Pirkei Avot: How to Preserve the Torah by Rabbi James Kennard

so we're coming to the end of the first mishner and as we've discussed in the last couple of weeks the first missioner gives a history lesson it talks about the transmission of Torah mosha Kel Torah mosha received the Torah from sini we talked about why that particular formation is formulation is used yesu he handed over to Yeshua Yeshua aim and Yeshua handed it over to the elders and the wise ones of his time and the elders passed it to the Nim the prophets Masa Thea and the prophets passed it to the people of the great assembly and we spent time last week talking about who were these people what was the significance of this moment and why they were called the men of the great assembly and now we come to the last part of the missioner which Begins the style that we will see throughout P kot of various rabbis various tanay rabbis of the mishnaic period giving giving maybe suggestions maybe stronger than that about how we should live our lives so he we'll see a discussion about whom is being referred to um but we'll right now go with the regular interpretation but it means the unakena these men of the great assembly omu shaarim they said three things and the three things that they said were Heim be deliberate or be patient in judgment and raise up many disciples or many students T and make a fence to the Torah so the first thing to do is try and find some understanding of these phrases and the classic commentator that we turn to for a basic understanding shouldn't say basic for a um straightforward understanding is RAB so in paragraph two he says they said three things they said many things they said many things but these three things were special basically he's answering a fundamental question what does it mean they said three things uh there's 120 people in the unessa is it possible that in their entire life they only taught three things of course not they taught lots and lots of things so why are these three things singled out so the answer of RA is Torah because they are going to tell us how to maintain or preserve or establish the Torah so we're interested in three things that they said about Korah and they are these three things of course they said lots of other things but these are the three things they said in relation to how we maintain how we preserve how we establish Torah the first thing they said and now we're in the third line of number two be deliberate in judgment that's how it's usually translated what does that mean if a judgment comes before you so there is a view that P is really directed to diim to judges people who are sitting on a bettin and they have to know how to judge the case and what behaviors to adopt there are others who say that's not correct that P kovat is for all of us however at least here is saying that is referring to how judges should act that if a case comes before you once or twice or three times in other words the same case seems to repeat itself don't say I know what this the answer to this case is because it's already come before me two or three times it's familiar ter and I can instantly pronounce a verdict because I'm familiar with the details of the case from previous versions don't do that but be deliberate or be patient that is to say wait before you pronounce the Judgment so each case deserves to be considered on its own even if a similar case has come before one be deliberate be careful be patient in judgment and in paragraph three the second thing they said was raise up literally make stand students many make many students stand the word I just mention it's we're not going to discuss it in the M but means to make stand up so it means to not only have lots of students in your class lots of students sitting on your every word but you establish students so that they can stand on their own two feet that they can be teachers and leaders of the Next Generation that's what a teacher should do it's not just to create followers but to create leaders who will take over their role and can be independent so paragraph three says he says there's a little bit of a backstory here because there were two opinions about who should gain entry to the BET midrash who are suitable students and there was the opinion of rabang gam so we're a little bit out of chronological order because rabang gam was much later in the uness haa but that's not how Torah Works Torah works in the sense that somebody can be in one generation and can answer a question that was asked in a previous generation or even can answer a question that was asked in a future generation that's how Torah works so the fact that raang gam who were about to quote was much latera shouldn't bother us and what did R Gamel say to Amar End of Line one of paragraph 3 call tell me to Mid any student whose inside is not like his outside in other words who's not a person of great integrity cannot enter the BET midash Rael had a very exclusive policy that the only Town medum who were appropriate to become part of the Continuum of of of learning Torah were those who were of a great integrity that was one View and there was another view that said anyone can come in and says TOA is that the Mish is telling us that you should not be exclusive like ra but you should teach Torah to [Music] everyone and you don't need to check after them you don't need to have an entrance exam to say have you got enough Integrity to come and learn Torah in alet midash the midash the mishna is saying anyone can come and learn Torah there is a slight caveat that the banur puts in number paragraph line three as long as you don't know for sure that a person has got very bad behaviors if somebody's obviously a rusher or clearly in some sense which we don't spell out here but in some sense really unsuitable to come into the BET midash and be part of the Torah learning then they shouldn't become in but in general if you don't know for sure but somebody is a bad person inappropriate person you can work on the basis they an appropriate person person and they can all come into the BET midash and that sanura is the force of the words here in the mishna don't look for a small number of high quality students look for a large number of whatever is the quality and then jump to paragraph four the third thing that they said was for Torah make a fence around the Torah so this is a famous phrase a famous idea and it refers to the practice thatal had of adding to the Torah mitv Mitzvah from the rabis um I said adding to the Torah we talked last week about how you can't add to the Torah there's only 63 mitzvot and what we said last week was a navi cannot come a prophet cannot come and say Hashem has told me there should be an extra Mitzvah but the rabbis are different the rabbis as long as it's very very clear what is a Mitzvah M the writer