Rabbinic Personalities of Pirkei Avot By Rabbi Moshe Snow

okay good okay welcome everyone we're about to start the first thing that uh I ask everyone to do is to please turn your phone on silent or off all together [Music] all right so [Music] we're we're closing up the uh second Miss in the first per in peas we had one line left to discuss and to Crunch and to get into the meaning of those particular words so you'll take a look at if you have a sit with you with the Miss if not I'm going to read it for you we're on the last line of the mishna b in peras sh before we do that of course we start every time we learn per we start with the introduction that oural have included in which is this is a very important introduction is something that we mention every single time because it's crucial for us to keep in mind we we often forget what the whole basis is over here all the Jewish people have a share in the world to come it's not owned by any particular individual it's part of Cl is's Heritage and he quotes the where it says your entire nation is righteous they shall forever inherit the land they the branch of my planting the work of my hands that I may be glorified so says Hashem and now we're we're in Mna giml and uh today but we're ending off with the last words of mishna Bas which we didn't yet discuss and that Mna says as follows shimad Simon the just we had a whole disc disc about him based on the gamarra in Yuma and the unusual circumstance when he met Alexander the Great those who weren't here last time Alexander the Great came to conquer Jerusalem and when he came to conquer Jerusalem shimad was the Coen God and what he did is he put on his absolute beautiful clothing of the cohain God godal as you know the eight begot him of the what was called big day and he got dressed up in all the Priestly vestments which normally is only warn when doing aod so shimad went out to greet Alexander the Great and when Alexander the Great saw saw shimad the gar tells us he got off his horse and he bowed down to shim sadik and all the Greek uh soldiers that were under Alexander the Great's uh leadership and they were amazed a Jew with a white beard and you're getting off your horse and you're bowing down so he said no you should know that whenever I go to battle the night before I go to battle I have a dream and I always see this gentleman in my dream and he tells me I'm going to be successful in the campaign to conquer that particular territory so that's the famous story with shim sadik and and when in shim sadik a him and he he bow to him when Alexander bowed to him Alexander asked him what's this with the fancy clothes you're wearing and so on and he told him the high priest so on and he wanted to go into the temple he wanted to go into the B mikdash and he wanted to go into the holy of holies he said what I'm the I'm the I'm the ruler of the world I've conquered every civilized country that he passed through and he wanted to take him into the said no I'm sorry I can't I can't take in now that's you have to understand that that is is a that's a that's a statement of unbelievable power that you know the the most powerful ruler in the world with his soldiers are all there and with one swift turn of the hand shim could be no more and he says no I can't take you in Alexander was what you can't take me in I I I I own the world what do you mean you can't take me in she said I'm sorry even even the even the highest Rabbi in the Jewish people if he's not a CO can't go into The KES K and even I can't go in whenever I want I can only go in when I'm responsible to go in on yum Kipper and so on so Alexander the Great was still upset so shimad said to him I'll tell you what I I can't take you in there but I'm I want you to know that we appreciate all that you do not to harm the Jews and not to destroy the temple what I'm going to do is I'm going to make a announcement that this year all children all Mal that are born among the Jewish people we're going to name them after you and that's how to name Alexander sender which is a popular Jewish name crept itself into the Jewish people because it's not a it's not a Jewish name and the end of this Mna says as follows M he was one of the last remaining members of the members of the great assembly and who are he said on three things the world stands what are the three things number one Torah the study of Torah the service of the Tor which in today's day and age of course means daving because we don't have the aod in the bdash and the last one is right what Doan what's so we all know kind deed nice things you're doing for other people the raised an interesting point notice Al is in the singular because it means means on prayer also but the last one instead of saying and on the doing of kind it says it's plural it's different it could have said but that's not what it says it says why is that why why does it say plural why not the same as Torah singular singular said singular what's the what's what's the idea behind anybody have any suggestions maybe because there's different ways that you can express that there are different ways that you can DAV in also no what I saying the way to one for one person to see an old person that that needs to be visited once a week another person could be somebody needs to lend find someone to lend money and he he gives it to him so there are different ways of doing another words yeah okay okay but but you you're right 100% it's a it's it's a good suggestion but the fact remains that it could have said and it would still mean the different ways of doing why why in the plural okay it still needs a little more a little more