Pirkei Avot: Words Tested By Time

Abraham Lincoln once said: “In times like the present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and eternity.” The danger of our words taking on other meanings and causing damage with unintended consequences.

This is the message of our Mishna.

“Abtalion used to say: Sages, be careful with your words, lest you incur the penalty of exile, and be carried off to a place of evil waters, and the disciples who follow you drink and die, and thus the name of heaven becomes profaned.” (Avot 1:10)

Avtalion was an Av Beit Din at the end of the Zugot (pairs) period and, like Shemaya, was either a convert himself or the descendent of converts.

According to Rabbi Ovadia of Bartenura in his commentary here, Avtalion was not the name he was given at birth but rather a name that he earned. Av means father and Talia/Talion means a young one. Because of Avtalion’s commitment to teaching the Torah, he was considered the “father of the young.” He was the one always raising the next generation of scholars. Thus his commandment here is not just one that is directed to the sages and the wise ones, it is directed to those who are raising the next generation. 

“Sages be careful with your words”- we have seen earlier (Mishna 3) how the words of Antignos, told to the wrong students–Tzadok and Baitus–led to the splintering of the Jewish community, which caused irreparable damage. They heard his words about reward in the world to come, and they decided there was no world to come. Even when saying the right thing, someone in a position of authority must be extra careful about what will be done with those words. True, you can always clarify and answer questions about what it is that you meant when you are at the place where you are making your statements, but you may not always be there. You will not always be able to clarify your words. If this was something we needed to elaborate on decades and centuries ago, the advances of the internet and social media make it clearer than ever. Statements that are made as part of a conversation and developing a thought can be screenshotted and immortalized into iron-clad statements.

What is said to one group with a certain sensitivity and understanding can then be lifted and posted to another group that will not share the same understanding. What is said privately to one person who needs to hear one thing can be easily made public to others, and the most intimate of exchanges are just a screenshot away from potentially being presented to billions of people who will use it against a person who innocently wrote it for an audience of one. This is why sages, rabbis, and people in public positions must be extra careful about what they say. Even if something is right, true, and appropriate for one audience, the speaker must consider the possibility that they will one day not be there to explain the words that were spoken and now might be misunderstood and misused.  

“Lest you incur the penalty of exile and be carried off to a place of evil waters, and the disciples who follow you drink and die, and thus the name of heaven becomes profaned.”–these words of the Mishna are very difficult to understand. Does the Mishna mean that speaking in an uncautious way might be the cause of the rabbi’s eventual exile or does it mean that the concern of exile should be taken into account? Does the Mishna mean “students who follow you” as the source of a possible mistake? Are they the students who will remain in the place of the rabbi’s origin, or will they be students in the place the rabbi is expelled to? It also behooves us to ask why it was not enough to just say: “sages be careful with your words”. Such a statement needs no explanation. It could have been a stand-alone statement, and it would still be correct for any number of reasons. Why is there a need to give this long justification?

Many commentaries observe that water is often a metaphor for the Torah. A possible reading of this in the Mishna is that it is not talking about physical exile but rather a spiritual one. You do not know who your students will end up being. The students you have today may not be the same students you have tomorrow. Therefore, sages must be careful with the way they teach, as the students they have tomorrow might not be the same students they have today. 

Another way of understanding this is that what is true for one audience is not true for the other, and sometimes rabbis have a duty to go to a place with a more challenging audience. The original Hebrew of the Mishna says: “Shema Tachuvo Chovat Galut”, which can also mean: “lest you be obligated with the obligation of exile”. Sometimes it is a rabbi’s duty to go into exile and teach Torah in the darkest corners of the world. The Mishna teaches us that when a rabbi does go out on exile to a place where Torah is scarce and where Judaism is challenged by a lack of acceptance and Torah scholarship, they should not be tempted to destroy the words of Torah as has happened in many such similar situations.

When I think of this Mishna, I think of those who came to the United States to build Jewish life when there was very little Jewish infrastructure and few Jewish Day Schools in place. Some of the rabbis came to an America that lacked familiarity and appreciation for Judaism and watered down the meaning of Judaism, changed it, and distorted it. Some of their teachings were taken to places they never dreamed they would and, in many cases, even had their own words weaponized against Judaism for the sake of undermining it. Yet others were able to convey the message of Judaism to a wide and unfamiliar audience while maintaining the authenticity of Judaism’s practice and teachings. This is not an easy balance.