier in Gate 1 (the middos are a root to the higher soul means, for example, a selfish person will have all his actions rooted in selfishness. In everything he does he first thinks "what am I going to benefit from this"). Therefore the middos are not included in the 613 mitzvos. However, they are crucial preparations to the 613 mitzvos in their fulfillment or annulment because the higher "intellectual soul" does not have the power to fulfill the mitzvos using the 613 limbs [and gidim] of the body except through the intermediary of the foundation soul which is attached to the body itself in the Sod (secret meaning of) "For the soul of all flesh, the blood is in the soul" (Vayikra 17:14). Therefore the bad middos are much, much worse than the sins [of the 613 mitzvos] themselves." Rabbi Chaim Vital, "Sha'arei Kedusha", 1:2 (translated by Rabbi YosefPeretz)

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by which the Torah is instilled since the Torah can only dwell in a person who has refined his middot. And this is the reason why Maimonides places the matter of middot at the highest level.

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The work involved in refining one's middot is harder than the entire Torah. It requires a fundamental change in the cast and character of one's soul, this change being the purpose for which a Jew descends into the world. For example, our sages have said: "Envy, desire and (the pursuit of) honor remove a person from the world."5 Thus a person who pursues envy, desire or honor excessively needs to change in a fundamental way in order to be able to uproot these pursuits. For a Jew, the middot are the essence of Judaism: they involve turning one's brain into a Jewish brain, one's heart into a Jewish heart and one's limbs into Jewish limbs, thus bringing the entire person to the highest level possible . It follows that the middot are matters of the highest importance for a Jew: while the mitzvot provide the particulars of observance, one must first refine the middot in order to be a perfect Jew from head to toe. Indeed, the matter of middot is at such a high level that only someone who has refined and purified his middot can be a fitting vehicle for instilling the Torah. This is because being a Jew is a pre-condition to the ability to instill the Torah, since the Torah was given to Jews, as is written "He has not dealt so with any nation..."6 This means that a non-Jew has no relation to the Torah, and in order to become a Jew one has to take upon oneself the mitzvot and consequently take upon oneself the duty to change the cast and character of one's soul to be Jewish. What is then the reason that this tractate is called "Avot"? Based on the Gemara that states that the basic categories have derivatives, we can now see that the entire Torah derives from middot. The basic category in this case is to be a perfect Jew and from it are derived matters related to Torah, service and further to higher levels ending in divine inspiration and prophecy. Thus a person who wants to be saintly has no other way if doing it except by fulfilling the precepts in Avot. Only then, after becoming a Jew in all his limbs, will he be able to reach the levels of saintliness, divine inspiration and prophecy.

Rabbi ElazarHaKapar said: "Envy, desire and (the pursuit of) honor remove a person from the world." (PirkeiAvot 4:21) 6 "He has not dealt so with any nation; and as for His ordinances, they have not known them. Hallelujah." (Psalm 147:20)

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There is yet another way to understand why the tractate is called "avot". Our sages have said: "Our ancestors were never left without a study center." 7 Our patriarchs have always studied in a yeshiva and about Jacob our Father it is said that he studied so much he had no time to lie down and sleep. But what was the subject of their study, since the Torah had not yet been given? The explanation is that it was the patriarchs who introduced tikkun [rectification] into the world and along with that the tikkun of the middot. Thus Avraham's work was the middah of chesed, Isaac's was gevurah and Jacob's tiferet. It is this work of middah rectification that made possible the receiving of the Torah and the higher levels associated with the mishnah we are discussing. When Avraham's students said "a good eye, a humble spirit, and a meek soul..."8 it showed that our Father Avraham had a yeshiva in which his students studied constantly matters pertaining to a "good eye, etc..." These are the very matters that the tractate of Avot deals with, since its purpose is to make the cast and character of one's soul Jewish. From this we conclude that the name of the tractate also derives from the fact that this was what the holy patriarchs studied constantly, thus renewing our understanding of Torah.

