RaYBaSH’s Ponderings of the Perkei Avot
Chapter 5:17-18
By Yehudah ben Shomeyr
“There are four
types among those who attend the study hall. One who goes but does nothing--has
gained the rewards of going. One who does [study] but does not go to the study
hall--has gained the rewards of doing. One who goes and does, is a chassid.
One who neither goes nor does, is wicked.”
The first, like
breathing air and yet doesn’t know what it is or how it works still gets the
benefit of breathing it, even so, a person who attends a study may be oblivious
to what is being said or studied but still benefits from the spoken words there
whether he realizes it or not. One may study on his own, which is good, but
does not have the benefit of learning and gleaning from others. He doesn’t have
the advantage of hearing and seeing different view points. His mind is not
exercised to its fullest potential capacity. The third is the ideal student to
be and has the peak benefits from his study. The last who cannot rightly be
called a student is wicked.
“There are four
types among those who sit before the sages: the sponge, the funnel, the
strainer and the sieve. The sponge absorbs all. The funnel takes in at one end
and lets it out the other. The strainer rejects the wine and retains the
sediment. The sieve rejects the coarse flour and retains the fine flour.”
Oh, that we all
might be sponges! No sense in picking and choosing what we hear from our
teachers. We don’t, or shouldn’t do that with Scripture, so why do it with
those who expound the Scriptures. I
mean, just because we get convicted because a saying of our teacher is hard,
yet we know he is right, doesn’t give us the right to be anything but a sponge.
Shalom,
-- Yehudah ben
Shomeyr
