We come now to the third mishnah in the first chapter of Maseches Avos. It is a fascinating mishnah, and one could even argue that it is the most important mishnah in Pirkei Avos. Its author is Antignos of Socho, and already in his name and his place a great deal of information about the era in which these words were said lies hidden.
Antignos of Socho - the name and the place:
"Antignos" - this is the first Greek personal name to appear in the words of Chazal. We cannot pin down the date precisely, but we are somewhere in the late third century BCE, with the spread of Hellenism. His parents thought this was a fine name to give their Jewish son. Antigone, the feminine version of the name, is familiar from Sophocles' play in the fifth century BCE - the daughter of Oedipus; and Antigonos, the masculine version, was perhaps named after the most famous bearer of the name after the collapse of Alexander the Great's empire. Its heirs divided into three: the Seleucids, who took the northern portion (Syria), the Ptolemies, who took the southern portion (Egypt), and the Antigonids - the third, central portion, Macedonia and Greece.
"of Socho" - today Socho is generally identified as being right next to Beit Shemesh, on Route 375, not far from the small communities in the area. Anyone who has visited 'Lupine Hill' on a spring afternoon, that hill covered with large blue flowers - that is Tel Socho. From this one can appreciate the size of the towns mentioned in the Mishnah: this hill is truly tiny, about the size of a neighborhood park.
Antignos was a man of Socho, meaning the leader of that city and the greatest of his generation. "Kibel mi'Shimon haTzaddik" - he received the tradition from him. As we mentioned regarding the first mishnah, the term "kibel" (received) hints that the capacity to receive is limited by the powers of the recipient, and this is the basis of the decline of the generations: Antignos received, but not necessarily all of the tradition that Shimon haTzaddik had to give. He was limited by what he was able to absorb, similar to what was said above regarding Moshe Rabbeinu.
"Al tihyu ka'avadim ha'meshamshin es ha'rav al menas lekabel pras":
Here too the mishnah opens with the phrase "hu hayah omer" (he used to say), as in the previous mishnah. The words themselves require precision, since the term "pras" carries a meaning that is easy to miss:
"Sachar" - the basic payment that a worker is entitled to demand by right in return for his work, the wage itself.
"Pras" - a kind of bonus, something given over and above what is coming to him by right. It is a recognition of the worker's efforts, of his sincerity, and of the fact that he finds favor in his employer's eyes.
The point, then, is sharp: one should not serve the Holy One, blessed is He, even for "a little kiss on the cheek." Not only should one not ask for the reward of the World to Come in this world, but one should not even say, "Since I am doing such good work, at least let my business succeed or let my children turn out well." That too one should not do.
The Rambam brings, based on Chazal, that Antignos had two students named Tzadok and Baisus, who understood from his words that there is no reward at all in the World to Come. As a result they broke away from the Jewish tradition and founded the schools known as the Tzedukim (from Tzadok) and the Baisusim. They did not believe in Divine providence in this world, nor in the eternity of the soul, nor in reward and punishment in the World to Come, and therefore they championed an outlook of maximum enjoyment of this world - "eat and drink, for tomorrow we die" - in the manner of the Greek philosopher Epicurus, from whom the term apikoros is derived.
This is certainly not what Antignos meant. His intent is that the motive behind serving Hashem should not be the receiving of reward - not that there is no reward, but that this is not the proper motive. Even so, the Rambam emphasizes in that very same place that this is a dangerous message.
It is also an extremely important message, since it addresses the fundamental motivation behind a person's service of Hashem, which is the work of his entire life, and therefore it requires explanation. Because of its importance, the Rambam discusses it in three places: in the introduction to Perek Chelek in Sanhedrin, in lengthy notes here in his commentary on the Mishnah, and above all in the tenth and final chapter of Hilchos Teshuvah - the chapter that concludes Sefer HaMada, the first of the fourteen books of the Yad HaChazakah. We will bring his words here in full and explain them as we read.
