Chasidut sobre Pirkei Avot 4:5

רַבִּי יִשְׁמָעֵאל בְּנוֹ אוֹמֵר, הַלּוֹמֵד תּוֹרָה עַל מְנָת לְלַמֵּד, מַסְפִּיקִין בְּיָדוֹ לִלְמֹד וּלְלַמֵּד. וְהַלּוֹמֵד עַל מְנָת לַעֲשׂוֹת, מַסְפִּיקִין בְּיָדוֹ לִלְמֹד וּלְלַמֵּד לִשְׁמֹר וְלַעֲשׂוֹת. רַבִּי צָדוֹק אוֹמֵר, אַל תַּעֲשֵׂם עֲטָרָה לְהִתְגַּדֵּל בָּהֶם, וְלֹא קַרְדֹּם לַחְפֹּר בָּהֶם. וְכָךְ הָיָה הִלֵּל אוֹמֵר, וּדְאִשְׁתַּמֵּשׁ בְּתָגָא, חָלָף. הָא לָמַדְתָּ, כָּל הַנֶּהֱנֶה מִדִּבְרֵי תוֹרָה, נוֹטֵל חַיָּיו מִן הָעוֹלָם:

R. Yishmael, su hijo, dice: Si uno aprende para enseñar, se le da a aprender y enseñar. [Esta es la versión correcta. Su significado: si uno aprende a involucrarse constantemente en la Torá, sin pensar en involucrarse en la misericordia con los demás, como Rava (Rosh Hashaná 18a) que se ocupó de la Torá pero no con la misericordia, aunque también debería hacer lo último, aún así, se le da a aprender y enseñar, según su intención], y si uno aprende para hacerlo, [queriendo estudiar la Torá pero también participar en la misericordia, como Abbaye, quien se involucró en la Torá y en la misericordia, ] se le da [para cumplir su intención y] para aprender y enseñar, para mantener y hacer. [Hay algunos que explican "Si uno aprende para enseñar", para ser llamado "Rabino", y que leen "no se le da a aprender y enseñar", pero en la mayoría de los libros lo he encontrado como en la primera versión, que es la correcta.] No les hagas (palabras de la Torá) una corona para engrandecerse. [No digas: aprenderé para ser llamado "Rabino" y sentarme a la cabeza, pero aprender del amor y el honor está por venir], (y no los hagas) una pala con la que cavar. [No aprendas la Torá para poder vivir de ella. Para quien lo hace, profana la santidad de la Torá y es susceptible de muerte a manos del Cielo, como lo es quien obtiene ganancias (personales) de la propiedad sagrada. Y los maestros de los niños en edad escolar solo pagan por mirarlos solos, que no dañen las cosas, y por enseñarles cantilaciones, algo que un maestro no está obligado a hacer. Pero está prohibido pagar por enseñar la Torá, como está escrito (Deuteronomio 4:14): "Y el Señor me ordenó en ese momento enseñarles estatutos y juicios" (Ibid. 5): "como el Señor mi Di-s me ordenó "—Así como yo, gratis, tú también, gratis. Y a un juez también se le prohíbe pagar una tarifa por fallo, pero solo una "tarifa de ausencia", para que sea manifiesto que la tarifa representa lo que pierde al ausentarse de su trabajo para escuchar las súplicas de los litigantes (siempre que él toma una cantidad igual de ambos. Si toma más de uno que del otro, sus decisiones son anuladas.) En cuanto a la Torá que permite que un erudito de la Torá se beneficie de las palabras de la Torá, esto se aplica a vender sus obras en el mercado antes otros lo hacen y también a su exención de todos los impuestos (personales), imposiciones e impuestos a la propiedad. La congregación debe pagar incluso el impuesto principal por él. E incluso si es rico y tiene mucho dinero, puede reclamar exención por ley. Y si un erudito de la Torá está enfermo y lleno de aflicción y la congregación le ofrece grandes regalos en honor a su Torá, es una mitzvá que los tome. Y esto no está en la categoría de sacar provecho de las palabras de la Torá, ya que es imposible para él mantenerse de otra manera. Y, de la misma manera, un erudito de la Torá que fue designado parnas (líder de la comunidad) o rosh haseder por la congregación, y que se ocupa de las necesidades de la congregación, puede recibir un salario de ellos, incluso lo que es muy superior a lo que él necesita un medio de vida, para que sea grande, temido e impresionante para ellos, como dijimos con el sumo sacerdote de quien está escrito (Levítico 21:10): "quién es más grande que sus hermanos", que los sabios exponen: "Hazlo grande de sus hermanos". Su hermano Cohanim lo hará rico con lo que es de ellos. En cuanto a los primeros sabios, que se abstuvieron de esto, esto estaba fuera de su chasiduth pero no es el estruendo.] Y esto es lo que Hillel solía decir: "Uno que 'usa' la corona (de la Torá) fallece"— por el cual se nos enseña que aquel que explota las palabras de la Torá "le quita la vida" al mundo.

