Kommentar zu Pirkei Avot 4:4

BE [VERY] LOWLY OF SPIRIT. Midrash Shmuel has “before every man”. See mishna 10 (s.v. “before every man”).

Rabbi Levitas, a man of Yavneh, says: Be very, very humble in spirit, for the hope of man is worms: How can a man be proud at all - as in the end, the worms will be better than he? And about this he said, "Be very, very humble in spirit" - to emphasize the thing and say how great the punishment is for haughtiness and that is the proud one. And Rambam, may his memory be blessed, explained that he came to inform us that even though the middle point in all of the traits is the praiseworthy - like the trait of generosity, since both the spendthrift and the miser are bad and the middle is the [right] choice; and so with the trait of cruelty, that a person should not be cruel and [also] not completely merciful, as he should not have mercy on the wicked, and not be cruel to other people, rather the middle is the good path, to be merciful but to be cruel when needed; and so [too] totally with all (the intellect) [the traits], a man should grab the middle path and the moderate trait - yet this trait of haughtiness must be removed from oneself to the far extreme. As there is no trait more problematic than it; and most of the sins of the Torah depend upon it. And moreover, it causes forgetfulness of the Creator, may He be blessed, from the heart of a man - as it is stated (Deuteronomy 8:14), "And your heart grow haughty and you forget the Lord, your God." And this is what we learned [here], "Be very, very humble in spirit." And the sages of the Talmud have already argued about this thing in Tractate Sotah 5a - "One said, 'In excommunication is the one that has it and in excommunication is the one that does not have it at all.'" [This] is to say that a person should not be humble in spirit to the final extreme and not to be so lowly that people disparage him. Rather, he should be moderate in taking haughtiness - not to (beautify himself) [make himself proud], but not to lower his spirit to the utmost lowliness, that he not come to disgrace. And about this they said, "In excommunication is the one that has" much haughtiness "and in excommunication is the one that does not have it at all" - as he is not a person, but 'he is similar to the beasts.' "And the other one said, 'In excommunication is the one that has it at all'" - as it is so bad a trait that he must distance himself from it completely. And there should not be in him from it at all, like the opinion of Rabbi Levitas, and for the reason that we have written. And so is the law.