Halachah 1 - one who serves out of fear:
"A person should not say: I will perform the mitzvos of the Torah and engage in its wisdom in order to receive all the blessings written in it, or in order to merit life in the World to Come; and I will keep away from the sins that the Torah warned against in order to be saved from the curses written in the Torah, or so that I will not be cut off from the World to Come" - a person should not say that he keeps mitzvos and learns Torah in order to gain the blessings of the Torah or life in the World to Come, nor that he avoids the prohibitions in order to escape the curses or so as not to forfeit eternal life. The Rambam of course understands that the ultimate punishment is not a state of suffering in Gehinnom, but non-existence.
"It is not fitting to serve Hashem in this way, for one who serves in this way serves out of fear, and this is neither the level of the prophets nor the level of the sages" - one who serves in order to receive reward in this world or in the World to Come, or in order to avoid punishment, is serving out of fear and dread. This is not the ideal level, the level reached by the prophets and by some of the sages.
"And none serve Hashem in this way except the ignorant, and women, and children, who are trained to serve out of fear until their understanding grows and they serve out of love" - those who serve this way are the ones who stand at the beginning of their spiritual journey: the ignorant, simple people who have not yet been refined and developed; women, who in the Rambam's day certainly did not receive the education they receive today; and children. They too are trained at first to serve only out of fear, that is, through a system of reward and punishment, until their understanding matures and they are able to serve out of love.
It also seems that the Rambam is describing a continuum here, not a choice between all love and all fear. Our Mishnah itself, as we will see at its conclusion, teaches that fear is not to be forgotten alongside love. It is simply that the starting point is complete fear, because that is human nature, and as we will see in a moment, even the very best do not necessarily arrive at a pure motive of love alone.
Why is serving in order to receive reward called "serving out of fear"? Because at its root stands the fear of missing out. And this is the essential point on which both the Mishnah and the Rambam stand: a person can serve Hashem with his eye on what is good for him, to obtain the good and avoid the bad, and that is fear; and over against it stands the higher level, love, in which he serves because of Hashem, because Hashem is the point and not the person himself.
The Mishnah does not forbid serving out of fear, and the Rambam established that this is where everyone begins, but it is plainly problematic. The sharpest formulation of why I ever heard was from my rosh yeshivah, Rav Noach Weinberg: if a person serves Hashem in order to receive reward or to avoid punishment, he is nothing more than a hired gun - he is not working for Hashem, he is working for himself. In his words: "If the Satan paid better, you would work for him." Service of Hashem whose entire content is avoiding punishment or collecting reward is not about Hashem at all; it is about the person and his own benefit. It is a necessary starting position, since at the beginning of the road a person cannot help but be focused on himself, but it is not the proper path.
Halachah 2 - One who serves out of love:
"One who serves out of love engages in Torah and mitzvos and walks in the paths of wisdom, not because of anything in the world, not out of fear of evil, and not in order to inherit the good, but rather he does the truth because it is true, and in the end the good comes because of it" - one who serves out of love engages in Torah and mitzvos not for the sake of anything external, not out of fear of the bad and not in order to receive the good, but rather he does what is right and true because it is right and true, and that is what matters. Although it is not his motive, he is aware that in the end the good will follow. "And this level is a very great level, and not every sage merits it" - even the sage, who in the Rambam's view represents the peak of human achievement, does not necessarily merit to reach it.
So the Rambam has set up two poles: on the one hand, only children and the ignorant begin from below, from fear, and on the other hand, even the great sage does not necessarily arrive at love. Everyone is somewhere on that same continuum.
"And this was the level of Avraham our father, whom the Holy One, blessed be He, called 'My beloved,' because he served only out of love" - this was Avraham's level; he was called "My beloved" because he served Hashem out of love alone. "And this is the level that the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded through Moshe" - this is the level we are commanded to reach in the first paragraph of Shema: "V'ahavta es Hashem Elokecha" - you shall love Hashem your God. "And when a person loves Hashem with the proper love, he immediately performs all the mitzvos out of love" - from the moment a person undergoes an inner shift and his motive is the proper love of Hashem, doing what is right because it is right and because it is Hashem's will and not because of the benefit in it, it follows necessarily that all of his mitzvos are done from that same place of love.
