Rabbi Yosi ben Kisma and the Out of Town Rabbi

[This week's Haveil Havalim is here]

The story from the sixth chapter of Pirkei Avot is familiar: Rabbi Yosi ben Kisma, a sage from the 2nd century CE, is travelling. A man greets him, and he returns the greeting. The man asks where he's from; R' Yosi ben Kisma replies that he is from a place of great scholars. The man offers him a great deal of money to come live in his town, and R' Yosi ben Kisma replies that no matter how much wealth he would receive, he would not live anywhere but in a "place of Torah," for wealth is only of value in this world, but Torah remains with us.

The classic question: Does this mean that rabbis should not go live in small towns? What of outreach, and bringing Torah to those who are not fortunate enough to live in a place of many teachers? Was I wrong for going to live in Allentown all those years? Who should teach in schools in some communities, and who should lead their shuls?

I've heard this discussed a great deal over the years, and it seems to me that there are three basic approaches to explain this mishnah:

1. R' Yosi ben Kisma only meant to promote Torah over money
Rabbi Yosi ben Kisma does not actually decline to live in his interlocutor's community; he only preaches on the value of Torah over money, a lesson which is consistent with the themes of Pirkei Avot. "I may well go with you," Rabbi Yosi ben Kisma says, "But not on the basis of the money you offer. I will go only if it is a place of Torah."
This then resolves the conflict of the small-town Rabbi - he may go to a place which is focussed on being/becoming a place of Torah.

2. This case was unique
In this school of thought, R' Yosi ben Kisma indeed declined, but it was not because he rejected outreach. Rather, it was because he discerned some impropriety in the man's request for him to come live there. Perhaps it was that the man only wanted him to live there, but did not ask him to teach Torah. Or perhaps it was that the man thought money could buy Torah. And so R' Yosi ben Kisma decided that in this particular case, it would be inappropriate to move to the town to engage in outreach. Rabbis who are recruited on proper grounds, by good people, certainly should go to small towns.

3. R' Yosi ben Kisma was arguing against [solo] Outreach
Either because he did not believe in the value of Outreach in general (an argument I first heard this Shabbos, and one that requires some thought), or because he was concerned about his own deterioration if left on his own, R' Yosi ben Kisma felt that the price he would pay in going to this man's town to teach Torah was not justifiable. Similarly, rabbis should not go to smaller communities if they will lack colleagues with equal Torah training.

This last approach is particularly important to me. Certainly, you can learn a lot of Torah on your own, and you grow a great deal from teaching Torah. Further, today we have the blessing of email communication, which makes long-distance interaction easier. Nonetheless, living in a place where you lack peers who challenge you and force you to your limits is dangerous, because it does stunt your growth on several levels, including:
• Your own learning is not pushed;
• Your creativity in Torah is not stimulated; and
• Your focus and time allocation are framed by local needs [chesed, shiurim, psak, officiating, counseling, administration] without the input of the world of scholarship.

To me, this means that rabbis in smaller Jewish communities need to find a way to import peers, or to test and sharpen and emphasize their learning with colleagues from afar. There must be a challenge that regularly takes them out of their normal environs, giving them a new goal to pursue and a new horizon to attract their vision. With this stimulation, the Rabbi will benefit, and so will the community.

Reward and Punishment and Pirkei Avot

I teach a weekly class on Jewish Ethics, and for the past few months we've been looking at the ethical ideals taught in Pirkei Avot, tracing them to their roots in Tanach and then discussing their applications.

This week we're starting to look at how we use Divine reward and punishment as an incentive for our own ethical behavior, or that of our children. In preparing it, I was surprised to realize just how much of Pirkei Avot is devoted to discussing reward and punishment.

Here are the passages which deal directly with Reward and Punishment, whether via Divine intervention or natural consequence (numbering from the Bar Ilan CD version):

Reassurance of general reward
2:2 - Gd will reward you as if you had done everything
2:14 - Gd is credible to reward you
2:15 - Gd is pressing you to act, and there is great reward coming
2:16 - If you will achieve a lot, you will receive great reward, and Gd is credible to reward you
3:5 - If you will accept the yoke of torah, other yokes will be removed from you
3:15 - Your reward is based on your deeds
3:16 - The parable of Gd as proprietor of a business
4:9 - One who fulfills Torah from a position of poverty will fulfill it from a position of wealth
4:10 - Gd has great reward to give you if you work hard at Torah
4:11 - One who performs a mitzvah creates an agent for himself
4:14 - We do not understand why the righteous suffer
4:16 - Prepare in this world for the next (the Hallway parable)
4:17 - Contrasts the satisfaction of the next world with the satisfaction of this world
5:1 - Reward for the righteous who build this world
5:2 - Avraham received great reward for repairing the deeds of the previous generations
5:19 - The students of Avraham benefit in this world and the next
5:23 - Reward is commensurate with investment

Reassurance of general punishment
1:6 - Do not abandon the belief in ultimate punishment
4:9 - One who fails to fulfill Torah from a position of wealth will fail to fulfill it from a position of poverty
4:11 - One who transgresses creates an agent against himself
4:14 - We do not understand why the wicked prosper
4:22 - There is no escape from punishment in the grave
5:1 - Punishment for wicked people who destroy this world
5:19 - The students of Bilam suffer in this world and the next

Statements that specific good deeds will be rewarded
2:7 - When you acquire Torah you acquire life in the next world
3:2 - Gd even rewards a person who sits and studies alone
3:13 - Tithes are a way to protect one's wealth
4:6 - One who honors Torah will be honored by others
5:14 - Reward for study, and for travelling to study
5:20 - One who is modest will earn Gan Eden

Statements that specific bad deeds will be punished
2:6 - You drowned others, and so you will be drowned
3:8 - One who willfully forgets his learning is liable for his life
3:11 - One who "reveals aspects of Torah" against halachah has no share in the next world
4:4 - Punishment for private desecration of Gd's Name
5:8-9 - Specific punishments for specific sins
5:18 - There is no forgiveness for one who causes others to sin
5:20 - One who is brazen will end up in Gehennom

We should use reward as an incentive for mitzvot
2:1 - Work at all mitzvot, because you don’t know the reward of mitzvot
2:1 - Calculate the reward and loss involved in each mitzvah
2:4 - Nullify your will for Gd's, so that Gd will nullify His will for yours

We should use punishment-aversion as an incentive for Torah-observance
2:1 - Remember that Gd records your deeds, and you won’t sin
2:1 - Calculate the reward and loss involved in each transgression
3:1 - You won’t sin if you remember that you will have to give an accounting before Gd

Do not pursue reward here for mitzvot
1:3 - Do not be as servants who serve their master on the condition that they will receive reward, but rather be as servants who serve their master without the condition that they will receive reward
1:13 - One who uses the crown of Torah for his own gain will pass on
2:12 - All of your deeds should be for the sake of heaven
4:5 - One who benefits from Torah is liable for his life

Notes:
1. I did not include passages on certain tendencies or transgressions "removing a person from this world," because I am not sure that this refers to punishment or suffering. I know you could similarly quibble with some of the passages I did include here, but I trust the trends are clear.

2. I did not include the sixth chapter, because, as is known, it isn't.

Why does Pirkei Avot, an ethical work, expend so much energy on our expectation of reward?

To be continued, perhaps, with my answers to that question... [Part II is now up here.]