explanation so so so the there are two there are two ways of approaching this one is that when an individual does for another person so there's the Doer and the one that's being done for the one that's being done for is the Mel he's or she is receiving the act of but what we don't understand is that when we do a when're not just doing the for that individual we're also doing the for ourselves it reflects back on us because when we get involved in the interaction with another that doesn't only impact the one we're doing it for but it makes us a different person too that's one explanation another explanation is when one does a it doesn't only act on that particular person what happens is that that person now is the receiver of what someone did kind for them and they in turn roll it over and they say well this person did a nice deed for me when I have a chance to do a nice deed for someone else they'll pay it forward and it will have it will have another result another one there's a there's a video that I encourage everyone you find on YouTube so you know if you anything you want to know that you you don't know and and you need uh insight into into the great minds of the generation so in our Parliament you go to the God hador but today you can go to the Google hador so if you need something you can get it from there so that's for sure I'm sure you've experienced this where something that was done as a kindness can come back many many years later and can be felt by individuals I had a I had a particular uh incident a few years ago that it's about 10 years ago that uh is an example of this I have a student very well-known individual uh in the world today he he was in my class in the for the 10th 11th and 12th grades I taught in the Yeshiva in Elizabeth New Jersey and I had quite a few students and a lot of them very ACC very well accomplished and and well-known people in both the United States of America and Israel and the world because they accomplished a lot they did they did a lot of good things one of one of my students is a fellow by the name of Charles Kushner and and Charlie Kushner is uh is well known in the world his uh his son Jared of course was the son-in-law of uh president Trump is the son-in-law of President Trump and uh and Charles and I go back all the way to his high school days and after his father died uh and he he had graduated the Yeshiva already the high school and he was a he he was in college at the time we continued to learn together even after high school and in fact after my father passed away we opened a little night college for those who weren't learning in the in the daytime they were going to college in the day and it would be a good idea if they learned a little bit so we started a little Yesa it was called to shomal after my father and U and we had we had a few students and one of one of those students was Charles Char Charlie Kushner very very close tell of M in fact we we just emailed each other yesterday and and uh as time as time went on he became a a very a big philanthropist and did some unbelievably wonderful things with with the money that he made and and gave to stalker he he's he's he's an awesome B stalker awesome anyway years went by and he he was a he was the child of Holocaust Survivors both his parents survived the Holocaust and he want to do something to dedicate uh a lot of things he dedicate so much in in their uh in their memory so I I have a daughter she living be well her husband here is actually here sh arure who's one of the principles here in the OU Center and [Music] uh not everyone you know gets married and automatically can have children so you know you have to go for treatments for this for that whatever finally barem after many years it worked and my daughter gave birth and uh we went to visit her in the hospital and it was in shed hospital so I walked here in we we went to shed hospital I think it was a chabas actually if I'm not mistaken that we walked what on chabas we walked on shab walking there we we we we walked we walked there on chabas and uh we came to the Pavilion where the children are born I see that there's this wall of dedication in front of the hospital and it says that Charles and saral Kushner uh maternity building or whatever something along those lines dedicated memory of his parents and I couldn't get over it here's someone who wanted to do for others and and I was a recipient of that after I had done so much kindness with him and it reflected back on me and I saw the Yem in the concept of that when you do it's plural and I'm sure in your lives you've known cases where is not just singular but you see it as my son-in-law said it boomerangs and it comes back because when you do something it not only gets done for the individual out there but it has a long-term effect on many others and many many many others so this is just an example of something that I thought about when I when I realized this unique terminology in the mishna of Torah aod andas it's not it's because it's not just one thing but it's many things and you'll see that happens quite often that a person does a kindness for another and in no time at all they see how the shalis the chain of events that leads to the kindness being replayed and given back in different ways and to many other people to many other people and and when I when I spoke to Charlie after we had uh visited the Pavilion and I called him up and I told him and I I even wrote him another email about it he he he was the happiest guy in the world because he wanted to perpetuate the idea of the Holocaust that not destroy the Jewish people and he wanted to do something