We have already elucidated and mentioned in the earlier chapters that humility is from the highest of traits. And it is the mean between pride and lowliness of spirit and it has no other name - just humility. But there are many names for pride: In the Hebrew language, high heart, elevated eyes, proud and high. And from the names of the sages, may their memory be blessed, [are] a high spirit, coarse-spirited and uppity. And across from them is lowliness of spirit. We have already explained in the fourth chapter (Eight Chapters 4:7) that a person needs to incline a little to one of the extremes until he establishes himself in the middle of, as a [type of] fence. But only in this trait from [all] the other traits - meaning to say with pride - due to the great deficiency of this trait for the pious ones and their knowledge of its damage, they distanced themselves to the other extreme and completely inclined towards lowliness of spirit, until there was no room for pride in their souls at all. And behold, I saw in a book from the books on characteristics that one of the important pious men was asked and told, "Which day is the one upon which you rejoiced more than any of your days?" He said [back], "The day that I was going on a boat and my place was in the lowest places of the boat among the packages of clothing, and there were traders and men of means on the boat [as well]. And I was laying in my place and one of the men of the boat got up to urinate and I was insignificant in his eyes and lowly - as I was very low in his eyes - to the point that he revealed his nakedness and urinated on me. And I was astonished by the intensification of the trait of brazenness in his soul. But, as God lives, my soul was not pained by his act at all and my strength was not aroused. And I rejoiced with a great joy that I reached the extreme that the disgrace of this empty one did not pain me and [that] my soul did not feel [anything] towards him." And it is without a doubt that this is the extreme of low spiritedness, to the point of being distanced from pride. And I will now mention a little of what the sages mentioned in praise of humility and [in] disgrace of pride. And it is because of this that this one commanded to come close to lowliness and said, "Be very, very lowly in spirit" - out of his fear that a person remain only in humility, all the more so that there be a trace of pride in him. As it is close to it, since modesty is the mean, as we mentioned. And they said (Talmud Yerushalmi Shabbat 1:3) in praise of humility [that like] that which wisdom made a crown for its head, humility made a sole for its heel - the explanation of which is its shoe - as it is written (Psalms 111:10), "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God." This is a proof that fear of God is greater than wisdom, as it is a cause for its existence. And it states (Proverbs 22:4), "[At the] heel of humility is the fear of sin," which is to say that you will find the fear of God at the heels of humility. If so, humility is much greater than wisdom. And they said (Megillah 31a), "This thing is written in the Torah and repeated in the Prophets and tripled in the Writings; every place that you find the greatness of the Holy One, blessed be He, you find His modesty: It is written in the Torah (Deuteronomy 10:17), 'the great God, etc.' And it is written after it (Deuteronomy 10:18), 'Who does the judgment of the orphan and the widow.' And it is repeated in the Prophets, as it is written (Isaiah 57:15), 'So speaks He who high aloft forever dwells, whose name is holy, "I dwell on high, in holiness."' And adjacent to it is '"with the contrite and the lowly in spirit."' And it is tripled in the Writings, as it is written (Psalms 68:5), 'extol Him who rides the clouds; the Lord is His name.' And it is written after it (Psalms 68:6), 'the Father of orphans and the Judge of widows.'" And you should learn from our teacher, Moshe, peace be upon him, in whom the intellectual virtues and the dispositional virtues were perfected - all of them directed to the level of prophecy - the master of Torah, the master of wisdom. And [yet] God, may He be blessed, praised him over every man with the trait of humility and stated (Numbers 12:3), "and Moshe the man is very humble, more than any person." And His stating, "very" is a sign of his great modesty and his inclining towards the side of the far extreme. And so, you will find him state (Exodus 16:7) "and what are we?" And so [too[ with David, 'the anointed of the God of Yaakov, the pleasant singer of the praises of Israel.' And he was an