Commentaire sur Avot 1:2

THE WORLD STANDS. Rav understands this expression as “the world was only created for the purpose of.” Midrash Shmuel in his commentary to the last mishna in this chapter notes that he has found editions in which the text of our mishna has “for three things the world was created.”

Shimon the Righteous was from the remnants of the Great Assembly. And he was a high priest, as they said in Tractate Tamid 21 (Yoma 69a) that he had gone out dressed with the priestly garments in front of Alexander [the Great] and [Alexander] went down and bowed before him. His servants said to him, "Our master, A king like you should bow down to this Jew?" He said [back] to them, "I see the image of this one in war and I am victorious."

He is saying that with wisdom, and that is the Torah; and with enhancement of [good] traits, and that is acts of lovingkindness; and with the fulfillment of commandments, and that is the sacrifices [referred to in the mishnah as service] - there will be a continuous refinement of the world and ordering of its existence in the most complete way.

And [the explanation of Rabbi Bartenura] is difficult to me, since if so, [“on the Torah”] is not a warning at all; and [so] it is not similar to the others. And it appears to me that ["the Torah" here] is [referring to] reason and Torah study. And this is [the understanding] of that which is written, “if not for my covenant (which is studied) night and day.” [This is] as the matter is stated (Yehoshua 1), “and you shall reason in it night and day." And see Tosafot Yom Tov.

From the remnants: From those remaining, for after they had all died, the tradition remained in his possession. He was High Priest following Ezra.

Shimon the Righteous was one of the last of the men of the great assembly.
He used to say: the world stands upon three things: the Torah, the Temple service, and the practice of acts of piety.
The mishnah begins by noting that Shimon Hatzadik (the righteous) was one of the last men of the great assembly, which was the last link in the chain of the transmission of oral Torah mentioned in mishnah one. In other words, Shimon Hatzadik lived long before the time of the mishnah, and is not really part of the rabbinic period. He is one of the few people whose name is remembered from this period of Jewish history.
There are two interpretations of Shimon Hatzadik’s statement that the world could not stand without these three things. The first is that he means that the world literally could not exist without these things. These three things are the three legs upon which the world rests. Another interpretation is that it was for the sake of these three things that the world was created.
According to the rabbis, without Torah the world could not exist. Without people continuing to study Torah, God would destroy the world, for the study of Torah is one of the purposes of creation.
The word used to denote Temple service in the mishnah is “avodah”, literally worship. When the Temple stood, it was through the merit of the worship performed there, that God brought rain upon the earth (see Deut. 11:13-14). Without this worship, the world could not continue to exist. When the Temple was destroyed, prayer took its place.
There are two other interpretations to the word “avodah” in the mishnah. The first is the performance of mitzvoth in general. The second interpretation is literal work, plowing, harvesting etc. The idea behind this interpretation is that God gave the world to human beings so that they would tend to it and thereby become God’s partner in creation. If human beings were to cease acting as God’s partner, God would cease his role as well.
Gemilut hasadim, acts of loving kindness, are not merely acts of charity, but any act that helps another person in his time of need (visiting the sick, comforting the mourner, welcoming guests). The rabbis teach that these acts are even greater than giving charity, for a person gives charity with his money, but these acts are performed with money and by the person’s own body.
We should also note that according to Rabban Yochanan ben Zakai, after the destruction of the Temple acts of loving kindness take the place of the Temple service that can no longer be performed. Whereas in the past a person would be atoned through sacrifices, after the destruction the way to achieve atonement was by the performance of acts of piety.

ON THE TORAH. Rav: had Israel not accepted the Torah, the heavens and the earth would not have been created, as per the verse “If not for my covenant, etc.” (Jeremiah 33:25). Rav was led to this interpretation because he was bothered by the superfluousness of “the sacrificial service, and acts of kindness” in the text, for both of these are commandments, the fulfillment of which is already included in “the Torah”; he therefore understood that the Torah must refer not to the Torah itself but to its acceptance. The verse in Jeremiah is now read as “if not for my covenant which you have accepted, I would not have established the day or the night, nor even the laws of the heavens and the earth.” See the mishna in Nedarim 3:11 for a similar interpretive turn.
The difficulty with this is that the mishna is using the expression “the world stands on three things” to convey the importance of doing those things, and in Rav’s reading “the Torah” refers not to anything that one ought to do but to a historical event, and is out of place here. It seems, therefore, that “the Torah” here refers to the study and learning of Torah as opposed to the act of following its laws. The verse in Jeremiah, then, reads “if not for the study of my covenant by day and night, etc,” as per the verse “You shall study it day and night” (Hosea 1:8).
The words “had Israel not accepted the Torah” do not appear in Rashi’s commentary, which simply reads: On the Torah, as per the verse “If not for my covenant, etc.”.