Sha'ar HaEmunah VeYesod HaChasidut

I thank God with all my heart,³This opening is based on the verse in Tehillim (111:1). In the counsel⁴“Sod,” in Hebrew, means both counsel and mystery. “In the counsel of those who remain,” “b’sod hanisharim” in Hebrew, is a play on the words of Psalm 111, “b’sod yesharim,” “in the mystery of the upright of heart.” This leads us to the simple principle that the unknown becomes known through proper counsel, which is the aim of this treatise. It is also an allusion to the four major works penned by this author, collectively called Sod Yesharim, as mentioned in the introduction. As is often the case regarding the titles of Hasidic works, the numerical equivalent of the phrase, “sod yesharim,” is “Gershon Henokh.” (=630) It may be that this equation is the least significant of the mysteries contained in the pages of this book. of those who remain⁵“Those who remain and those who love,” refers to members of each generation who yearn for Divine truth. It is as though, at this point in the opening of the work, the author is inviting the souls of the great Torah masters of the past; for he is entering into a battle of the spirit, and not going alone. His polemic is not only armed and positioned with a regiment of prophetic spirits, but with the prophets themselves and the One who speaks to them. All God fearing men who enter into a dialogue with the soul and the “penimiyut,” or internal aspect of the Torah are a part of the counsel, and all who revere the message and morals of prophets and kabbalists and are worthy of the mystery. and those who love, ⁶cf. Megilla 6b, “אוהבי שרידים יושבי רקת”. According to Rashi, “lovers of Israel.” Those who thirst for God’s word, Those love His Torah with truth and wholeness. They do not learn the Torah as a woodsman sharpens his axe, in order to earn a living.⁷See Pirkei Avot, 4:5, Nedarim 62a, where the Sages speak sharply against those who use the Torah in order to gain honor or riches. Nor do they adorn themselves in it like a fur coat.⁸כאדרת שער, cf. Bereshit 25:25, “And the first came out all red, like a hairy garment.” Esav, the hunter, the man of the field, would put on the act of righteous to win his father, Yitzhak’s favor. Those who, “adorn themselves in the Torah as one wears a fancy coat,” were religious men whose saintliness was more an expression of self-aggrandizment than inner dedication. The author was known as a bold fighter, and not afraid to compare many of the self-styled scholars and holy men of his generation to Eisav. Yet they bend their ears to hear the words of the sages. Their hearts yearn to know the truth.

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Sha'ar HaEmunah VeYesod HaChasidut

And now, for the sake of our brothers and friends, who tremble at the word of God, seeking the Torah and loving its wisdom, I will now say, “Peace unto the lovers of God’s Torah!” Come, House of Yaakov, and you will walk in the light of God,⁴⁸¹Yeshayahu, 2:5. may God be with us as He was with our forefathers, He shall not forsake us and He shall not forget us.⁴⁸²Melachim 1, 8:57 He shall forever lead us by peaceful waters, our rest shall be in our very progression from strength to strength, to ascend the ladder fixed in the ground which rises to Heaven! As for our revilers, who ask why we bother to invest so much contemplation into the Torah until our strength is exhausted? Who claim that the simple explanations of the written and oral Torah is enough. To them, I will offer noble words⁴⁸³See Mishlei, 8:6. which draw the heart of man. Come and consider, see and behold! Taste and see that God is good⁴⁸⁴Tehillim, 34:9 to those who yearn for their souls to be restored by His perfect Torah.⁴⁸⁵See Tehillim, 19:8. Those who contemplate it in the depths of their hearts will see and understand that those who taste its depths will merit life. These are the things that man will do and through them he shall live for eternity. Do you not see now that the house of Yaakov is faithful and the house of Yosef is your provider?⁴⁸⁶Bereshit, 42:6. From the time the house was established, he has been faithful to sustain Israel with every word that comes out of the mouth of God upon which man lives.⁴⁸⁷“…he would make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but rather by all that comes forth from the mouth of G-d” (Devarim, 8:3). Interpreted in hasidic terms, this means that it is not physical sustenance that gives life, but the Divine essence within the food that enlivens. So, too, the author rails against those who neglect or deny the deeper meaning of the Torah, which is like being concerned only with the body and not the soul. On a more personal level, he seems to be attacking those who deny the validity of the unique (and controversial) interpretative approach of his grandfather, R. Mordechai Yosef of Izhbitz, and of his father, R. Yaakov. Those who reject it have “no portion in Yaakov and no inheritance in the house of Yosef.” This shall cast away those who say that they have no portion in Yaakov and no inheritance in the house of Yosef. Their ways are crooked⁴⁸⁸Mishlei, 2:15 and they pervert the explanations of the Torah, hanging their misunderstandings like a lyre, preaching all of their logic which has no basis in God’s Torah, not in the words of the Tanaaim and Amoraim of the oral law, and all that they imagine they hang on a great tree⁴⁸⁹That is, claim that they can based their false interpretation on valid, earlier sources. Here, too, the author may be critiquing those who claim that Maimonides was a rationalist, who did not deal with the secrets of the Torah. The author proved that claim wrong in the first half of this work. asserting, “This is the meaning of the Torah.” For these, the House of Yaakov will be a fire and the House of Yosef like a flame!⁴⁹⁰Ovadia, 1:18. They will see and learn. They will see how to reveal the Torah of God from the plain meaning of the words, for are not His words like fire,⁴⁹¹Yirmiyahu, 23:29. and all who desire its light with truth and faith can come and warm themselves? And likewise, as a flame it will burn all those who learn Torah in order to vex the scholars of the mysteries, and who wear it as a crown and wield it as an axe.⁴⁹²See the Talmud, Pirke Avot, 4:5 And now, House of Yaakov, walk in the light of God and come home. See and understand that all the words of the Torah written in this book are needed for every man of Israel, in every place and every time. And how all of the events recorded in the Torah can illuminate every soul and instruct him how to sustain his life and all that he goes through with justice.⁴⁹³Tehillim 112:5. For the words of the Torah are living and enduring for all eternity. All who contemplate the Torah grasp onto the tree of life, and it is life for those who hold onto it.⁴⁹⁴Mishlei, 3:18. May God illuminate our eyes to His Torah, and place His love and fear in our hearts, in order to do His will, and to serve Him with a whole heart.⁴⁹⁵From the liturgy of the morning prayer, in the blessing before the reading of the Shema Yisrael.

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