honored king, whose kingdom grew great and sword grew strong and who God, may He be blessed, designated through our teacher Moshe, peace be upon him, since he is the star that proceeded from Yaakov (Numbers 24:17), as the sages, may their memory be blessed, elucidated. And he was a prophet and the greatest of of the seventy elders [of his time], as he stated (II Samuel 23:8), "who sat in the sitting of the wise." And with all of this, he stated [about himself] (Psalms 51:19), "and a heart broken and crushed, God will not disgrace." And he increased in these virtues that indicate extreme modesty. And [the following is from] what the rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said about pride. They said (Sotah 4b), "Any man that has coarse-spiritedness is like he worshiped idolatry. Here it is written (Proverbs 16:5), 'An abomination of the Lord is anyone of a high heart'; and there it is written (Deuteronomy 7:26), 'And do not bring an abomination into your house.'" And they said, "It is like he denied a fundamental [of faith], as it is stated (Deuteronomy 8:14), 'And your heart grow high and you forget the Lord.'" And they said that the sin of pride is like one who has forbidden sexual relations: It states [about the latter] (Leviticus 18:27), "As they did all of these abominations." And they said (Sotah 4b) that one who becomes uppity is he, himself - for God - like idolatry itself. And they brought a proof from the statement (Isaiah 2:22), "'Cease from man, whose soul is in his nose' - meaning to say, of a high (haughty) spirit - 'for by what (vameh) is he estimated?' - do not read it as vameh, but rather bamah (an altar, as both words are written with the same three letters)." And they said [about] one that becomes uppity that it is fitting to kill him. And they said (Sotah 5a) that anyone who has coarse spirit in him is fitting to be cut down like a tree-god. It is written here (Isaiah 10:33), "the ones of high stature cut down"; and there it is written (Deuteronomy 7:5), "and their tree-gods shall you cut down." And they said that God, may He be blessed, will not revive during the revival of the dead those that became uppity. [This was] their saying, "Any man that has coarse spirit in him, his dust will not be aroused; as it is stated (Isaiah 27:19), 'awake and shout for joy, you who dwell in the dust': he who was made dust in his life - meaning to say the humble ones - they are the ones that will be revived." And they emphasized this and said that any man that has coarse spirit in him, the Divine Presence cries out about him; as it is stated (Psalms 138:6), "and the high ones from afar, He makes known." And they elaborated with their words. They said in saying that tsaarat (a Biblical form of leprosy) is a punishment for the haughty ones, "For a swelling (seiat), for a rash, or for a discoloration" (Leviticus 14:56) - and a swelling is only height (haughtiness), as it is stated (Isaiah 2:14), "the elevated (nisaot) hills." It is as if it said to the one who becomes uppity is a swelling [of tsaarat]. And the end is what they said (Sotah 5a), 'In excommunication is the one that has it and in excommunication is the one that does not have it at all.'" [This] means to say that a person should not be humble in spirit to the final extreme, as it is not from the virtues. And they quantified it metaphorically - one in sixty four parts, meaning to say if we place pride in one corner and lowliness of spirit in another corner, there would be sixty four parts along the spectrum. And he should stand in the sixty-third section. He does not only want the mean with this trait, so as to escape from pride. As if he were to be missing [just] one section and [proportionately] come closer to pride, he would be put in excommunication. And that is the opinion of Rava about humility. But Rav Nachman decided and said that it is not fitting for a man to have from it - meaning to say from pride - not a large a section and not a small section, as its sin is not small. That which makes man into an abomination is not fitting to [even] approach. They said about this matter, "Rav Nachman bar Yitschak said, 'Not form it and not from part of it. And is it a small thing that which is written, 'An abomination of the Lord is anyone of a high heart?'" And to strengthen [precaution] from this cursed sin, [Rabbi Levitas] said, "Be very, very lowly in spirit for the hope of man is worms" - meaning to say that you need to force yourself until you have distanced yourself from pride, by your thinking of the end of the body, and that is its return to worms.

