יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בֶּן פְּרַחְיָה וְנִתַּאי הָאַרְבֵּלִי קִבְּלוּ מֵהֶם. יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בֶּן פְּרַחְיָה אוֹמֵר, עֲשֵׂה לְךָ רַב, וּקְנֵה לְךָ חָבֵר, וֶהֱוֵי דָן אֶת כָּל הָאָדָם לְכַף זְכוּת:
Yehoshuah ben Prachya and Nitai Ha'arbeli received it from them. Yehoshua ben Prachya says: Make a teacher for yourself. [Rambam explains: Even if he is not fit to be your teacher, still make him your teacher, and do not learn by yourself. And I have heard: "Make a teacher for yourself" that you learn from constantly, and do not learn today from one and tomorrow from another. And even though they said (Avodah Zarah 19a): "If one learns Torah from only one master, he never sees a sign of blessing," they have already explained: That is true of svara (sharpening in dialectics after the "substance" has been acquired), it being beneficial for one to hear the svara of the many; but in gemara (acquiring the "substance" itself), one master is preferable, to avoid differences in formulations of the same (oral learnings)], and acquire a friend for yourself, [even if it is very costly for you to do so, and you must spend much to acquire his love. But it cannot be stated "Acquire a teacher for yourself," a teacher being obliged to teach gratis], and judge each man in the scales of merit. [This is so when the act is in the balance, it not being discernible from his deeds whether he is righteous or wicked and he performs a deed which permits of judging him in the scales of merit or in those of guilt; it is the way of lovingkindness to judge him in the scales of merit. But if one is confirmed in evil, it is permitted to judge him in the scales of guilt, their having stated only (Shabbath 97a): "If one suspects the innocent he is smitten in his body," implying that if he suspects the wicked he is not smitten.]
Shenei Luchot HaBerit
The way the Israelites rehabilitated themselves for shortcomings in appreciating the relative significance of spiritual food, i.e. the value of their souls, was that while they stood pressed together, they prostrated themselves before G–d and suddenly did not find themselves hemmed in any more. The tightness experienced while standing symbolized the smelly drop of semen, their putrid origin, whereas the spaciousness experienced when prostrating oneself before G–d represented the spiritual uplift experienced by their souls. As long as their concerns had been centered around physical progress the Rabbis' injunction not to be boastful, not to "make waves," was fully applicable. Hence, even while in the precincts of the Temple, they experienced the tightness of space. Only when their main concern had become a spiritual one did they no longer find space confining. It is the mark of a truly great Torah scholar that he becomes more and more humble. Our sages have already said that "whoever raises himself up, will experience that G–d will lower him" (Eruvin 13b). The reverse is also true. The author of the Mishnah simply gave us a recipe. If someone desires prominence in this world, i.e. he stands upright, עומדים, he will experience that space in this world is at a premium, צפופים; if, on the other hand, he is prepared to prostrate himself before the Lord, to assume a low profile, he will find רווחים, that there is no shortage of space. This is the way to rectify any error one had committed in the direction in which one was headed, i.e. לאן אתה הולך, meaning that no disqualification would be found in the way one utilizes both one's physical and one's spiritual "bread." This then is the moral message of "no disqualification was found in the Omer," etc. We have been exhorted by our sages (Avot 1,6) to appoint a Torah authority for ourselves, i.e. עשה לך רב, and the Talmud (Sanhedrin 19b) said that anyone who teaches the child of his neighbor Torah is equivalent to having given birth to him. This statement refers to the soul of the person, since Torah is like a soul to a body.
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