Description: Chapter 6 - 06
Pirkei Avos
Chapter 6 – 06
The second Mishnah says:
אמר ר' יהושע בן לוי בכל יום ויום בת קול יוצאת מהר חורב ומכרזת ואומרת, אוי להם לבריות מעלבונה של תורה, שכל מי שאינו עוסק בתורה נקרא נזוף שנאמר נזם זהב באף חזיר אשה יפה וסרת טעם.
Rabbi Yehoshuah ben Levi says, every single day a ‘bas kol’ goes out from Har Sinai and announces, saying, ‘Woe is to all people because of the humiliation they are causing to the Torah. Anyone who doesn’t toil in Torah is called a ‘nazuf’ – rejected, excommunicated, as it says, ‘Comparable to a golden nose ring in the nose of a pig, is a pretty woman who has no sense.’
There’s a bas kol calling out! Who hears it? Is it speaking to no one? It is said in the name of the Baal Shem Tov, that the ‘hirhurei teshuvah’ that a person gets from time to time, those little nagging thoughts that pull at our conscience and say, ‘You know, you should be learning more! You know so little, and there’s so much in Torah – where are you?’ Those come from this very same bas kol which is ringing out from Har Sinai every day and reprimanding us – woe is to all because of the embarrassment they are causing the Torah!
What is the embarrassment? The Chafetz Chaim explains, Hashem created the world, the whole universe. The sun, the stars, the constellations, the planets, the moon, and the oceans, the continents, all the millions of plants and animals, and us for one purpose – so that Klal Yisrael should accept the Torah and learn it! Hashem came down from Heaven, bi’kavodo ub’atzmo, and learnt Torah with Moshe Rabbeinu for 40 days and nights, so that we could learn and understand Torah! That was a tremendous display and demonstration for us how important, how precious, and how worthwhile learning Torah is. If we neglect the Torah, and we give up on the opportunity to take advantage of learning Torah and acquiring its wisdom, we are belittling Hashem Himself! We are making light of what Hashem gave so much importance to. That, says the Chafetz Chaim, is in itself the bas kol, it is the original kolos and brakim that accompanied the giving of the Torah, that demonstrated to us what the Torah means – and we are now ignoring them!
The Mishnah calls one who neglects to learn Torah a ‘nazuf,’ which literally means someone who is in contempt of court so to speak. If someone is so foolish, and squanders away precious opportunities, people don’t want to have to do with him. Hashem casts away the person who gives up on learning Torah, out of simple distaste for the foolishness! That’s the pasuk which is brought, that just as a beautiful piece of jewelry becomes distasteful and dirtied when it isn’t treated properly, and placed on a pigs nose, likewise, if we have the Torah, but we don’t learn it, we are devaluing and mistreating the beautiful thing that we have!
The Mishnah refers to Har Sinai in this instance as Har Choraiv, says Rav Chaim Volzhiner, because Har Choraiv refers to the fact that the gentiles and all the nations of the world destroyed [chorbon] themselves and their opportunity for growth when they gave up the Torah. We find all kinds of excuses not to learn, making our livelihood or other affairs more important and take precedence over the Torah – but that is precisely what the nations did on Har Sinai! They gave precedence to the things they were accustomed to, murdering and stealing! If we give up on learning because of other issues – we are comparable to them!
Pirkei Avos
Chapter 6 – 06
The second Mishnah says:
אמר ר' יהושע בן לוי בכל יום ויום בת קול יוצאת מהר חורב ומכרזת ואומרת, אוי להם לבריות מעלבונה של תורה, שכל מי שאינו עוסק בתורה נקרא נזוף שנאמר נזם זהב באף חזיר אשה יפה וסרת טעם.
Rabbi Yehoshuah ben Levi says, every single day a ‘bas kol’ goes out from Har Sinai and announces, saying, ‘Woe is to all people because of the humiliation they are causing to the Torah. Anyone who doesn’t toil in Torah is called a ‘nazuf’ – rejected, excommunicated, as it says, ‘Comparable to a golden nose ring in the nose of a pig, is a pretty woman who has no sense.’
There’s a bas kol calling out! Who hears it? Is it speaking to no one? It is said in the name of the Baal Shem Tov, that the ‘hirhurei teshuvah’ that a person gets from time to time, those little nagging thoughts that pull at our conscience and say, ‘You know, you should be learning more! You know so little, and there’s so much in Torah – where are you?’ Those come from this very same bas kol which is ringing out from Har Sinai every day and reprimanding us – woe is to all because of the embarrassment they are causing the Torah!
What is the embarrassment? The Chafetz Chaim explains, Hashem created the world, the whole universe. The sun, the stars, the constellations, the planets, the moon, and the oceans, the continents, all the millions of plants and animals, and us for one purpose – so that Klal Yisrael should accept the Torah and learn it! Hashem came down from Heaven, bi’kavodo ub’atzmo, and learnt Torah with Moshe Rabbeinu for 40 days and nights, so that we could learn and understand Torah! That was a tremendous display and demonstration for us how important, how precious, and how worthwhile learning Torah is. If we neglect the Torah, and we give up on the opportunity to take advantage of learning Torah and acquiring its wisdom, we are belittling Hashem Himself! We are making light of what Hashem gave so much importance to. That, says the Chafetz Chaim, is in itself the bas kol, it is the original kolos and brakim that accompanied the giving of the Torah, that demonstrated to us what the Torah means – and we are now ignoring them!
The Mishnah calls one who neglects to learn Torah a ‘nazuf,’ which literally means someone who is in contempt of court so to speak. If someone is so foolish, and squanders away precious opportunities, people don’t want to have to do with him. Hashem casts away the person who gives up on learning Torah, out of simple distaste for the foolishness! That’s the pasuk which is brought, that just as a beautiful piece of jewelry becomes distasteful and dirtied when it isn’t treated properly, and placed on a pigs nose, likewise, if we have the Torah, but we don’t learn it, we are devaluing and mistreating the beautiful thing that we have!
The Mishnah refers to Har Sinai in this instance as Har Choraiv, says Rav Chaim Volzhiner, because Har Choraiv refers to the fact that the gentiles and all the nations of the world destroyed [chorbon] themselves and their opportunity for growth when they gave up the Torah. We find all kinds of excuses not to learn, making our livelihood or other affairs more important and take precedence over the Torah – but that is precisely what the nations did on Har Sinai! They gave precedence to the things they were accustomed to, murdering and stealing! If we give up on learning because of other issues – we are comparable to them!