that would be of lifegiving and how many thousands of people benefit from the Kushner Ian in hospital so you see that it's not just but it's so I'm sure you I'm sure you'll come up with many many examples of that in your lives and it certainly is a fulfillment of that particular Ender M okay so we're now today on per Alf Mish gimmel that's today's that's today's study and we're not going to I don't think we'll exhaust it but we're certainly going to get started the M MN giml says as follows and you you you're I'm sure you're going to be amazed and a little bit taken aback by the very very beginning of the Mish because we're dealing here with the shales with the chain of tradition and that goes back to the first m in where it says m t Moshe received the Torah from siua yesu and so on and so forth here it says anos is that's the author of this mishna the great Rabbi who followed shimad was a talmid of shim and it says anos anos this man of we'll have to explain that if we can he received the tradition from shim you go back to Mish Al you see that Mish Al it says Moshe Tor Moshe was the one who received the Torah from Sinai Kel means he received now now Moshe was the only one who who received no one else received everyone else it says over there uua and so on it doesn't say it's but here it says so how come we're back toel when mosha was the one who was and the others were and here it says that he received it from shim we'll discuss that as we go along who nowos he used to say the following this was a famous statement made by this Rabbi antigos is doesn't say raav anos doesn't say rebi annos just says antigos is and he and antigos was was not and is not a Jewish name that's what I thought I thought he wasn't even Jewish he was very Jewish he was one of he was the greatest Rabbi of the time but he had a name onos how do we how do we explain that how do we explain that he had a anos anos lived at the time of Kaneka a little after the time of Kaneka which is the Greek helenistic period that tried to spread its influence throughout the Jewish world and yet they didn't succeed but he had an antig a Greek Syrian name antigos we'll get back to he used to say the following imagine that don't be like the servants who serve their Master Al Minas on condition to receive a prize literally or to receive a reward if it was reward by the way what what word would should the Mna have used if we're talking about payment what would be the word of an evid what right doesn't say Why didn't it say doesn't sayar it says Pras what's the difference between SAR and Pras when you deserve and when you don't how do you figure that car you deserve you work for it yeah and what's press PR is a bit of a surprise a bit of a surprise that if you translate P press as prize yeah I guess so PR like a gift right it could be could be any any other interpretation of the word press could be that's also emotional benefit and it's above and beyond money mhm but just the feeling the connection to them feeling Pride that you work for so and so okay feeling okay okay what about the word pra what does that mean small money what I'm sorry M little bit money little bit money a little bit PR means a little bit pra like like like like a PR of of a of a mat a piece of bread it's a piece what would be the what would be the idea the difference between yeah I'm getting I work and I getar or I work and I only get a PR wages versus something token a token not not not not the whole thing so it's interesting he's saying here why didn't he say which is my payment it says that yeah you'll get a PR you get I'll throw you a bone a little bit I'll give you something it's an interesting it's an interesting use of language that antigos specifically chose to introduce this idea don't be like someone who works for the master to get a little something crumbs yeah what what kind of language to that why does he say that and and the next line by the way has two different ways of reading it there are actually two different gearus in this particular Mission listen to the next line Ella be like servants who serve the master and here are the two geas here they are I'm going to give you the first geara number one the first syntax is Al on condition not to get that little throwaway that now try to hold that in memory if you can alas on condition not to get that little throwaway piece and here's the other gear shal not on the condition of getting a reward not not on condition not to get but but shal Al not on the condition to get that reward there's a very very subtle little difference between those two okay and he ends off with the [Music] statement but rather what should be keep the fear of Heaven on you that's what you got to do you got to keep the fear of Heaven on you at all times even if you're working to get some reward or some away no matter what it is the fear of God should be upon you now let me ask you something the big godor Google okay the big godor gets up and he says do not become like servants that should expect anything but work and serve without pay without reward if you leave it just like that you opened up a Pandora's box of thinking that can lead a person into thinking that there is absolutely no reason at all to do what the master wants what I should work my whole life and give up everything and you're telling me that I have no expectation of a reward or of a payment do you know anybody who's going to apply for such a job here take a look you have it a in the Jerusalem Post looking for worker 40 hours a week ex Sundays through Fridays 2:00 and you know pay pay nothing how long I have to work eight hours a day who's going to