a Mitzvah from the Torah itself and a Mitzvah from the rabbis as long as it's very very clear of that distinction then the rabbis are enjoined to add mitzvot to the Torah in the sense of to create a t a fence around the Torah so there are lots of MIT in fact the vast majority of the Shar if you look carefully is Mitzvah from the rabbis rather than Mitzvah directly from the Torah and why did the rabbis add to the Torah to safeguard the Torah the idea of offence is if you have a um a cliff uh and people are in danger of falling off the cliff and you could put a fence at the very very edge of the cliff but there's a danger there because that fence can always be permeated can can be broken through and if you break through the fence and it's the very edge of the cliff then a person's going to fall down what you do you put the fence a few meters back from the end of the cliff so you uh say that this area at the edge of the cliff in theory you could walk there but there's a danger so we're going to say don't walk there we're going to make a fence that fences that part off similarly there are many areas of life that the Torah says go ahead and the rabbis say don't go ahead because if you do go ahead then there a danger you will actually come to transgress the law of the Torah itself so I could give literally thousands of examples but I'm just going to give one very obvious example and that is the laws of Mah on Shabbat according to the Torah there is nothing wrong with holding a pen moving a pen on Shabbat as long as you don't write with it the prohibition is to write what's wrong with holding a pen Along come the rabbis and say you're not allowed to move a pen on Shabbat it's called M and the simple reason for that and there is discussion about what is the basis of M but we won't get into that now the simple reason for that is if you start moving a pen you might mistakenly come to write with the pen so the rabbis say not only does the Torah say you can't write we the rabbis will say you can't move the pen and they do this in as I say every area of Hal every area of life so let's go back to the words of the b in paragraph four Torah that means a fence or a boundary so that some should not come to transgress or literally to touch the prohibition of the Torah itself now he gives another example which I'm not going to go into details about secondary forbidden relationships the Torah gives a list of people who can't have be married to each other because of close family connections and the rabbis expand it with many more people more distant relatives who cannot marry um because if you make sure you don't marry even distant relatives you won't come to marry close relatives that's the basic idea and the other one is the one I already mentioned shabat the extra prohibitions that the rabbis added to the laws of Shabbat and why did they do this they learn from a and the says you shall guard my gings so it's not enough to guard you have to guard the guarding and from here we learn you should make a guarding to what I I God originally tell you to guard and that is one of the sources for the idea of the rabbis making extra prohibitions and that is what is mentioned in the in the missionary here T make a fence to the Torah so here's a okay so as I say that's a a fairly straightforward explanation of what's going on here now I want to see some other ideas from some other maor so in number five rabenu Yona uh rishan um who writes many things including a perish on P calart um he's like like everyone who we're going to encounter they have a lot to say and I'm just bringing some extracts and if it doesn't con convey the full flavor of what these gdolim are saying then the fault is mine but let's just see one paragraph from reona because I thought it's a very particular in it into the idea of T making offense to the Torah so he says in number five as it says in the POS as we just said You shall guard my guarding so you should make a guarding to what I've originally told you to guard and then he says and here's the interesting point the idea of offense is a great thing and it's a very praiseworthy thing to make a fence and then another word for a fence around the mitv to anyone who is likely to stumble in them because people if they didn't have the extra security of the fence they would come to as we saw before touch the prohibition of the Torah itself and they might stumble and they might make a mistake and they might actually transgress the words of the Torah and then he says middle of line three has somebody who makes a sayag a fence is somebody who fears the word of Hashem so a various times in the shim we're going to talk a lot about a and loving Hashem and fearing Hashem and the balance that we have to have between the two and here aona says making a fence around the Torah and observing those additional prohibitions is a testament to somebody's fear of Hashem fear in a good sense uh being in a of Hashem someone who fulfills the words of Torah um and when we're talking about the words ofal who make these extra prohibitions on top of the Torah they are loving the y or their Y is an expression of Love um not not love in the sense of a but they have great year of Hashem that's what we mean somebody who says you know what I know Hashem said I can't write on Shabbat and I'm going to make make sure that I don't write on Shabbat I'm not even going to touch a pen I'm not going to move a pen they're showing how much they are in awe of hashem's mitzvot and somebody who uh observes these these additional prohibitions has greater year middle of line four paragraph five more than somebody who does the essential Mitzvah itself the Mitzvah from the Torah because somebody who does just the regular mitv that's not an indication of their fearing of Hashem as compared to somebody who keeps the fences which we warned about or they're required shal so that they don't come to a negligent Act of transgression so I'll put it in perhaps clearer English um somebody who keeps the basic mitzvot is keeping the basic mitzvot and maybe they have great year atem fear of Hashem or maybe they don't but somebody who keeps the Sim somebody who keeps the additional Rabin Mitzvah which are there to safeguard the Torah is showing how much they want to safeguard the Torah for themselves they're showing how much they want to be careful to avoid any inadvertent transgression of the Torah itself and by keeping the say again keeping the extra fences the mitam they are demonstrating their great Hashem Their Fear of Hashem which is a good thing soim he this is he's explaining why he says in the second line it's a great thing and it's a praiseworthy thing to make a say it's not just there's a danger you might fall off the cliff but more than that you are showing your reverence for the Mitzvah of Hashem