RaYBaSH’s Ponderings of the Perkei Avot
Chapter 4:4-6
By: Yehudah ben Shomeyr
“Rabbi Levitas of Yavneh would say: Be very,
very humble, for the hope of mortal man is worms.”
You put your pants
on the same as everyone else, you bleed red blood like everyone else, your
flatulence doesn’t smell like roses, so don’t think more highly of yourself
than anyone else, we all have the same fate…. Worm food.
“Rabbi Yochanan
the son of Berokah would say: Whoever desecrates the Divine Name covertly, is
punished in public. Regarding the desecration of the Name, the malicious and
the merely negligent are one and the same.”
Numbers 32:23 But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD:
and be sure your sin will find you out.
It is said, who
you are in secret is the real you. The most moral you are is what you do when
you thing no one is watching. But that fact is Someone (God) is always
watching. A Jew should be Torah observant privately as well as publicly. How
does one desecrate the Name? Not necessarily by saying, “God D*** it!” or such,
although these are ways to desecrate the Name the worst way is being a
hypocrite; claiming to be a good Jew and actually living like the devil on the
side. You may think you can live a double life, by a double life takes only
half as long and eventually you’ll screw up and you will be found out and in
the end you will have given God and Judaism a bad name.
“Rabbi Ishmael the
son of Rabbi Yossei would say: One who learns Torah
in order to teach, is given the opportunity to learn and teach. One who learns
in order to do, is given the opportunity to learn, teach, observe and do.”
There is no better
commentary or illustration than from ones own life. Motive is everything. The
ultimate reason for study is performance, not to show off ones teaching skills.
Shalom,
-- Yehudah ben
Shomeyr
