Еврейская мысль к Авот 5:11

It is a sacred duty for a teacher who wants to succeed, to acquire two qualities. 1) He must be competent in the subject he teaches, possess pedagogical skills, and 2) he must sincerely like the pupil. Failing these preconditions, he is not likely to succeed in his task. The wisdom of someone who hates him, will not benefit a person much, nor will the love of a fool. The brilliant Achitofel who hated David is an example of point number one, whereas the love of Eve in persuading Adam to follow the advice of the serpent illustrates point number two. G'd is described as a loving father in many verses in the Bible. He is also described as teaching us. We have then in G'd the ideal teacher, since as father He has our best interests at heart, and since He is the source of all knowledge, He is the teacher, pedagogue par excellence. The question arises why He offers material rewards rather than spiritual rewards in our Parshah? Why does the Torah treat us like small children who are offered candy by their teacher to encourage them to study? David,- as per our opening Midrash,- realised that when he wanted to find a reliable teacher to guide him, to help him realise his potential, he had to turn to G'ds eydot, testimonies. When Moses had asked G'd for additional knowledge, he prayed "teach me Your ways, so that I may be able to understand You." Since the greatest success one can achieve in study is to acquire knowledge to ensure one's soul's survival in a world of abstract spirits, the reward offered by the Torah for observance of its statutes should have been just that, not the transient material values listed in our Parshah. Mankind is divided into three categories. A) There are people who do not believe in any G'd, do not believe that their very existence is due to anything but chance. B) There are people who are very religious. They believe in a variety of deities, powers, but fail to recognise G'd as the Creator and primary Cause. C) Those who believe in the true Creator. The first group will not question why no mention is made of the soul or its survival. This is because as far as they are concerned, they cannot imagine any abstract intelligence at all, or because they feel that if there were such abstract intelligences, they would be subject to totally different rules of existence from those governing human life. The second group admits that there is a survival of the soul, but they do not consider observance of Torah laws the vehicle by means of which one attains such an objective. An example is Islam which considers after life the exclusive domain of members of that religion. The third group, Jews, are of course entitled to ask why Torah does not describe the survival of the soul as the reward for observance of its statutes. We need not answer group one, since they believe in the eternity of matter, and do not believe in the existence of a living Creator. On the contrary, had Torah promised survival of the soul, they would have ridiculed such a promise. Even the most advanced of that group consider that the advantage man enjoys over other creatures lies only in the fact that some of us possess superior intelligence enabling us to unravel some of the mysteries of nature. The Kuzari discusses all this. See also our commentary in chapter fifty three. (in the original Hebrew) To sum up, that group views everything from a strictly material point of view. People of such orientation could never be persuaded by the promise of anything that could not be verified in this life. The promise of the soul's survival would not motivate them to perform mitzvot then. Just imagine what would have been the impact on a man such as Naaman the Syrian general who was healed of tzora-at by the good offices of the prophet Elisha, i.e. by bathing himself in the river Jordan. Had he been promised eternal life in return for believing in the prophet and the G'd of Israel, this would not have impressed him. Being cured of his affliction however, instantly made a convert out of him. (compare Kings II chapter 5) The Parshah "if you will walk in accordance with My laws," refers to conduct in consonance with natural law established by G'd. Freedom of choice has been given to man to enable him to live either in accordance with natural law, or to defy it. The result of exercising this freedom negatively, can be catastrophic, as described in Avot 5,11. No fewer than seven natural disasters will come upon the world in retribution for seven kinds of violations of G'ds natural order. (compare chapter 12)