"The worms": Rambam explains that he should consider his end, and it is to return to the worms, etc. And [Tosafot Yom Tov] explained the meaning of the word tikvah at length, and concluded that it is [like] (Isaiah 28), "a line (kav) to a line." And its root is kuf-vav, and the [final] tav [in the word tikvat] is just an addition as in tiferet [and] tilboshet. And it is denoting a measuring line (a type of yardstick). And see Bereishit Rabbah, Parshat Bereishit, on the verse, "'yikvu hamayim' - a measure was made for the waters." And here also this is its explanation, that his measuring line is the worms. And see Tosafot Yom Tov.

"Be very, very humble in spirit": Even though the middle path is praiseworthy with other character traits, it is not like this concerning the trait of pride. Rather one should lean to the other extreme of lowliness of spirit - as pride is extremely disgusting. And also since most people stumble in it and people do not separate themselves from it, therefore one has to make an extra distancing.

Introduction There are actually two mishnayoth in mishnah four. The first mishnah is from Rabbi Levitas of Yavneh, who does not appear anywhere else in the mishnah. Rabbi Yohanan ben Berokah was a student of Rabbi Joshua.

THE HOPE [Heb. tikvat] OF MAN [Heb. enosh] IS THE WORM. Rambam: he should consider his end and his return to the worm. I found a similar approach in Rashi’s commentary to the verse “the only desire of the righteous is the good, and the hope of the wicked is wrath” (Proverbs 11:23): they are assured of and hoping for Gehinnom. This shows that once a person is sure that something will happen it can be said to be “his hope”.
Maharal writes in Derech Chaim that the mishna does not say “for your hope is the worm” because no person hopes to be eaten by the worms. It says instead “for the hope of man is the worm”, i.e. that every person is destined to be eaten by the worms.¹³⁷The “hope of man” refers not to any actual person’s hope but to the fate of every person insofar as he is human, per the use of “hope” Tosafot Yom Tov has established above. Saying “your hope” would imply a personal hope, which is not true. He also writes that the alphanumeric value of “man” [Heb. enosh, אנוש] is the same as the alphanumeric value of the sum of two other synonyms for “man”, אדם and איש. It is because of the joining of earth, אדמה, and the essence, i.e. potential, of man, אישות, that a person is the flesh, בשר, which is eaten by worms. He did not concern himself over the difference of one between the two values¹³⁸The value of אנוש is 357, and the value of אדם + איש is 356. [because one alludes to the joining of earth and the essence of man].
Midrash Shmuel writes in the name of Chasid Ya’avetz that the mishna means “be lowly of spirit” before those who insult you, and do not answer them becase “the hope of [the] man” who insults you is the worm, and why should you care what he says? He then says that this is based on the words of the prophet Isaiah: “Do not fear the disparagement of man, and do not be broken by their insults; for like a garment, a moth will eat them, and like wool, a worm will eat them” (Isaiah 51:7-8).
Midrash Shmuel also writes that “hope” here is to be understood literally, and explains the mishna as saying that the hope and desire of a person is that he receive a proper burial and not be buried like a donkey. I say that although everyone hopes to have a proper burial befitting a person, it cannot be said that his hope and desire is to be eaten by the worm. If he were to be buried and not eaten by any worms, that would be best. Not only that, we find the Sages mentioning people whom the worms did not touch (Bava Batra 17a) and, we find the story of R. Elazar bar Shimon in Bava Metzia 83b.¹³⁹In this story, R. Elazar bar Shimon’s daughter stores his body in her attic. One day she sees a worm coming out of his ear. He appears to her in a dream and explains that he once heard someone insulting a Torah scholar and did not sufficiently protest; the worm is a punishment for this. The import of the story is that worms only eat bodies that were engaged in sin, and it is possible to hope to be sinless and therefore not subject to worms.
I say that what caused the commentators all this difficulty is their understanding of the word tikvah as coming from the root k.v.h, meaning “to hope”. But this is not so, and the root is in fact k.v, as in the verse “kav by kav” (Isaiah 28:10). The second tav in the word tikvat is not in place of a hey¹⁴⁰If the word in our mishna is “hope” from the root k.v.h., “to hope”, then we understand tikvat as the word tikvah appearing in the construct state and we read tikvat enosh as “the hope of man”.; it is simply a suffix, of the kind that appears in the words tif’eret, tilboshet.¹⁴¹The roots of which are p.’.r. and l.b.sh., respectively—the tav at the end is a suffix added on to the root. Tosafot Yom Tov suggests that our word tikvat should be understood similarly, the tav being a suffix. We find this word in the verse “the line [Heb. tikvat] of scarlet cord” (Joshua 2:18). We understand the kav in Isaiah the same way—as a measuring cord, with the verse meaning that one receives measure for measure. We also explain the verse in Proverbs 11:23, tikvat enosh `evra, to mean that the wicked are judged by the measuring cord and condemned to the wrath and rage of G-d. And this is what our tanna means when he says tikvat enosh rimah: the measuring cord by which punishment will be dealt out to a person is the worm. [I later saw a passage in Bereshit Rabbah 5:1 on the verse yikavu hamayim, “let the waters be gathered” (Genesis 1:9): he shall make a measure for the water, as the verse says, “a kav [line] shall be stretched over Jerusalem.]

