Thursday, December 18, 2014
Ethics of our Fathers: Chapter 4: Mishna 7: Use the Torah Appropriately
9:58 PM | 
Posted by
Rabbi Chaim Coffman |
"Rabbi Tzadok said, 'Do not make of the Torah a crown wherewith to magnify yourself, nor a spade wherewith to dig. Hillel used to say, 'He who makes unworthy use of the crown of Torah shall perish'. So whoever makes selfish use of the Torah, takes his own life'.
The first part of the Mishna explains that we are not allowed to use our Torah learning for the sake of receiving honor! The purpose of learning Torah is to make us better people so that we can internalize and live according to its ways.
There is another Mishin in Ethics of our Fathers that explains how a person can never be haughty if they learned a lot of Torah because that is what you created to do in the first place! What would be the point of trying to receive honor for something that you have an obligation to do anyway?
The Torah in reality should make us humble as the more we learn, the more we understand how much we don't know which makes us feel quite small! This leads us to the next part of the Mishna which tells us that we are not allowed to derive benefit for learning Torah.
This is hard to understand because aren't there people who charge for the classes they give? What about rabbis who teach children, why according to this would they not be allowed to get a salary for their work?
The Talmud tells us that when it comes to a rabbi teaching children, he is not getting paid for his teaching but rather the fact that he is getting to paid to watch over them so that they don't cause damage to others. Even if he is teaching them, the main part of his salary is keeping them orderly!
Today people are paid to learn Torah or to teach like in anything other profession. The idea here is that getting paid for teaching or giving classes helps that person continue learning and inspiring others. This could be why that it is not such a lucrative field because if it was then people would have ulterior motives and it would not be the pure Torah that would help others.
The last part of the Mishna tells us the severity of what could happen to a person if they misuse the crown the Torah. This means that even to save one's life, if one could have done it in another way and they used Torah to save themselves, they are held liable. The reason is that they could have done something else to save themselves.
This is showing misappropriation in the usage of Torah. If a person is in a life and death situation then they can do whatever they can to save themselves. The question is if they used Torah to save themselves when they could have used a different medium.
This is why it is as if they have forfeited their life. They have taken something so precious and misused it. The Torah is something so important and life altering that we are not allowed to just use it for what we want. We have to honor it and give it the respect it deserves!
The first part of the Mishna explains that we are not allowed to use our Torah learning for the sake of receiving honor! The purpose of learning Torah is to make us better people so that we can internalize and live according to its ways.
There is another Mishin in Ethics of our Fathers that explains how a person can never be haughty if they learned a lot of Torah because that is what you created to do in the first place! What would be the point of trying to receive honor for something that you have an obligation to do anyway?
The Torah in reality should make us humble as the more we learn, the more we understand how much we don't know which makes us feel quite small! This leads us to the next part of the Mishna which tells us that we are not allowed to derive benefit for learning Torah.
This is hard to understand because aren't there people who charge for the classes they give? What about rabbis who teach children, why according to this would they not be allowed to get a salary for their work?
The Talmud tells us that when it comes to a rabbi teaching children, he is not getting paid for his teaching but rather the fact that he is getting to paid to watch over them so that they don't cause damage to others. Even if he is teaching them, the main part of his salary is keeping them orderly!
Today people are paid to learn Torah or to teach like in anything other profession. The idea here is that getting paid for teaching or giving classes helps that person continue learning and inspiring others. This could be why that it is not such a lucrative field because if it was then people would have ulterior motives and it would not be the pure Torah that would help others.
The last part of the Mishna tells us the severity of what could happen to a person if they misuse the crown the Torah. This means that even to save one's life, if one could have done it in another way and they used Torah to save themselves, they are held liable. The reason is that they could have done something else to save themselves.
This is showing misappropriation in the usage of Torah. If a person is in a life and death situation then they can do whatever they can to save themselves. The question is if they used Torah to save themselves when they could have used a different medium.
This is why it is as if they have forfeited their life. They have taken something so precious and misused it. The Torah is something so important and life altering that we are not allowed to just use it for what we want. We have to honor it and give it the respect it deserves!
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