Mishnah
Mishnah

Chasidut for Pirkei Avot 5:21

הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, בֶּן חָמֵשׁ שָׁנִים לַמִּקְרָא, בֶּן עֶשֶׂר לַמִּשְׁנָה, בֶּן שְׁלשׁ עֶשְׂרֵה לַמִּצְוֹת, בֶּן חֲמֵשׁ עֶשְׂרֵה לַתַּלְמוּד, בֶּן שְׁמֹנֶה עֶשְׂרֵה לַחֻפָּה, בֶּן עֶשְׂרִים לִרְדֹּף, בֶּן שְׁלשִׁים לַכֹּחַ, בֶּן אַרְבָּעִים לַבִּינָה, בֶּן חֲמִשִּׁים לָעֵצָה, בֶּן שִׁשִּׁים לַזִּקְנָה, בֶּן שִׁבְעִים לַשֵּׂיבָה, בֶּן שְׁמֹנִים לַגְּבוּרָה, בֶּן תִּשְׁעִים לָשׁוּחַ, בֶּן מֵאָה כְּאִלּוּ מֵת וְעָבַר וּבָטֵל מִן הָעוֹלָם:

He was wont to say: Five years old for (learning) Scripture. [This is derived from arlah (forbidden fruit), viz. (Leviticus 19:23): "Three years shall it be forbidden to you… (24): And in the fourth year all of the fruit shall be holy for praise to the L rd." (At this stage) his father teaches him the form of the letters and the vowel signs. (25): "And in the fifth year you may eat its fruit, to increase for you its produce." Thenceforward, stuff him like an ox!], ten years old for Mishnah. [He learns Scripture for five years and Mishnah for five years, viz. (Chullin 24a): The master said: Any student who has not made progress in his Mishnah after five years, will no longer do so, as it is written (Numbers 8:24): "This is what applies to the Levites. From the age of twenty-five and up shall he come to enter into service to work in the tent of meeting." He learns the halachoth of the service for five years, and, at thirty, he works.], thirteen years old for mitzvoth, [it being written (Numbers 5:6): "A man or a woman if they do of all the sins of man" and, in respect to (the episode of ) Shchem, (Genesis 34:25): "And two sons of Jacob, Shimon and Levi, the brothers of Dinah, took, each man his sword, etc." Levi at that time was thirteen years old and he is called "a man"], eighteen for the (marriage) canopy. ["Adam" ("man") is written nineteen times in the parshah of Bershith — from (1:26): "And G-d said: "Let us make a man" until (2:22): "And the L rd G-d fashioned the side that He had taken from the man into a woman" — one time for (the plain meaning) itself, leaving eighteen for expounding ("derashah").], twenty years old for pursuing [a livelihood. After he has learned Scripture, Mishnah, and Gemara, and taken a wife and begotten children, he must pursue a livelihood. Or: "twenty years old for pursuing" him from Heaven and punishing him for his acts, the Heavenly tribunal not punishing one who is less than twenty years old.], thirty for strength, [the Levites setting up the tabernacle and taking it apart and loading the wagons and carrying on their shoulder from the age of thirty on], forty years old for understanding, [for after forty years that Israel was in the desert Moses said to them (Deuteronomy 29:3): "and the L rd did not give you a heart to know and eyes to see and ears to hear until this day."], fifty years old for counsel, [it being stated of the Levites (Numbers 8:25-26): "And from the age of fifty he shall return from the service of the work, and he shall serve no more. And he shall serve his brothers." Which service? Counsel.], sixty years old for old age, viz. (Iyyov 5:26): "You will go to the grave in old age (bekelach): — the gematria (numerical equivalent) of "bekalach" is sixty.], seventy years old for hoary old age, [it being written in respect to David (I Chronicles 29:28): "And he died in a good hoary old age, and the days of his life were seventy years."], eighty years old for strength, [it being written (Psalms 90:10): "And if with 'strengths,' eighty years."], ninety years old for bowing (shuach) [He walks bowed and bent over. Some see it as relating to "shuchah amukah," "a deep pit."], one hundred years old — as if he had died and passed on and vanished from the world.

Chovat HaTalmidim

This is to say that the Mishnah says (Avot 5:21), "Forty [is the age] for understanding, Fifty [is the age] for [giving] counsel." That means that the life of a person is divided into seasons - when he is forty, his mind will be fit for understanding; and when ten more years are added to him, he will reach a different season, that of counsel. And this is not only the case with the seasons of forty and fifty. Rather every number of five or ten years of a person's life differs with regard to their season. For that which the season of young adulthood is fit, later seasons - and even the season of old age - will not be fit. And for that which the seasons of old age and hoary-headedness are fit, the seasons before them will not be fit. And please note this wonder: That when the prophet announced the word of God (Joel 3:1), "After that, I will pour out My spirit on all flesh; your sons and daughters shall prophesy" - he then also distinguished and said, "your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions." The sight of the old men will be in a dream, but that of the young men will be in a vision. It is not that we are coming now to explain the difference between the sight of a dream and the sight of a vision. Nevertheless, there is a difference, and the prophet divided them according to their seasons - the young men in their season and the old men in their season. It should be understood that this verse is not relating to God's prophets, who were above their bodies; above time and all of the world. So the level that a prophet would reach in his prophecy, he would reach during any of his seasons, nor was it subject to any season. Rather this verse is speaking about the whole Jewish people, as it is stated (Joel 3:2), "Even upon the slaves and the maidservants, etc., will I pour out My spirit." And the entire people - even in their greatness - is subject to the seasons. This means to say that a person is divided into seasons also in his service of God, and that he is fit for something different in each one of them. For example, there are the seasons of youth, in which a person is more fit to enthuse; and there are the seasons of older age, in which a person is more fit to delight in the pleasantness of the Supernal One. There are seasons when if one does not enthuse, he feels nothing; and there are seasons that even at the time when he is not enthusing, he feels the delightfulness and sweetness from even every simple thing, and even from every letter in the Torah or prayer which he says. There are seasons in which his enthusiasm - like any part of his divine service - begins in his brain, by his delving with his mind; and there are those in which it is more fit to begin in the heart, etc. Hence if a man rises in his youth to serve God through the ways of Chassidut and to bring out all that for which his spirit is fit [in the various seasons] for divine service, he will fix all of them in himself. And at the time of his old age, his service will be a type of crowning glory within which all the shades and faces of the various seasons will be seen. However if he delays getting used to it - even if he toils at it [later] - he will be lacking his seasons that he missed.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Previous VerseFull ChapterNext Verse