Rabbi Yochanan ben Beroka says: Anyone who desecrates the Name of Heaven secretly, they punish him publicly: [Of course,] the desecration of the Name that is mentioned in the Talmud is public (by definition). And according to the importance of a man can there be a desecration for a small thing, as was said (by Rav Nachman in Tractate Chullin) (Yoma 86a), "How is desecration of the Name? (Rav said,) 'For example, [if] I took meat from the butcher and did not give him money immediately.'" Hence the sages and men of repute (need) to watch their deeds more than other people. And every man is according to his standing. 'And anyone who wants to take the name (and consider himself important in this regard), let him come and take [it].' And they said in Tractate Sanhedrin 74a that even for tying a shoelace (in the way of the gentiles), he should let himself be killed and not transgress. This is not by way of obligation, yet one should let himself be killed for this - as he is doing a commandment that sanctifies God, may He be blessed, and [so] 'he acquires his [share in the] world [to come] in an instant. But in three things everyone is obligated to let himself be killed for them; and if he transgresses and does not allow himself to be killed, it is a major sin [in itself] like idolatry, murder and sexual immorality. And the punishment for public desecration of the Name is greater than those three, as it is stated (Ezekiel 20:39), "As for you, House of Israel, thus said the Lord God, 'Go, every one of you, and worship his idols and continue, if you will not obey Me; but do not desecrate My holy name any more with your idols and your gifts.'" Behold, it is elucidated for you that He was more (in remembrance of) [exacting about] that which they were worshiping idols because they were desecrating His holy Name publicly than [because] of the idolatry itself. And [hence] that which we learned, "Anyone who desecrates the Name of Heaven secretly," is speaking about things that are a desecration of the Name in of themselves, like idolatry - as he is affirming [the idol's] divinity. And so too, the one who swears falsely with the Name of the Holy One, blessed be He - which is deceiving the minds of the creatures - is a desecration - as it is stated (Leviticus 19:12), "You shall not swear falsely by My Name, desecrating the Name of your God; I am the Lord."

You know from Scripture that the unintentional transgressor has a sin. And because of this, he needs atonement with a sacrifice. And God, may He be blessed, said about him, "And he is forgiven from his sin that he sinned." But he is not like the intentional sinner. God forbid, for the One of the straight path, God - may He be blessed - to equate the intentional with the unintentional in [any] thing from the things. Rather his intention here is that the desecration of the Name, whether it is intentional or unintentional, will be punished publicly - if it was intentional, the punishment for intentional, if it was unintentional, the punishment for unintentional. But both punishments are public.

"secretly": And you [may] ask, behold, Rabbi Bartenura explained in Mishnah Yoma 8:8 that desecration of the Name (chillul Hashem) is [committed by] one who sins and causes others to sin; and this is one who sins and others learn from him; and if so, you don't find it "secretly," etc. And it appears to me that it is found with a sin that it is impossible [to do] without being joined by another - for example the sexual prohibitions. And it is also certainly true that one who eats forbidden foods and the like by himself and no one sees him is not [causing] a desecration of the Name at all. And see Tosafot Yom Tov.

Rabbi Levitas a man of Yavneh said: be exceeding humble spirit, for the end of man is the worm. Usually a person should take the middle path and not be “exceedingly” anything. However, with humility one can be even exceedingly humble. For in the end all men end up in the ground, serving as food for worms.

ANYONE WHO DESECRATES G-D’S NAME IN PRIVATE. Rav explains in Yoma 10:8 that “desecrating G-d’s name” means sinning and causing others to sin, and I wrote there that this means that others learn from the sin to sin themselves, as Rav himself writes on the mishna later in 5:9. If so, how is it possible to do this in private?
One approach is that of Maharal in Derech Chaim, that “in private” means that few people know about it, not that it is truly in private. He also gives the case of ten Torah scholars who are together and one of them steals or enters a brothel, and it is unclear who it was.
Midrash Shmuel writes in the name of Rabbenu Yonah that the desecration of G-d’s name in private here refers to someone who worships other gods, which is desecration because he does not acknolwedge the true G-d, or someone who swears falsely, concerning which the verse says “and do not swear falsely in My name, such that you desecrate the name of your G-d” (Leviticus 19:12). He also writes in the name of Rabbenu Ephraim that our mishna is discussing a Torah scholar sinning in private, who, had he sinned in public, would have caused others to learn from his sin and would have desecrated G-d’s name. [*This seems very forced to me, because in the end he did not sin in public and didn’t cause an actual desecration of G-d’s name, and the language of the mishna does not support this reading. Anytime somebody sins in private there is no desecration of G-d’s name, and the mishna speaks specifically of a desecration of G-d’s name.
As for what the case of the mishna would then be, I say that it would be the case of a sin that cannot be done without another’s participation, such as illicit relations and the like. The woman is forced,¹⁴²In which case he desecrates G-d’s name because she comes to despise Torah scholars and Torah itself. or even if she is seduced, she has only agreed to it because she reasons that there must not be any sin involved if he is willing to do it, causing a desecration of G-d’s name. Whereas when someone eats a forbidden food or the like and nobody sees him this does not cause any desecration of G-d’s name.]

