Wow! It’s all about our words.

Chapter 1: Mishnah 1: Moses received the Torah at Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua, Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the prophets, and the prophets to the Men of the Great Assembly. They said three things: Be deliberate in judging, raise up many disciples and make a fence around the Torah.

L: Of all the ideas and guidelines in the Torah, why did this first statement in all of Pirkei Avot pick these three principles of “be deliberate in judgement, raise up many disciples, and make a fence around the Torah”? What makes these three principles so fundamental?

H: First of all, this Mishnah gives you the lineage of the Talmud.  They give you these principles to live by. They are the most important general guidelines.

L: Why is “Be deliberate in the law” so fundamental?

H: …because the law is the basis upon which our Halacha is determined.

L: Why the word “deliberate”?  The way I see it, it means don’t race to judgement. But according to some commentators, this choice of words is meant to tell you to consider the specific situation and not simply apply general, broad guidelines. Pay attention to the particular case at hand.

H: Yes, do not hurry, do not rush what you feel you have to say to your friends, your family, your parents.  Consider what you are going to say and the impact it will have before you have that conversation.

L: How about the next phrase, “raise up many disciples.” What does that imply?

H: Get people who are going to learn from you.

L: So, what does this mean for our grandchildren? What are we going to tell them?

H: We should tell them, “Listen!”  Pay attention to what your friends and your parents are saying to you.  Learn from what they are teaching you. And you in turn can teach others the same things…so this way, the Mesorah (the tradition) is passed along. By following this advice, each of us can become both teachers and students to others.

L: I read something else from these words. Even if you learn day and night but keep all this knowledge to yourself and you share it with no one. That is a selfish act. No one will learn from you or can ask you questions – which you, in turn, can learn from. If everyone followed this behavior, the tradition would die.

L: How about the last dictum, “make a fence around the Torah”? What is that teaching us?

H: This is preventing us from becoming sinners.

L: …after all, this is a world without limitations…

H: Yes, in this world you can do whatever you want. So, the Torah is teaching you that is not how your life should be lived.

L: How should you live your life?

H: We go back full circle. You should be fair in your judgements [of others], and you should pass on your wisdom to others.  And make sure you don’t even come close to doing the wrong thing. What I mean here is that you should not do anything that in and of itself is not a sin but could lead you to do a sin.

L: You are going back to the idea of implications. Most of these implications refer to words, things you say, not so much the actions you take.

C: (Clara, Howie’s wife, and the grandmother in this dialog, adds): It’s not so much what you say as how you say it. That is a principle I believe in. It certainly helps us when you connect with other people…

L: You’re so right. You are not going to get anyone to listen to you if don’t speak nicely to them.

C: I learned this from Rabbi Wolgemuth many years ago from the way he taught [our children and members of our community]. It was not necessarily what he taught that made his teaching so successful. It was how he taught. He expressed himself so kindly and gently to all his students.

H: He had something good to say about each of his students, no matter their level of achievement.

L: This is why he had so many students. This Mishnah only teaches you to have many students; it is not a manual telling you how to do that.

H: As a teacher, he was really superb.

L: And, the last item, “build a fence around the Torah.” What does that mean? What does that imply? It is telling us that we have to have limits.

H: Right. You cannot have chaos or anarchy. You have to have rules by which to guide your life.

L: Otherwise, we waste energy or fail to make progress in many ways…It sounds like a paradox. Sometimes limitations can free you.