פרקי אבות -קבלה ומסירה

(1) Moses received Torah from Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua, Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the prophets, and the prophets to the Men of the Great Assembly. They said three things: Be patient in [the administration of] justice, raise many disciples and make a fence round the Torah.

[...] the Holy One blessed be He did not give him the entire Torah, for he was not prepared to receive it in its entirety [...] Therefore, it says "Moses received": the matter is relative to the one who receives - to make us understand that he received it in proportion to the preparation and ability to receive that he had. And in the same way, it is not said that Moses received the Torah, with the article 'the', for the meaning of "the Torah" with the article is that he would have received the Torah in its entirety. But this was not so, as we have said. That's why he said "Moses received Torah", meaning that what he received was part of it but not all of it. And with this is [also] resolved another point, and it's interesting to be picky about the fact that we're talking about the one who receives [only]: why isn't it said that Moses received Torah from the Holy One blessed be He? The statement refers only to Mount Sinai. But this is nothing other than a respectful way of expressing oneself towards Heaven, for since he did not receive the Torah in its entirety, as we have said, it is not appropriate for it to be said of Him, blessed be He, that He gave something incomplete from His hand. That's why we're talking about Mount Sinai, where the Lord was [...]

And he passed it on to Joshua. We need to understand, because we find that he passed it on to all Israel, as we taught in a baraita: how did Moses arrange the Mishna? He entered the tent etc. And it must be said that it's true that he passed it on to all Israel - but the hidden things of the Torah and its secrets, Moses didn't explain them in front of many people, as we taught: "[you don't teach] merkava in front of two people" but it was to Joshua that he passed on all the hidden things of the Torah and its secrets. It was at the end of his days, when Moses asked the Holy One blessed be He for a man to be [head] over the community. For Moses was in doubt as to how the Torah would be transmitted: to his sons? To his brother's sons, the priests? Or to the elders? And the answer he was given was: take Joshua bin Nun, a man in whom the spirit dwells. And he also says "And Joshua to the Elders", that is, everything Moses passed on to him, he passed on to the Elders when he was close to his death, as it is written "Joshua called all the Elders of Israel etc." And he didn't need to ask the Name, blessed be He, to whom he would transmit it, for he had seen that the Torah was given to whoever had the spirit of God in him, when the answer for Moses came: take a man in whom the divine spirit resides.
And we must understand why Joshua did not pass it on to an individual, i.e. Pinḥas or Ôthniel ben Qanaz¹, as Moses had been commanded by the mouth of the Name, blessed be He, to pass it on to an individual. But Joshua, then, transmitted it to several [individuals]. I could always tell you that Joshua, too, did nothing but pass it on to one individual, just as Moses his master had done. And this is what is said with "the Elders", that is, Joshua transmitted it to an Elder and this Elder to another Elder as we must interpret it from "the Elders to the Prophets", for it was not all the Prophets together who received it from the Elders but just as a prophet transmitted to a prophet, in the same way with "the Elders": it is an Elder to an Elder. Joshua transmitted to a single Elder.

But another answer could be made: Joshua was forced to transmit the Torah to many, unlike Moses, because Moses was in the desert and all Israel was in one place. The Holy One wanted to explain the Torah to only one, the most excellent and willing. But when Israel returned to the land [of Canaan], they all settled in their cities, each according to his share, his patrimony, his town. And if he had transmitted the Torah to an individual, he would have created jealousy among the tribes. That's why he passed it on to the elders, who were from all the tribes, six from each tribe, as is clearly stated when Moses chose the tribes (?).

Another reason is so that Israel would not need to go to the one and same Elder for every case, but that there would be in every place someone who would study that case and someone who would teach them every case. And Joshua found support for his words in what is said: you shall give yourself judges and officers in all your gates. And that's why he passed it on to the Elders, who were many. End of quote [Midrash Shmuel reported the words of R. Abuha].

1: Ôthniel ben Qanaz was the first Judge after Joshua's death. See Judges 3, 9-11.

Antigonus a man of Socho received [the oral tradition] from Shimon the Righteous [ha-tsadiq]. He used to say: do not be like servants who serve the master in the expectation of receiving a reward, but be like servants who serve the master without the expectation of receiving a reward, and let the fear of Heaven be upon you.

"Antigonus of Sokho". I have already explained that all the tannaim in this treatise explained the three words of Shimôn ha-tsadiq. And for all of them, we have the word "qabala", because from the time of the members of the Great Assembly, there were no more prophets and men of spirit in Israel to whom to transmit the Torah. But it was taught to many (or: in public) and the most talented students among them were called "meqabelim". Of all Shimôn ha-tsadiq's students, Antigonos was the most talented, becoming the generation's nassi and the most excellent member of the Sanhedrin.