apply for such a job why would anybody want to do it in fact the gamar tells us that an anos ISO actually had two students that misinterpreted what he meant to say which we just discussed is very possible for a human being to do what I should serve my whole life and absolutely hope to get no reward that's impossible and what were the names of those two students BOS was one what was the other oneok and right sok andus the sok led to the sedim so to speak sedis right and Bas L to the boians both of whom rejected outright t and and that's why there is a question about the gear here and how it was taught because you got to be careful and antigos our kazal tell us was not clear about what he wanted to get AC cross we today now can be clear because we have the hindsight of our kazal and can understand and we're going to see a rambam in a minute that will help us appreciate what annos was trying to say but it's clear that the message was one that led people to believe that there's no reward in this there's no reward for being good not only in this world but even in the world to come we're going to be reading Pas in a few weeks right and at the very very beginning of it says if you will go in my statutes and you will guard my my statutes and you will do them the says I will give you the rain in its time and if you read the beginning you see a whole list of beautiful promises can you imagine you live in your land with security wow who doesn't want that you know tells us that when when the Jews used to go right and the in in the says that no one will desire your land what happened when everybody had to go ol regel so so all the people who lived in near the Gaza Strip or they lived up near Lebanon or they lived up near Jordan they wherever they went they would leave their homes and they would goal they would come toes three times a year right and they'd leave their Farms they leave some would leave in their families because the women and children couldn't travel and they would leave it who's watching who's watching the store they didn't have an IDF they didn't need an IDF why no man will desire your land could you imagine that no no one no Nation will desire you live unbelievable this is unbelievable and and so how you going to how are you going to come and say how you GNA come and say that's pretty wild I mean you're you're you're asking someone to to work for absolutely nothing and that led to the to which of course uh caused uh movements to come that were the end antithesis of what anos was trying to get across okay so we have to really crunch this and try to make sense out of what he was trying to say let's go back to antigos okay so what was our first question about about this how do you get her name like antigos and become the godor how did that happen he was he was the talet of shim sadik how' you get a name like antigos your parents may not okay that's that's one possibility I guess yeah okay that's a possibility the parents miss misnamed him but but but even the even the Google hador doesn't agree with that particular interpretation the Google but uh but there is if you remember at the beginning of the she today we discussed what did shim sad promise Alexander the Great when she when when he wanted Alexander the Great wanted to get into the KES Kos and shim said I I can't do that but I will do one thing for you what was the one thing he promised them the kids call all the kids right from that that year all the male children that going to be born that year we're going to name them Alexander after you that's that's how we get the name sender Alexander that's how Alexander is not a Jewish name and here you have all these people are called Alexander right so how did it happen because he was such a good leader to the Jewish people that they perpetuated that goodness and kindness here we go again with the being paid forward right and and we called them the name Alexander that's what happened with antigos that's what happened the same thing with antigos that there was a Greek Governor that was exceedingly kind to Cloud Israel and in honor to show that Governor honor in order to see to it that the name be perpetuated with goodness attached to it they named their children after that particular leader and even though it's not a Jewish name and it is not but the parents did in fact name him that name in order to perpetuate the idea that kindness gets paid forward and they even called him antigos okay so that's that that settles that particular problem in some way the fact is he is one of the only ones singularly in the whole rest of the next mnas where it talks about the zugos the different peers one was the abzan one was the ran hedin anos stands alone him and shimad stand alone and annos had a name that was actually not even a Jewish name but it was paying forward the kindness and that goes back to what we ended off with the last M why is in the plural right to the question that we raised at the very beginning he now why what we we asked the question at the beginning why does it say why remember when we started the mnas over here we said MOS Torah right what was the next lineu and he gave it over to yes why we back to why miss the tradition the traditional passing on of what we possess is the crucial point it's it's really the fulum upon which all of Jewish exists on the m is absolutely crucial we we we had a discussion a while back uh on uh on hill and shamai we had a whole discussion on the gor on shab Al with the three different stories famous stories about Hill and the g that came to be M and has a few different interpretations of exactly whether G or was about Chua or whatever