He would say, "On three things the world stands": This means to say that because of these things the world was created. As below (Avot 1:18), it states, "On three the things the world subsists," and they are not those that it mentions here. Hence, we need to explain that when they said "stands," it means that the world was created for them, since they are the will of the Holy One, blessed be He. This means to say that the world was created for His creatures that in the future would fulfill His will in front of Him through these things. And these three are a great pillar, such that on account of them, we are able to get to all of the [other] things that the sages, may their memory be blessed, said that the world stands because of them.

And in the tractate Megillah 31a, it concludes, “If not for my covenant, etc... I would not have set” - that in the covenant between the pieces, the Holy One, blessed be He, promised that even if the Jews sin, the creation of the world will be preserved in the merit of the sacrifices. And see Tosafot Yom Tom.

He would say: Which is to say that he was accustomed to say. And so too every (instance) of "Rabbi x says" (or) "He would say" which is in this tractate; their meaning is "He was accustomed to saying such a thing constantly."

AND ON THE SACRIFICIAL SERVICE. Rav: the sacrificial service, as the tannaim taught in tractate Ta`anit, “if not for the shifts of priests offering sacrifices, etc.” So also Rashi. They used the term shaninu<sup>6</sup>Lit. “we have learnt,” a term used to indicate a tannaitic as opposed to amoraic text. loosely, however, for this text does not appear in a mishna or baraita, and is actually an amoraic memra in the Talmud, Ta`anit 27b: Rabbi Yaakov bar Acha said in the name of Rav Assi etc.
To be precise, the language of that memra is “if not for the shifts of priests offering sacrifices, the heavens and earth would not continue to exist”, and as such we cannot deduce therefrom that it is for the sake of these shifts that the heavens and earth were created. Granted, now that the heavens and earth have been created their continued existence is through the shifts of priests, but perhaps the shifts would not have been sufficient reason to have brought them into existence; for it is a greater feat to create something ex nihilo than to continue the existence of that which has already been created. So how does this memra show that the sacrificial service is so essential that the world was created and brought into being on account of it?
This memra also appears in Megillah 31b, and the passage there reads as follows: It was said: Rabbi Ami said, if not for the shifts of priests offering sacrifices, the heavens and the earth would not continue to exist, as per the verse “If not for my covenant, I would not have established the day or night, nor even the laws of the heavens and the earth (Jeremiah 33:25)”, and the verse “And he said, Lord, G-d, how can I know that I will inherit it? (Genesis 15:8)”. Our father Abraham said, Master of the world! Perhaps, G-d forbid, Israel will sin before you, and you will do to them as you did to the generation of the flood and the generation of the dispersion? G-d said to him, I shall not. Abraham said, “how can I know (Genesis 15:8)?” G-d said, “Take for me three calves, etc. (Genesis 15:9).”⁷The “covenant made between the pieces,” which itself was a sacrifice, is understood to represent all sacrificial service. This passage understands the “covenant” in Jeremiah as referring to the “covenant made between the pieces” in Genesis 15, and therefore the verse reads “If not for my covenant, i.e. the covenant made between the pieces…” And the end of the verse says “I would not have established,” so the sacrificial service must be sufficient reason for the establishment and creation of the world.
Should one object that this is all very well for as long as the Temple is standing, but what of when is has been destroyed? One answer is that it was the period of the Temple’s existence that G-d foresaw and which itself sufficed for him to create the world. Additionally, the passage there concludes: Abraham said, Master of the world! This is all very well for as long as the Temple is standing. What will be with them when the Temple is no longer standing? G-d said to him, I have already arranged the passages dealing with sacrificial law for them. Whenever they read these passages, I will consider it as if they had brought the sacrifices before me and I will forgive all their sins. Rashi’s commentary on Ta`anit ad loc., however, says, “This is a corrupted passage, for how do they see this?”

