By Rabbi Alberto Sermoneta
This coming Shabbat we will read the second chapter of “Pirkei Avot”.
The eighth mishnah teaches us something particularly interesting, in the name of one of the great Masters of the rabbinic tradition: Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai.
During the Roman siege of Jerusalem, when leaving the city was forbidden except in a coffin, he pretended to be dead and, with the agreement of his disciples, was carried out of Jerusalem.
Next Shabbat we will read the second chapter of Pirkei Avot.
The eighth mishnah teaches us something particularly interesting, in the name of one of the great Masters of the rabbinic tradition: Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai. During the Roman siege of Jerusalem, when leaving the city was forbidden except in a coffin, he pretended to be dead and, with the agreement of his disciples, was carried out of Jerusalem.
Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai wished for the establishment of the rabbinic academy of Yavneh and when someone reproached him for not having done enough to save the Bet HaMikdash from destruction (he could have asked Emperor Vespasian, whose appointment as Emperor he had predicted and from whom he had instead asked for help to obtain the school of Yavneh), he used to reply in this way: “tafasta mi’ute tafasta, tafasta merube la tafasta” (he who seeks to grasp little succeeds, he who seeks to grasp much does not succeed at all).
He could not but uphold what the mishnah in question teaches us, which says:
“ Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai received (this teaching) from Hillel and Shammai;
he used to say – if you have studied much Torah, do not take pride in it, because for this purpose you were created!”.
This maxim is explained by saying that, due to the fact that you have devoted so much of your life to the study of the Torah, you cannot consider yourself as one considers someone who has done something that was not asked of them, because the study of the Torah for a Jew is a duty. And not only that, you must not even say that, “since I have studied so much Torah, I will stop, and besides not studying it, I will not teach it.
Besides the duty to study it, you also have the duty to teach it, according to what is said:
“lilmod u lelammed lishmor ve la’asot” (to study and to teach, to observe and to put into practice).
The Prophet Joshua says to the people: “this book of the Torah shall not depart out of your mouth, and you shall study it day and night”.