Why is doing the right thing because it is right called "love"? This is the flip side of the coin we saw in the previous halachah. In fear, a person is checking what he gets out of it; in love, he acts for the sake of another, and it has nothing to do with him at all. Every parent knows the experience of a sick child at three in the morning, holding his hand while the child throws up. Why is he taking care of his son? There is nothing in it for him, no reward and no prize, and nobody is going to hand him a Parent of the Year certificate. The motive is simple: it is the right thing to do, and he cares about the other. Because he loves his child he is motivated to care for him, regardless of any good or bad that will come to him from it. He loses a night's sleep, it is thoroughly unpleasant, and he does it out of concern for another and not for himself.
That is the idea: the Holy One, blessed be He, is the "other" in the equation. A person says to himself: "The Holy One, blessed be He, is the truth, He is reality; what He says is what is right and real, and therefore I want to be part of that." He is not concerned with himself at all - that would be fear - but is motivated exclusively by the other. That is pure love.
Halachah 3 - "And what is the proper form of love?":
"Shey'ohav es Hashem ahavah gedolah yeseirah azzah me'od, ad shetehei nafsho keshurah be'ahavas Hashem venimtza shogeh bah tamid, ke'ilu choleh choli ha'ahavah" - the Rambam, famous for his sparing, economical use of words, piles description upon description here: a love that is great, abundant, powerful, exceedingly so. And he himself, who in many places in Hilchos De'os and elsewhere teaches that one must not go to extremes and that everything must be balanced along the middle path, rules that the love of Hashem must be extreme and excessive - to the point that a person's whole soul is bound up in that love, immersed in it and held by it constantly, like someone who is lovesick.
"She'ein da'ato penuyah me'ahavas osah ishah, vehu shogeh bah tamid, bein beshivto bein bekumo, bein besha'ah shehu ochel veshoseh" - to appreciate this, it is enough to observe a couple on the eve of their wedding: their every thought is given over to the other - what is he doing, what does she want right now, let me send her a message. The mind of the lovesick person is never free of that woman, whether he is sitting or standing, eating or drinking. "Yeser mizeh tihyeh ahavas Hashem belev ohavav" - this, and even more than this, is how a person's love for his Creator is supposed to be, held by it constantly, as we are commanded in the continuation of the first paragraph of Shema: "with all your heart and with all your soul." And as King Solomon said by way of metaphor: "I am lovesick," and all of Shir HaShirim is nothing but a parable for this idea.
This, then, is the level being spoken of: complete immersion in the love of Hashem. And as was said in the previous halachah, once a person reaches this level even slightly, all of his mitzvos come by way of it, since this is what drives him. And back once more to the point of our Mishnah: the motivation for serving Hashem must be love, without any self-interest at all.
Halachah 4 - "Perhaps you will say":
"Shema tomar: elmad Torah kedei she'is'asher, kedei she'ekarei rabbi, kedei she'akabel sachar ba'olam haba" - perhaps a person will say that he will learn Torah in order to become wealthy and land a good job, in order that people will honor him and call him rabbi, or in order to earn reward in the World to Come. Regarding all of these, the verse comes to teach us that one must love Hashem, and that all of a person's actions must be driven by his love of Hashem alone, and not by self-love or concern for himself. It emerges that serving out of fear is a necessary evil at the beginning of the journey, but one whose motivation is not love is essentially in a state of failure, and therefore he must move forward from there.
The Rambam further says, based on the language of Tehillim, that a person should greatly desire His mitzvos - that he should do so for the sake of the love of the mitzvos themselves and the service of Hashem, and not for the sake of the reward. And this is what the great Sages instructed the understanding and enlightened among their students "privately": specifically to them, and perhaps even only in secret. For, as mentioned, the Rambam understands from Chazal that this is the very message that Antigonos transmitted to his students and that caused them to stray from the path and abandon Judaism. Even though the message is true, it must not be proclaimed before those who are not ready to hear it, but only before those who are understanding and enlightened.
And what did they say to their finest students? "Al tihyu ka'avadim hameshamshin es harav al menas lekabel peras, ela mipnei shehu harav hara'ui leshamsho" - a direct quotation of our Mishnah: not out of a motivation to receive reward, but because he is the master worthy of being served. "Kelomar ivduhu me'ahavah" - this is how the Rambam renders the words of the Mishnah: serve Him out of love, as defined above.
