May 2, 2023 · 01:48:38
Elisha ben Avuya Traumatized His People—But When He Died, the Truth Came Out This class was presented on Tuesday, Parshas Emor, 11 Iyar, 5783, May 2, 2023, at Bais Medrash Ohr Chaim in Monsey, NY. In the fourth chapter of the Ethics of the Fathers, we read the following Mishna: Elisha the son of Avuya said: One who studies Torah as a child, to what is he compared? To ink written on fresh paper. And one who studies Torah as an old man, to what is he compared? To ink inscribed on erased paper. There are a few questions on this Mishnah. First, what’s the novelty? This is self-evident. Second, I can understand encouraging parents to teach Torah to their children when they are young and their minds are fertile. But what’s the point of the final clause in the Mishnah? If I am an elderly man or woman, and I never had the opportunity to study Torah, why would the Mishnah try to discourage me and make me give up before I even begin?! Finally, there is something else amiss here. Of the more than one thousand Rabbis cited in the Talmud, only one became a heretic. His name was Elisha ben Avuya. Due to this tragedy, his ideas and teachings are never quoted in the Mishnah. Save in this Mishnah. What happened suddenly? Why did this Mishnah decide to quote him? And why was this particular idea the one chosen to be conveyed to all generations in his name? He was, by all accounts, one of the outstanding Jewish sages of the second century, a contemporary of Rabbi Akiva, and the teac