Ponderings of the Perkei Avot 3:20-23

RaYBaSH’s Ponderings of the Perkei Avot

Chapter 3:20-23

By: Yehudah ben Shomeyr

“He would also say: Everything is placed in pledge, and a net is spread over all the living. The store is open, the storekeeper extends credit, the account-book lies open, the hand writes, and all who wish to borrow may come and borrow. The collection-officers make their rounds every day and exact payment from man, with his knowledge and without his knowledge. Their case is well founded, the judgment is a judgment of truth, and ultimately, all is prepared for the feast.”

“The metaphor is that God’s conduct of the world is likened to a business: He grants man the goodness of this world, freedom and opportunities on the ‘pledge’ that he will utilize them properly. No unpaid debt – however long term – is cancelled, and no one can evade his responsibilities.” – Art Scroll’s Commentary on the Perkei Avot

 “Rabbi Eliezer the son of Azariah would say: If there is no Torah, there is no common decency; if there is no common decency, there is no Torah. If there is no wisdom, there is no fear of God; if there is no fear of God, there is no wisdom. If there is no applied knowledge, there is no analytical knowledge; if there is no analytical knowledge, there is no applied knowledge. If there is no flour, there is no Torah; if there is no Torah, there is no flour.”

This shows how one thing is dependent upon the other and you can’t have one without the other and it all begins with God’s Word, the Torah.

Torah is Kingdom Law, without it you get spiritual anarchy and God is NOT the author of confusion or disorder.

1 Cor. 14:33 For God is not [the author] of confusion, but of peace…
1Cor. 14:40 Let all things be done decently and in order.

 “He would also say: One whose wisdom is greater than his deeds, what is he comparable to? To a tree with many branches and few roots; comes a storm and uproots it, and turns it on its face. As is stated, "He shall be as a lone tree in a wasteland, and shall not see when good comes; he shall dwell parched in the desert, a salt land, uninhabited" (Jeremiah 17:6). But one whose deeds are greater than his wisdom, to what is he compared? To a tree with many roots and few branches, whom all the storms in the world cannot budge from its place. As is stated: "He shall be as a tree planted upon water, who spreads his roots by the river; who fears not when comes heat, whose leaf is ever lush; who worries not in a year of drought, and ceases not to yield fruit"”.

It’s not so much what you know, but what you do with what you know. Actions indeed speak louder than words.

People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Shalom,

-- Yehudah ben Shomeyr