Antigonos of Sokho received it from Shimôn ha-tsadiq. The transmission of the Oral Torah passed from Shimôn ha-tsadiq (recalled in the previous mishna [Avot 1, 2]) to Antigonos. What this Sage says is made up of three units that focus on the relationship between the human being, God and the commandments. The first two suggest an identical idea, first negatively and then positively. The third unit gives an argument for this idea.

Yose ben Yoezer of Zeredah and Yose ben Yoḥanan of Jerusalem received [the oral tradition] from them [i.e. Shimon the Righteous and Antigonus]. Yose ben Yoezer used to say: let thy house be a house of meeting for the Sages and sit in the very dust of their feet, and drink in their words with thirst.

The great ḥassid, R. Yosef Yaavets [1440 - 1508] of blessed memory wrote about "drink their words with thirst" and here are his words: I found it written: do not say 'these people, I have already heard them many times and esteemed them but I do not need to work their words, but to receive them and believe in them.' But, rather, [this is how it should be understood]: 'drink their words thirstily', as if you had never heard their words in your days and work them. End of quote. He's right.

[R. Yosef Ibn Shushan (?)] wrote three more things about the words of the tanna R. T.: ḤaShaQ ["desire" which is an acronym for] ḥesheq, shefelut, qeviût. Qeviût [constancy]: "let your house etc.". Shefelut [humility]: "cover yourself with dust etc." Ḥashaq [desire]: "drink etc." End of quote.

It's also possible that he's saying "Let your house be a gathering place for the Sages" - both for the Sages living in the city and for the Sages passing through your country. All their feet will find rest in your house. And as for the Sages who come from a distant country, the ashes and dust of the road cover their feet when they are guests, he says: lead them to your home and cover yourself with the dust of their feet. And if sometimes these same Sages who come to your house say words of Torah that are not a ḥiddush for you, for you already knew it, in spite of this do not show them that it is not a ḥiddush for you, for, in so doing, you would make them lose face. But do as if it were a ḥiddush for you, as if you had never heard this word and as if you drank thirstily of their words, as who would thirst for them and never hear them.

(5) Yose ben Yochanan of Jerusalem used to say: Let your house be wide open, and let the poor be members of your dwelling. [...]

And let the poor be members of your dwelling. If he comes to ask you for what he needs, let him ask without shame, as if he were a member of your dwelling. We must also say: if you have wheat bread and barley bread, let the members of your dwelling eat the barley and the poor the wheat.

Let your house be wide open. Unlike Yose ben Yoêzer's command (in the previous mishna) to open the house to the Sages in particular, Yose ben Yoḥanan suggests that one should open one's house wide, for every guest, for anyone who needs a place to eat, sleep or socialize. But, since opening the home unreservedly and to anyone in need can cause the householder and his family members moral or social problems, Yose ben Yoḥanan continues with two commands about worthy guests [to be received] and about proper behavior toward them.

Let the poor [âniyim] be members of your dwelling. Although your house is open to all, approach you in particular, as if they were members of your family, truly members of your house, only those who are humble [ânavim] (this is the version of many manuscripts of this treatise [see below]), modest and who ask little for themselves [...]

"Let the poor [âniyim] be members of your dwelling" says the mishna. Some interpret it as [a mishna] that looks after the needy, people who have no possessions, who need support and help. But it's interesting to note that several manuscripts of tractate Avot speak here more specifically of humble people [ânavim], i.e. people who are remarkably modest - they're the ones to attract to one's home. It turns out that this is also a possible interpretation of the word "âniyim". See, for example, the verse in Proverbs: "To take a modest attitude with the âniyim is better than to share booty with the proud" (Proverbs 16:19). But the keri (the way we read the word [âniyim]) is "ânavim" ["humble"] (and it's in this spirit that we've interpreted things). However, the wording of what Yose ben Yoêzer says is interesting as the Avot tractate of Rabbi Naḥman gives it to us: "let the poor [âniyim] be members of your house - and teach humility [ânava] to the members of your house", in such a way that the mishna would require the members of the house to be educated in humility - and it therefore doesn't speak at all about a such-and-such quality of the guests who enter it. Contrary to this, Rambam believes that "let the poor be members of your dwelling" is an instruction to confer on the poor and needy the possibility of finding a way to make a living through slavery in the house: "The Sages commanded that the members of such and such a house should be poor, orphans, rather than slaves.... For he who multiplies slaves every day that passes, adds transgression and harm to the world. But if the poor are members of his household, with each passing hour he adds merit and commandments." (Hilkhot matanot âniyim 10, 17). In any case, according to all the commentators, Yose ben Yoḥanan wants to ensure that those present in the house are truly worthy, because of their character, personality or because of their economic situation that requires [them] to be helped.

Let us remove him from his position as Nasi.