" . - , - . . . . '" "Our ancestors were never left without the scholars council. In Egypt they had the scholars council, as it is said: Go and gather the elders of Israel together; in the wilderness they had the scholars council, as it is said: Gather unto Me seventy men of the elders of Israel;our father Abraham was an elder and a member of the scholars council, as it is said: And Abraham was [zaken] an elder well stricken in age;our father Isaac was an elder and a member of the scholars council, as it is said: And it came to pass when Isaac was an elder [zaken];our father Jacob was an elder and a member of the scholars council, as it is said: Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age [zoken]; [even] Eliezer, the servant of Abraham was an elder and a member of the scholars council, as it is said: And Abraham said unto his servant, the elder of his house, that ruled over all he had, which R. Eleazar explained to mean that he ruled over [knew, controlled] the Torah of his master Eliezer of Damascus: R. Eleazar said, He was so called because he drew and gave drink to others of his master's teachings." (BT Yoma 28b) 8 , , , "Whosoever possesses these three qualities belongs to the disciples of Abraham our father... a good eye, a humble spirit, and a meek soul. " (Pirkei Avot 5:22)

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2 We need to clarify further the reason why the Torah does not contain any explicit injunction concerning middot, even though they are part and parcel of the Torah. As Maimonides has written (HilchotTeshuva 7:3): "A person should not think that repentance is only necessary for those sins that involve deeds such as promiscuity, robbery, or theft. Rather, just as a person is obligated to repent from these, similarly, he must search after the evil character traits he has. He must repent from anger, hatred, envy, frivolity, the pursuit of money and honor, the pursuit of gluttony, and the like. He must repent for all [of the above]. These sins are more difficult than those that involve deed. If a person is attached to these, it is more difficult for him to separate himself. In this context, [Isaiah 55:7] exhorts: May the wicked abandon his path... We see that in his interpretation of the verse "May the wicked abandon his path" Maimonides does not refer to a person's actual actions but rather to those middot that should be the object of repentance. As mentioned earlier, the Holy Gaon Rabbi Chaim Vital wrote that the Torah does not mention the middot because the middot are the vehicle for instilling the Torah and precede it. Why is then the matter of middot, which occupies such a lofty place according to these sages, not mentioned in any explicit command? The heart of the matter is revealed by our Master the Holy Alter from Slonim9, may his memory protect us, in relation to the verse: "My son, do not debase the Lord's discipline [mussar]" (Proverbs 3:11). "The Lord's discipline" is the mussar that God enjoins upon a Jew and "my son" is like saying: "you, who are the son of the King, do not debase yourself with base matters, since the son of a King cannot allow himself to be like simple folk." This is the meaning of "The Lord's discipline [mussar]": it is the greatest and strongest discipline, since without threatening punishment or commanding anything explicitly, it establishes "you are my son, do not debase yourself" as the grounding on which one can stand. This is the foundation for understanding the important subject of refining one's middot as reflected in the verse "May the wicked abandon his path": indeed the [negative] middot are more hateful to the Blessed Holy One than the prohibitions that the Torah mentions explicitly. We find that concerning the prideful, the Blessed Holy One says: "he and I cannot dwell together" (Sota 5a). Now we cannot find in the Torah any other transgression about which such a thing is said, for it is written "he dwells with them in the midst of their impurity" (Leviticus 16:16) and pride is singled out like that because it is most hateful in the eyes of the Blessed Holy One. Similarly, our Sages have said "An angry person is as if he worshiped idols" (Zohar III, 179b). Negative middot are hateful in the eyes of the Blessed Holy One more than others mentioned explicitly in the Torah because a person is ruled by his middot and it is through them that the "other side" ["sitra achra"] is able to gain control. Concerning these matters no injunctions or punishments are mentioned because the foundation for drawing away from them is "My son, do not debase the Lord's discipline [mussar]" without which a Jew becomes debased in the eyes of the Blessed Holy One. Therefore, there is no Torah of middot among non-Jews, and even though the more ethically
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Rabbi Avraham Weinberg of Slonim (1804 or 1809 - 1883) founder of the Slonim dynasty and author of the book "Yesod Ha'avodah."