but remember the second story is the most famous you know convert me while I stand on one and everybody says oh what an idea what's hateful to you don't do to your friend a famous question why didn't he say that's not for today I'm going to be speaking about that if anybody's interested there is a ladies program Thursday in the OU Center on kod I'm going to be speaking a little bit about that particular idea but the idea the the main thing is to keep in mind that uh that's the most famous story but there are two others and the one before that is the crucial one why is that the crucial one because the one before that is the one in which the G says I'll I'll become a GED sedc or I'll become abouta you know depending on how you interpret the word g in that particular case if you only teach me the T and not the T I'll accept the T not sh of course rejected him and H says okay you ready remember the story what was lesson what was lesson number one lesson number one was Al gim right what was lesson number two gim he said wait a minute yesterday you told me gim now you're telling me the other way around gim soill says how do you know I was right yesterday how do you know I was right because it's t about you I told you what an Al you don't know what an Alf is if I don't you don't if you don't learn from me you don't know what a Bas is you don't know you know anything you don't have to about doesn't exist don't don't give me this business I'll accept only the written law and not the oral law that's that's that's the most powerful story in my opinion in that particular case because that's the M the Miss is the IAL passing on and that's why when it normally says that why not do it say that he was why doesn't it say that was to instead of instead of so uh it's important to keep in mind that when it came already in the middle of the second bash when it was the period of the Greeks and the syrians and antigos was named in particular that time at this point it was impossible for any one individual to get the entire Miss handed over to them theat that is inevitable over time did not allow for the entire M to be put in the hands of one person even today there there's no question that there are Minds I don't know if you met any of them it's it's frightening how how how brilliant human beings could be to encapsulate in their thinking col torula I know people I I knew people and I know people who have the entire Shas at their fingertips they know all of Shas and poin by heart it's unbelievable you think to yourself how can one human being know so much I don't necessarily like to be friends with these people you know because I I like I fall so short but but there are people who actually can do that and yet they're not able to be mble any everything so that if there's Aus between the asash and the r of an interpretation of the gar you can't go and say the rash is 100% right or the r is 100% right unless we're able to encapsulate all that they knew which we can't and consequently from this point on there's no more missa from this point on instead of Miss sorry from this point on instead of miss what we can do is we can be Mel as much as we possibly can as an individual from that under other individual so that we say that if if you have a great Russa and you studied in Thea you can say May so on and so on and so forth he was Mel why because we can be mael limited amount and by the time of anos it was already at that point that there was very little of the entire Torah that was available at that time to be all at once so even anos is was only to bead he was able to accept and receive the most he possibly could from shim and so the M goes back and uses the term ke okay now what we want to do is we wna for the next amount of time that we have left what time do we go till 10 minutes 10 minutes okay we it should be enough time uh uh what we want to do is uh I want to I want to go to the to the essence of the question that we raised about this entire Miss we don't crunch it all today at the next session we'll get to that too the rambam in per Tess in the first it's the last Next to in the r in it's in it's in Reading H by the way is written in pretty concise and clear Hebrew and it's readily understandable to anyone who wants to go through it even in the vernacular that the ramban wrote in because he wrote it clear and concise and is with as much brevity as possible even though in this particular he's quite wordy but the wording itself is chosen and it's beautiful to read and to get the point across and it deals with a question that we raised in anos is's point anos said now there are so many questions about the wording of that particular we SP we already spoke about some of it first of all you can leave out the word Al what if it would have said he used to say leave out the word does it change anything really doesn't really change anything right what's the alas what does that what does that change what does that do for it if if you're talking about each word being carefully stated by the greats so that it wanted to get something across you can leave out the word Alman alas means on condition of there seems to be something about the concept of Al Manas a condition it's it's like at priori you're saying I'm only going to do this if you know like this the Alman makes a real strong point on that if we have a chance next time we'll discuss that a little bit more but but what what was what was he saying and what was the complaint of that well we should work for nothing the r deals with that at the end of it's in and I'm going to share some of it with you today all right here it goes this this what he's