Big Brother: A 2000-year-old warning
Chapter 1, Mishnah 11
אַבְטַלְיוֹן אוֹמֵר, חֲכָמִים, הִזָּהֲרוּ בְדִבְרֵיכֶם, שֶׁמָּא תָחוּבוּ חוֹבַת גָּלוּת וְתִגְלוּ לִמְקוֹם מַיִם הָרָעִים, וְיִשְׁתּוּ הַתַּלְמִידִים הַבָּאִים אַחֲרֵיכֶם וְיָמוּתוּ, וְנִמְצָא שֵׁם שָׁמַיִם מִתְחַלֵּל:
Avtalyon used to say: Sages be careful with your words, lest you incur the penalty of exile, and be carried off to a place of evil waters [heresy], and the disciples who follow you drink and die, and thus the Heavenly Name of heaven becomes profaned.
L: Whoo! I guess we are in the upbeat section of the Mishnah. Let’s hear what Bunim has to say at the opening:
In the context of his own time, ruled by a dictatorial power, Avtalyon may imply a warning against indiscreet criticism of the ruling group, for it most certainly will lead to exile. Once in a hostile environment, saturated with the “evil waters” of strange philosophies, your disciples might succumb and imbibe these ideas. The ultimate consequences will be that the name of Heaven will be desecrated.
Does this sound a bit like Big Brother is watching you?
H: Yes. [followed by laughter]
L: If this Mishnah had been written today, would it have been included in our text – or excluded?
H: Well, I think the “strange philosophies” would still hold today. Because there are people who come out of Orthodox homes and go to India or to gurus…their ideas are “strange” vis-à-vis the approach to life they were brought up with.
L: So, you’re not saying this is discussing “ruling powers” as much as it is other so-called foreign cultures. You then begin to follow those cultures, or those religions and others will follow you into those religions. Is that, more or less, the point your making?
H: I believe that’s correct.
L: The way I see it is that Avtalyon and his contemporaries were living under the oppressive rule of Rome. But this Mishnah could be interpreted in a slightly different way: Be careful what you say. Someone could be listening to your heretical statements and declare you an enemy of the state.
H: Yes, that’s a fair interpretation.
L: We live in a time that is different from that of the Mishnah. Would the warning we read here still apply today, here in this country? Is this one interpretation of the Mishnah outmoded today?
H: I think it depends what type of government is in place. In the United States where there is freedom of expression, it isn’t much of an issue. But in the case of dictators – and there are still plenty of dictators around the world – then it would still apply.
L: If you are Myanmar or in China, you would say that this warning still applies. Even in London, there are thousands and thousands of cameras that watch your every move; not quite a Myanmar parallel but nonetheless there’s little privacy when compared to Brookline (Massachusetts), where public cameras are essentially banned.
H: Yes, in those countries you can worry about being overheard and reported to the authorities.
L: Turning to our children or grandchildren, at what age can we have that talk? Or, how young is too young to have this conversation with a son, grandson, daughter or granddaughter? How do you talk about this Mishnah without scaring the daylights out of them?
H: Well, maybe you try to shield them from this as long as you can, until they actually are able to absorb it and the is not so scary.
L: I don’t know, Howie. I read this Mishnah as an adult, and I’m scared!
H: [laughter]
L: Think about it. What if we were living in Beijing at this very moment? We might want to warn our 2-year-old, forget waiting until they are teenagers. But the larger question: Is there a way that you can impart this message to a child where they still feel secure and not afraid of everything?
H: I am not sure there is a perfect way to teach this message. Just listen to your own words, how even you [a grandparent] may be scared out of his wits regarding this topic. So, I would conclude that there is no easy way or just-the-right moment to teach this lesson.
L: There’s no formula, no 1-2-3 process to find that moment.
H: Correct.