Chapter 1
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| YOSI BEN YO'EZER, OF TZRAYDA AND YOSI BEN YOCHNAN OF YERUSHALAYIM RECEIVED (the Mesorah) FROM THEM (Shimon Ha'tzadik and Antigonus of Socho). YOSI BEN YO'EZER OF TZRADA SAYS: LET YOUR HOME BE A MEETING PLACE FOR THE WISE; SIT AMIDST THE DUST OF THEIR FEET; AND DRINK IN THEIR WORDS WITH THIRST. |
1.It is essential to observe the precision with which the Mishna relates the line of tradition. The two scholars, heads of their generation, "received from them," as another link in a systematic chain of tradition starting from Moses at Sinai. In the next few Mishnas we find that phrase "received from them" oft repeated as each new generation of scholars carries on from the previous ones. The emphasis is, of course, from the source, Sinai.
2.Who were these pairs, "zugos?" The next few Mishnas mentions these zugos. The first one held the office of the Nasi, the President of the Sanhedrin, and the second was the Av Beis Din, the Chief of the Court of Law.
3.The sanhedrin was the Supreme Court and National Council. It was comprised of 71 member / scholars, and administered the political as well as the religious life of the nation in the later centuries of the Second Temple.
In Mishna 2, Shimon Hatzdik told us that Torah was one of the pillars upon which the universe stands. Yosi Ben Yo'ezer now tells us how to acquire Torah. Because Torah is not a compartmentalized course of study as one would take a course in college, but rather an all-encompassing code of conduct of life, it requires immersion into an environment of Torah scholarship.
He says: Open the doors of your home wide. Let the scholars know that is where they will meet, discuss, argue Torah. Even if you are not on their level you will inevitably absorb and assimilate from the fount of Torah, and you too will acquire Torah.
However, there are two conditions:
1.Because you are their host and they are guests, you may have a tendency to act in a haughty manner... you are hereby warned:
2.Because the study of Torah is a constant in your home, there may be a tendency to let it become commonplace, and lose your zeal to learn... you are hereby warned:
The metaphor is strong because the message is vital. Drink with the kind of thirst that nourishes your body, so absorb their words as if you never heard them before and their ideas open up new vistas of Torah.
Teaching, transmission of Torah is not merely a passing down a corpus of laws to another. A teacher is successful when, in addition to the body of knowledge he transmits, he gives with it the personality and the Weltanschauung (the outlook on life) that colors his life. When he is able to mold the heart and soul of his student so that the student is intertwined with the personality of his teacher, his rebbe, he has then transmitted Torah to him.
Moshe Rabenu taught many students... Aharon, Elazar, Pinchas and Joshua... and yet to only Joshua "was transmitted" the Mesorah (Mishna 1) because, as the Torah describes... Joshua never left the tent of Moshe. The lives of the master blended with the life of the student.
From my personal experience, I had lived in my rebbe's house for a number of years while being a student. I became part of his family, and his life became intertwined with mine. His outlook, his personality stealthily crept onto mine and molded mine unknowingly. Today, after many years, he is still part of me and what he has transmitted to me is not the Torah alone, but the soul that infuses that Torah with life.
But it calls for, on the part of the student, a submission to sit at the dust of the feet of the master; a yearning to drink in every word with thirst...and an awareness that the master, the Rebbe, is the vessel of Torah, who is that link in the long chain of Tradition from Sinai, who is now ready to bequeath the treasure of Torah to his disciple.
Where do we find the concept of humility in the Torah?
2.What should be the relationship between teacher and student?
3.What's wrong in our society that's reflected in our schools?
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