saying after we know says the r that the giving of a reward for a Mitzvah and the goodness that we're going to be be merited of if we keep or guard the way of hem that's written in the Torah okay that's number one the first thing we have to keep in mind is that this is all going to be this is going to be something that's in the world to come once we keep that in mind we're able to be a little bit more precise and understand what antigos was trying to say and by the way if you look at and which we quoted before and it says how can you tell me that there's no reward doesn't it say and so on and so forth what are you tell me there no reward the itself said what I tell tell tell me from the Ten Commandments of that says you're going to get reward it says you're going to get reward in one of the The Ten Commandments what oh on what on which right right what do you tell me no reward hasem said I'm giving you reward what's this business saying not to not to get reward so the first thing we have to keep in mind is it's me to the day that is so the rambam is in the very beginning pointing out that we have to keep in mind that when it's when anos said this the mistake that was made was because they didn't stay and learn for the whole she but there's no question that means and Rashi says it when it says all these rewards Le that there is no reward ultimate reward in this world right doesn't exist but we're talking about I didn't want to mention something very interesting you know the the the nations of the world uh and and mo most people uh when we when we think of doing something and working for something we always think about getting paid and getting reward what's the reward and you know there are a lot of questions people are always asking questions e even even people who went through terrible times and survived them and and actually saw the Y hasem like in front of their eyes you know there are people who survived the Holocaust with unbelievable amounts of Miracle after Miracle after Miracle happening to them in the most unusual manner surviving the strangest conditions the most weird circumstances and and and they should mo mo most people who would go through that would might might say ah I'm sorry I saw the hand of God so clear I mean it's impossible how could you not and others can come away from that and still say as some do you know so where was God in the Holocaust where was God in October 7th and so on and so forth you know that that's a question that is impossible for us to deal with in in the time we have and may be impossible to deal with altogether but we know that in this world there is no reward the nations of the world in general believe in you know reward wward in this world there a famous uh it's a little bit of a a little bit of a joke but there's a famous story about there were it was a small town and you know so there was a there was a Catholic Minister and a and a Protestant Catholic priest and a Protestant Minister and a rabbi you know and they they had to be friends because they had to get along and one day they they they used to get together once a week to play cards or chess or whatever it is that that was going the fair at the time and the priest says uh you know you know gentlemen we're getting older and uh we're not going to live forever and you know we we we want to get into the Happy Hunting Ground you know so uh we may have to bribe our way in you know so I have a proposal let's pledge that whoever dies first the other the rest of the other two that are remaining will put $10,000 into the coffin so that when he gets to the Happy Hunting Ground he'll be able to bribe his way in the rabbi thinks himself boy you know I don't know man this is like you know too much but he says okay all right I'll go along you'll go along I'll go along okay the priest dies first so the minister and the rabbi come to the funeral home and the minister says to the rabbi did you bring it he says what bring what he said the cash oh he said oh yeah yeah yeah I I got I got it I got it you did you get yours he says yeah I have it in the bag right here he says listen you were closer to him as a Protestant Minister than I was so you go first so he takes the cash in the bag and he puts it in the coffin the rabbi takes out his checkbook wres a check for $20,000 puts it in and takes out the cash you know you know come on you know what what are you kidding we we we don't believe in this business we we we don't have any any trust in this it doesn't exist and you can't take it with you so the ramb is is telling us right over here that right because it says so it'll be good to you and is of course the Y that last well beyond okay that's something that's something to keep in mind okay we're gonna have to stop here I'll pick this up next time and we'll go through this particular first in Pay test and then we'll spend some more time going through some of the other questions that we had on this particular Miss we have two or three minutes for com comments yes so I kind disagree with that because I think doing the mitv you lead a certain Clarity at leads to certain character and connection that you feel just from doing the mits you are echoing the rambam the rambam is going to say that soon the Ra's going to say right we don't have time to finish it we you're echoing the r it's a very important statement there is a tremendous gift that acres to the one who keeps the Torah there's no question about that throughout all of history well we'll see that next time which it's the r all right next week what oh no next week it's I'm sorry next week is so we want two weeks in two weeks okay enjoy your