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refined among them act in humane ways, their middot are not purified. This is because non-Jews are governed by injunctions and punishments and beside this everything is permissible, since there is no reason why they shouldn't do something that is not punishable, while a Jew has the additional level of "My son, do not debase the Lord's discipline [mussar]". It follows that tractate Avot does not deal with injunctions and punishments but is entirely mussar at the most sublime level, which is the equivalent of "My son, do not debase the Lord's discipline [mussar]". From this perspective, tractate Avot deals with matters that are most hateful in the eyes of the Blessed Holy One, more hateful than matters mentioned explicitly in the Torah. Thus, along with all the other interpretations, this allows us to understand why the tractate is called Avot from yet another perspective: for it can be said, by way of analogy, that the entire tractate is like a father speaking to his son, saying to him "if you behave such and such, you won't be able to look me in the face". The son of the king finds this more difficult to contemplate than all other punishments, for "woe to the sons who are exiled from the table of their father".10 The same way of understanding can be applied to the notion of "you shall be holy." After the parasha dealing with forbidden foods, it is written: "You shall sanctify yourselves and you shall be holy because I am holy," (Leviticus 19:1) drawing a parallel between the sanctification of eating and permitted matters. And following the parasha dealing with arayot11, it is written "You shall be holy because I your Lord am holy", drawing a parallel with "sanctify yourself in what is permitted"12. Thus, the Torah reveals the significance of permitted matters: although they are not forbidden, they contain things that are likely to debase a person to such an extent that he will not be able to stand any more in God's presence. Thus it is written "You shall be holy because I your Lord am holy" and "if you do not sanctify yourselves you will not be able to sit together with me." Based on this we can also explain why when we say PirkeiAvot we preface it with the mishnah in Sanhedrin "All Israel have a portion in the World That Is Coming ". The question has been raised concerning the formulation "...have a portion in the World That Is Coming", which implies that they already have that portion, instead of "...they will have a portion in the World That Is Coming." The explanation is that each Jew contains a part13 of the Divine, and as soon as he is created he is allotted a portion of the World That Is Coming. If he observes the Torah and the mitzvot, he receives immediately the portion allotted to him in the World That Is Coming; if he sinned, he needs to cleanse himself a lot, before receiving the portion prepared for him; but overall, every Jew has a portion in the World That Is Coming. When the Scripture says "They will inherit the land forever", the reference is to the inheritance and possession that every Jew has by virtue of being a Jew. The matter of every Jew having a portion in the World That Is Coming has its root in the belief in the coming of the Messiah and the resurrection of the dead: a Jew is obligated to believe that it is not possible for the Blessed Holy One to have created man and the world without design and purpose and that

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"What is there for the father who has exiled his sons - and woe to the sons who have been exiled from their father's table" (BT, Berakhot 3a) 11 Leviticus 18 12 "Sanctify yourself by that which is permitted to you" (BT Yevamot 20a) 13 Hebrew uses the same word for portion and part:

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everything exists for that purpose as a matter of necessity, as is written in "MesilatYesharim" 14. That purpose is "then you shall delight in the Lord" since the delights of the world are as nothing compared to this delight. The Blessed Holy One created the world so that everyone born from a woman may reach "Then you shall delight in the Lord" and this site of delight is in the World That Is Coming where "the righteous sit with their crowns on their heads feasting on the splendor of the divine presence" and this world is the corridor through which one can get to the hoped for goal. This is then the meaning of the saying "All Israel have a portion in the World That Is Coming": your entire purpose in the world is to reach the part of the World That Is Coming where "the righteous sit with their crowns on their heads feasting on the splendor of the divine presence..." The Holy Rabbi of Karlin15 told a story about one of his people, whose punishment as decreed from above was to stand at the banquet of the righteous and recite his sins before them. This man said that he would have chosen any punishment in the world, no matter how terrible, if he could only have been spared this particular one. Thus when the Tannah says that the purpose of a Jew is "All Israel have a portion in the World That Is Coming" he means that there is nothing more shameful and disgraceful than not being able to sit in the company of the righteous. And this is why our Sages considered it an appropriate preface to Pirkei Avot. As we know, Pirkei Avot is read on Shabbat during the summer, when a person needs mussar the most, yet the main period for reading it is on each Shabbat between Passover and Shmini Atzeret. This is because the days of counting the Omer between Passover and the receiving of the Torah are days devoted to the purification of the middot, when they are "cleansed from husks and impurities"16. A Jewish person has to be guided by "My son, do not debase the Lord's discipline", to purify and cleanse his middot in order to be deserving of receiving the Torah, since the purification of the middot is the vehicle and the preparation for instilling the Torah and the middot themselves are like avot with regard to receiving the Torah.

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' "...man was created [for the sole purpose of] reveling in the Eternal and delighting in the splendor of the Divine Presence, this being the ultimate joy and the greatest of all pleasures in existence." Rabbi Chaim Moshe Luzzatto, "Mesilat Yesharim", Ch.1 14 Rabbi Aaron HaGadol (The Great) of Karlin (17361772) 16 "..." The phrase appears in one of the prayers recited before counting the Omer.

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