There is no differentiation between unintentional and intentional when it comes to desecration of the Name: Not that he is punished for the unintentional like the intentional; but rather that also for the unintentional is he punished publicly, and each one 'will carry [the punishment] according to his transgression.' [This is] because the unintentional is considered a transgression [in such a case] when it is not beyond his control, since he should have been careful that it not come to him - and he was not careful. Therefore the verse obligates him in a sacrifice in order to atone for him.

"There is no differentiation between unintentional, etc.": It is known that the one who is unintentional also needs atonement. But he is not like the one who is intentional - God forbid for the straight paths of God, may He be blessed, to equate the intentional with the unintentional in anything. Rather, the intention [of the mishnah] is that his punishment is in public - if it was intentional, the punishment is [for an] intentional [sin]; if it was unintentional, the punishment is [for an] unintentional [sin], etc. And see Tosafot Yom Tov.

Rabbi Yohanan ben Berokah said: whoever profanes the name of heaven in secret, he shall be punished in the open. Unwittingly or wittingly, it is all one in profaning the name. This refers to a person who commits a transgression in private which had he done it in public would have desecrated God’s name. For instance, if he is a sage or other type of communal leader, if people would have seen him sinning, they would have learned from him. Such a person will be punished in the open so that everyone can see his hypocrisy. Since profaning God’s name is such a great crime, one that can lead to other people committing even more sins, the punishment is meted out even to one who unwittingly profanes God’s name. Maimonides points out that this is not to say that a person who unwittingly profanes God’s name receives the same punishment as one who does so wittingly. This would be inherently unfair. Rather what the mishnah teaches is that each gets their punishment in public.

THERE IS NO DIFERENCE BETWEEN INTENTIONAL AND UNINTENTIONAL SINS. Rambam: you already know from Scripture that even when one sins unintentionally, he has still sinned and requires atonement through a sacrifice, and G-d says that “he shall be forgiven for the sin that he sinned” (Leviticus 19:22).¹⁴³So he clearly is considered having sinned, and required forgiveness. But he is not the same as one who sins intentionally. G-d forbid that the just ways of G-d would treat an unintentional sinner like an intentional one in any way. The mishna here simply means that the punishment for the desecration of G-d’s name, whether it happened in public or in private, will be in public. The punishment will be the one appropriate for the case, whether he sinned intentionally or unintentionally, but either way it will be in public. Rashi also writes that the intentional and unintentional sins are only treated equally in terms of the publicity, not in terms of the punishment itself. He brings a proof from the case of the Jews who deserved to be destroyed for bowing down to the statue of Nebuchadnezzar and were not destroyed, which the Talmud explains is because “they only did this outwardly; G-d likewise only appeared to be destorying them” (Megillah 12a).
Midrash Shmuel writes in the name of R. Moshe Almosnino that it is fitting to treat the intentional and unintentional sinner equally with regards to the publicity of his punishment, because the one who sinned in private was sinning in public as far as the One against Whom he sinned is concerned, for nothing is hidden from His eyes. The mishna then repeats “in the desecration of G-d’s name” to clarify that it is for this reason that the unintentional and intentional sinner are treated equally with public punishments; a sin that desecrates G-d’s name is a sin against Him before whom all is revealed.¹⁴⁴The reasoning seems to be that since every sin against G-d is like a sin in public, and the punishment for desecrating G-d’s name would happen publicly, a sin which (in public) would be a desecration of G-d’s name is likewise treated as though it happened in public at least in regards to the publicity of the punishment.