Avot 1:4

By Rabbi Alan Yuter
Posted Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Yosi the son of Joezer of Sereida and Yosi the son of Yohanan of Jerusalem recieved the tradition from them [Antigonos of Socho and Simon the Just]. Yosi the son of Joezer of Sereda says:

1. Let your house be an assembly for the sages,
2. and wrestle with yourself at the dust of their feet,
3. and drink their words with thirst.

This Mishnah's triad first directs us to have the right kind of social life, the proper friends, Israel's authentic aristocrats. The real Jewish aristocrat is not the business magnate or the one who parlays honor and recognition for funding the salaries of functionaries. It is the lay person who makes it easier for the sages to disseminate Torah, and it is the person who grows in Torah throught one;s life.

In the house that the sages choose to be the locus of assembly, the host becomes the guest, struggling to be at the feet of the sages. This act of submission to the Torah elite elevates the student into a disciple, a talmid, one who is trained by the wise and thereby becomes more wise oneself.

The words of the sages are to be internalized with zest and gusto. Torah's formative effect of Torah environment and Torah ideas and Torah values.

This Mishnah reminds us to find the right social elite. The rabbi is not a ritual functionary, but a miner for truth in the quarry of Torah. The rabbi invites the Jewish people to search for God in the texts of the canon. In making one's house the assembly of the searching pious, we defend and define what we are and who we are.

In ancient Egypt submission to the high power of Pharaoh and sexual license were the highest value. In ancient Greece and Mesopotamia, it was physical power that made right. The Greeks taught ethics in philosophy, and not in religion. And the Virginian planters who ran plantations also knew how to strut their stuff on the dance floor and banquet hall. What the Torah is offering is a moral aristocracy based on ethics, learning, and application of values to the everyday human experience

In ancient Athens, only 10% of the population had rights. All Israel received the Torah from God, and the Torah is shared with all Israel, which has a portion in eternity. We choose our compass, we choose our elites, and what is important. By choosing the right compass, we walk the road to eternity.

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