פירוש על אבות 4:3

He would say: Do not disparage anyone, and do not shun any thing: That you should not disparage any person, and even a lowly one. And do not exaggerate your words, to say that it is far [removed] that damage will come to me from this talk.

And he said it is impossible that there not be for every man a time in which he can damage or benefit, and even with a small thing.

"Do not disparage anyone": by saying, "What can x do to harm me."

Introduction Mishnah three contains another teaching of Ben Azzai.

For you have no man who does not have his hour: Who is [then] able to damage or benefit - if little, if much.

"and do not shun any thing": [One should] make distance from anything that one should be concerned about. [And] do not say, "It will stay far and there is no reason to worry about it."

He used to say: do not despise any man, and do not discriminate against anything, for there is no man that has not his hour, and there is no thing that has not its place. The central idea in the first part of Ben Azzai’s statement is that every person has worth, just by the mere fact that humans were created in the image of God. Indeed, whereas Rabbi Akiva says that the foundation of all ethics is “love your neighbor as yourself” according to Ben Azzai the foundation of ethics is that man was created in God’s image. Since all humans are created in the image of God, a person should despise no man, for doing so would be like despising God. Furthermore, even someone who seems to be worthless and a total detriment to society has his hour and his place. One never knows when that hour or place might come. The second part of the statement teaches that one should one discriminate against things, thinking that they are useless. This line could be read as an environmental message. A person should not look at a piece of nature, for instance a fly or mosquito and wish that it had never been created. For each piece of God’s creation has it’s place and what may look to us as unnecessary actually fulfills a function in nature. A different interpretation of this last section, “do not discriminate against anything… and there is no thing that has not its place”, is that a person should not treat lightly any of his material belongings. What you may think is actually useless could be used by someone else or may even someday be useful to you. This too can be read environmentally, urging people to not lightly cast away things that have outgrown their use but to think about how they might be further used in the future.

and you have no thing that does not have its place: And [so] you have to be careful about it.

Questions for Further Thought:
What is the difference between Rabbi Akiva’s emphasis on “love your neighbor as yourself” and Ben Azzai’s emphasis on “in the image of God man was created”?