Pirkei Avot 3.15

I've been a little lazy about getting these up. I will be posting the next several over the next few days.

Rabbi Elazar the Moda'ite used to say: One who desecrates sacred things, who disgraces the festivals, who humiliates his fellow in public, who nullifies the covenant of our forefather Abraham, or who perverts the meaning of the Tora contrary to Halacha - though he may have Torah and good deeds, he has no share in the World to Come.

The question that immediately confronts us is how can someone who has Torah and good deeds not have a place in the World to Come (Olam HaBa)? Surely, these are the key elements to right living: to know G-d through the Torah and to put that knowledge to use through good deeds (ma'asim tovim). Shall one who has lived rightly not receive his reward?

In its historical context, it is clear that R' Elazar's list is an injunction against the beliefs of sects of Jews that did not accept certain key elements of Jewish law. It is not hard to see that R' Elazar is likely attacking the early Christian decision not to require circumcision of Gentiles. Prior to the wholesale departure of the Christian church from the Jews, the turmoil created by the decision of Paul, Peter and the other early Christians to relax this rule is similar to our own turmoil over patrilineal descent.

However, we need to not understand this mishna solely through its historical lens, for it speaks to us today. R' Elazar's list of infractions all involve public demonstrations of community participation. We can understand this list as an example of MiPhrat L'Clal, the hermeneutic principle that a list of specific laws followed by a general summary is to be understood as exmplary of the general law and not complete. In this understanding, we understand that these and any infraction of Jewish communal law is sufficient to render Torah and good deeds insufficient for a place in the World to Come.

Jewish life and relationships stand on three legs. Our relationship with G-d, our relationship with the children of Israel (Jews) and our relationship as Jews with the greater non-Jewish world. To the extent that we are bound to each of these, to that extent are we assured of a place in Olam HaBa. Torah is what binds us to G-d; it is how we hear G-d's voice and what gives expression to us as a religious people. Good deeds are what binds us to the greater world; they are what makes us a "light unto the nations." Our communal practices - holidays, circumcision, tolerance to name but a few - are what binds us as Jews to each other. Without this third, we surely sacrifice part of the world. We diminish what we, as Jews, can be and that in turns diminishes the World that we are commanded to build.

(Presented to CAI on April 21, 2006)