Commentary for Pirkei Avot 5:14

AND DOES NOT DO. Rav: and does not review(,) and learn(s) and does not understand. We can explain his language thus: “he hears and does not review, or he learns but does not understand.” Alternatively, we can explain his comment as “he hears and does not review, nor does he learn, nor does he understand.” This seems to be the case, based on his comment on the end of the mishna,²²⁹There, Rav puts “learn” and “review” together in the definition of “do”. where this all seems to be one thing. And because he does not learn, he does not understand. Midrash Shmuel, in reproducing the Rav’s comment, writes “for he does not learn and does not understand.”

There are four temperaments, etc.: [One who] goes but does not do: The intention is not that he does not do anything from that which he heard in the House of Study - as one who prevented himself from doing the commandments is completely wicked, even if he does not do sins. Rather, the intention is that he does not search for them in order to do them, but he [rather] does them by happenstance when they come to his hand.

His saying, "among those who go to the House of Study," meaning to say, in the going to the House of Study, there are four traits. Observe how he called the one that proliferates acquisition of virtues a pious man, and the one who is lazy in [their] acquisition, evil.

And one can explain that this is what [Rabbi Bartenura] said: And also he [goes to] study and does not understand. And one can [also] explain that this is what he said: And he does not review and he does not study and he does not understand.

[One who] goes but does not do: He goes to the House of Study to listen but he does not review and study and does not understand.

There are four types among those who frequent the study-house (bet:
He who attends but does not practice: he receives a reward for attendance.
He who practices but does not attend: he receives a reward for practice.
He who attends and practices: he is a pious man;
He who neither attends nor practices: he is a wicked man.
“Practice” in this mishnah does not refer to one who does not observe any of the commandments, for the mishnah would not describe such a person as receiving any reward. Rather, “practice” refers to one who applies himself diligently to his learning.
He who attends but does not practice: he receives a reward for attendance: This person goes to the bet midrash to learn, but does not apply himself there and work hard at learning Torah. What he has learned will probably not stay with him for very long. Nevertheless, he receives a reward just for making the effort to go.
He who practices but does not attend: he receives a reward for practice: This refers to a person who learns at home but does not attend the bet midrash. He receives a reward for learning Torah, but he would have received a greater reward had he gone to the bet midrash. He also would have learned a great deal more had he gone to the bet midrash.
He who attends and practices: he is a pious man: This person could have learned on his own at home, but in order to set a good example for others and to participate in the community of Torah-learners he attends the bet midrash. He is considered pious.
He who neither attends nor practices: he is a wicked man: This person’s contempt for learning Torah makes the mishnah consider him wicked.
There are other mishnaic commentators who explain that this mishnah does refer to the observance of the commandments. However, one who does not “practice” does not refer to one who doesn’t practice any of the commandments. Rather he does not make an effort to learn more about what he should do. He therefore receives no special reward for his lackadaisical observance, but neither is he considered wicked.

ONE WHO GOES AND DOES IS PIOUS. For he lowers himself and makes it look as though he needs the other people sitting in the study all—Midrash Shmuel. He also writes in the name of Ramah that anyone who veers from the middle path toward the end of good and away from evil is called “pious”, not because through this one trait he becomes pious but because this is an act of piousness, for anyone who acts in such a way lays the groundwork for piousness. So also Rambam.

[One who] does but does not go to the House of Study to know the detail of the commandments and to be stringent about them - but he [rather] does them according to his [limited] knowledge - receives reward for this doing.

And when you know the intellectual virtues and the dispositional virtues; and you know every type of them - if you want, study of wisdom and practice - and you know the mean and the ways of deeds that can be called good; and [know] the slight supplement to the mean which is from the famous actions of the pious ones; and [when you] know the supplement and the lack which are both bad -- just that one of them is more fit to [be called] evil and the other is called a transgression or an incorrect action, and the example with this is that caution is completely good without a doubt and much desire is completely bad without a doubt and the lack of feeling for enjoyment is actually not like much desire even though it is [also] bad and [so] it is called a transgression or an incorrect action, [such that] leaving caution slightly towards the side of lack of feeling is fit for the complete ones - and when you understand this matter, you will know that one who leaves caution slightly is called pious as we prefaced and that the lack of feeling is called a transgression, and that is why it stated about the nazirite (Numbers 6:11), "from that which he transgressed upon the soul," as we explained in the fourth chapter (Eight Chapters 4); and [when you understand] all of what we have prefaced and elucidated, you will know which [person] from among people is fitting to be called a boor and who is fitting to be called an ignoramus and who is fitting to be called and unformed person and who is fitting to be called a wise man and who is fitting to be called evil and who is fitting to be called a sinner. These seven names apply to seven people according to their having from the virtues and the vices and their study of the intellectual [virtues], as per what has come earlier in our commentary. And they already [added] names according to the properties of a man, as with the man who has vices in his traits - and he is called evil, as we have explained - but if he [also] has intellectual virtues that he uses for evil things, such a one is called by the sages a clever evildoer. And if he is an evildoer who hurts people - meaning to say that among his character vices are matters that hurt people, like brazenness and cruelty and [traits] similar to them - such a one is called a bad evildoer. And so [too] the one who has intellectual virtues and dispositional vices is called a wise man to do evil, as it states in the verse about someone like this (Jeremiah 4:22), "they are wise men to do evil; but to do good, they do not know" - meaning to say that they use their intellectual virtues for bad actions and not for good actions. But the man who has all of the virtues gathered in him - the intellectual [ones] and the dispositional virtues - to the point that there is no intellectual virtue and no dispositional virtue not in him, and this is rarely found and the philosophers would say that finding such a person is very unlikely but not impossible and when they find him, they would call him a Godly man. And so [too], the sages called him in our language a man of God. And I say that this man is called an angel of the Lord, as it stated (Judges 2:1), "And the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal." And the philosophers have said that it is impossible to find a man that has all of the vices gathered in him to their very end without intellectual [virtues] or ones of disposition to the point that he does not have virtue at all. And if one is found and this is improbable, they give him the name, 'an animal from the bad, dangerous animals.' And so [too] did Shlomo call him, a 'bereaved bear,' which is the gathering of stupidity and damage. And [of] these five compound names, four of them are to disparage - and they are the clever evildoer, the bad evildoer, the wise man to do evil and the bereaved bear - and one is for greatness, and there is nothing greater than it - and that is the man of God or the angel of the Lord. And Scripture has already elucidated that a man that has all of the intellectual and dispositional virtues found in him is called an angel of the Lord, and that is its stating (Malachi 2:7), "For the lips of a priest guard knowledge, and they seek Torah from his mouth; for he is an angel of the Lord of Hosts." And knowledge includes all of the intellectual virtues, as he will not be complete without them. And its stating, "they seek Torah from his mouth," is a proof of his completeness in dispositional virtues - as we have explained in the fourth chapter (Eight Chapters 4), that it is the intention of the Torah. And for [this reason], it states (Proverbs 3:17), "and all of its ways are peace." And we have already elucidated there (Eight Chapters 4) that peace is also from the dispositional virtues. And after [these indications of his completeness in the verse in Malachi], it stated, "for he is angel of the Lord of Hosts."

a pious person: As he lowers himself and acts as if he needs the ones sitting in the House of Study - Midrash Shmuel. And see Tosafot Yom Tov

[One who] does but does not go: He studies and reviews in the House of Study which is in his [own] home.