"On the Torah": As it stated about it (as it is stated) (Proverbs 11:27), "He who seeks what is good pursues what is pleasing." And good is only Torah, and because of it the world was created, as it is stated (Jeremiah 33:25), "Were it not for My covenant, night and day[, etc.]. And this is what Shlomo, peace be upon him, said, (Proverbs 8:22), "The Lord created me at the beginning of His course, as the first of His works of old" - I was created before the whole world and because of me, all of the creations were created - in order to observe me.

"The world stands": The world was only created for the sake of these three things.

"on the service": As the Holy One, blessed be He, chose Israel from all of the nations and the Land of Israel from all of the lands, and He chose Jerusalem from all of the Land of Israel and He chose Zion from Jerusalem, as it is stated (Psalms 132:13), "As the Lord chose Zion, He desired it for His habitation." And He chose the House of Choice from everything for the sake of the service, about which it is written, "desire" - as it states (Leviticus 1:3), "desirous in front of God." Behold that because of the service the whole world was created. Then, due to our sins, the Temple was destroyed and the service was annulled. And prayer is now for us in its place, as the sages, may their memory be blessed, said (Taanit 2a), "'And to serve him with all your hearts' (Deuteronomy 11:13) - what service is there in the heart, one should say this is prayer." And this is what it states (Psalms 51:17), "Lord, open my lips," as King David said this verse about the sin of Batsheva which was volitional, and one cannot bring a sacrifice for volitional sins. And about this he stated (Psalms 51:18), "Since You do not want me to bring sacrifices; You do not desire burnt offerings." Had I been able to bring a sacrifice to atone for myself, I would have brought [it]. Now that I cannot, 'Lord, open my lips and let my mouth say your praise,' and accept my prayer in place of a sacrifice and let it atone me for my sin. Also for us that do not have a sacrifice to atone for us - not accidental sins and not volitional sins - 'Lord, open my lips' and accept our prayers in place of the sacrifices.

"on the Torah": Had Israel not received Torah, the heavens and the earth would not have been created, as is written (Jeremiah 33:25), "Were it not for my covenant day and night, also the laws of the heavens and the earth I would not have set." (Shabbat 88a)

"and on acts of lovingkindness" As the matter that they said (Sukkah 49b), "Acts of lovingkindness are greater than charity (tsedekah); since lovingkindness is both with the poor and with the wealthy but charity is only with the poor. Great is lovingkindness since it is both with one's body and with one's money, but charity is only with one's money." And this is what they said, (Bava Batra 9a), "One who gives a small coin to a poor man is blessed in six ways and one who comforts him with words is blessed in eleven." And pertinent to acts of lovingkindness is to inspect the poor and to make a distinction between the good and the bad and to give preference to the modest and those that fear God over others who are not like them (even if we must give charity to all). And it is like Yirmiyahu, peace be upon him, stated (Jeremiah 18:23), "let them be made to stumble before You; act against them in Your hour of wrath!" - even in the time that they do charity, make them stumble that they should give it in the incorrect place. And acts of lovingkindness are even to the wealthy, to lend them money at a time when it is not found in their hand and to give them advice, as King Shlomo said, (Proverbs 27:9), "Oil and incense gladden the heart, but the sweetness of a friend is better than one’s own counsel." [This] is to say, just like oil and incense gladden the heart, so [too] does one 's friend become delighted by personal advice; and when he gives him good advice, he is gladdened by it. And this trait of kindness brings God's satisfaction in front of Him, and for it was the world created - in order to do it. And about it Shlomo said in his wisdom (Proverbs 14:34), "Righteousness exalts a nation; Sin is a reproach to any people" - and adjacent to it, "The king favors a capable servant" - the will of the Holy One, blessed be He is only for Israel, who investigate [how] to do the things that are desirable in front of Him.

"on the [Temple] service": The service of the sacrifices. For such have we taught in tractate Taanit, "Were it not for the groupings [involved in the sacrifices] the heavens and the earth would not have endured (Taanit 27b)." And we have found that on account of the sacrifices that Noah brought, the Holy One, blessed be He, swore that He would never bring a flood. So it is that the world stands upon the sacrifices.

"and on acts of lovingkindness": As it is written (Ps. 89:3), “The world is built up by your kindness." And lovingkindness is to regale grooms and to comfort mourners, to visit the sick and inter the dead, and the like.