Halachah 5 - What Torah study lishmah really is:
This halachah is especially important, since it touches on the concept of "lishmah," which many people misunderstand. "Kol ha'osek baTorah kedei lekabel sachar o kedei shelo sagia alav pur'anus, harei zeh osek shelo lishmah" - one who learns in order to receive reward or in order to avoid punishment is certainly not learning lishmah. "Vechol ha'osek bah lo lir'ah velo lekabel sachar, ela mipnei ahavas adon kol ha'aretz shetzivah bah, harei zeh osek bah lishmah" - one who learns not out of fear of loss and not for the sake of reward, but out of his love for Hashem who commanded that it be studied, this is Torah study lishmah.
The intent, then, is not to learn Torah simply because it exists and for no other reason at all - that is a mistaken understanding. The intent is to learn Torah out of love for the Holy One, blessed is He, who said: "This is what I want from you, to understand Me and to connect to Me through the Torah." If you take the Holy One, blessed is He, out of the equation, this is merely Torah for the sake of Torah, and that is not "lishmah." "Lishmah" means learning because of the reality of the Holy One, blessed is He, because of His command and His will, and because of a person's desire to do His will.
"Le'olam ya'asok adam baTorah afilu shelo lishmah, shemitoch shelo lishmah ba lishmah" - here the circle closes. "Le'olam" means that this is always the case: even though acting shelo lishmah is not correct in itself, as explained in the previous halachah, this is how everyone begins, for such is human nature. Out of the habit acquired through the external motivations of reward and punishment, a person eventually comes to appreciate the finer point - the desire to connect to Hashem for its own sake, with no calculation of benefit - it simply takes time.
Therefore, when we teach people at the beginning of their spiritual development - children, women and simple people - we do not open with the love of Hashem and with doing what is right because it is right. Instead we present them with the benefit: that they should learn and merit good and be saved from evil, and that they will receive reward. Only when their understanding matures and they grow wise do we reveal the secret to them little by little, accustoming them to the matter gently, until they grasp the idea, internalize it, and are finally able to apply it and serve out of love. (And although these matters are in the category of a secret, the Rambam himself published them in his work, and we are merely conveying his words.)
Halachah 6 - Knowledge gives birth to love:
It is a known and clear matter that the love of Hashem does not become bound up in a person's heart unless he dwells upon it constantly and abandons everything in the world other than it. This is the only path, and as we have been commanded, this must be the sole desire of his heart and soul - to cling to Him and to abandon all that is not relevant to this. And a person only reaches the love of Hashem out of a desire to know Him, and the measure of his love corresponds to the measure of his understanding: if he knows a little, he will love Him a little; and if much, much. Therefore a person must devote himself to understanding and gaining insight into the wisdoms and forms of comprehension that make his Creator known to him, each person according to his ability to understand and grasp, as the Rambam explained at the beginning of the work. We see that the Rambam draws a complete circle here.
"Ela hevu ka'avadim hamshamshin es harav shelo al menas lekabel pras" - Rather be like servants who serve the master not in order to receive a reward:
This is the Rambam's lengthy explanation of the matter, and with this we will suffice for now. Let us return to the Mishnah itself: after it stated in the negative what one should not do, it goes back and states in the positive what one should do - "Ela hevu ka'avadim hamshamshin es harav shelo al menas lekabel pras." This appears to be a repetition; why does the Mishnah repeat itself?
The "Derech Chaim" of the Maharal, cited in the Tosafos Yom Tov, understands that the repetition comes to teach that Antignos is not forbidding service out of fear or for the sake of receiving reward. He does not say that at all. Rather, this is not the place where a person ought to find himself, and it is not the ideal. It is a process, and therefore a person must strive to distance himself from that and to move toward the other side, as the Rambam detailed.
On this topic the commentators bring a famous Gemara in Maseches Pesachim (daf 8) and likewise in Kiddushin: one who has a sick son and says, "I am hereby giving charity so that my son will live," is a completely righteous person (and there is a version that reads: it is completely valid charity). That is, a person who fulfills the mitzvah of charity for the sake of the reward, so that his son will recover, is called completely righteous, and there is no flaw in this at all. "Righteous" means that there is nothing bad here. And this is the idea: a person begins at the beginning, and so it will be; but ultimately he must aspire to be one who does the right thing because it is right, and not for the sake of any reward.
The parable of the drowning child:
The rosh yeshivah, Rabbi Noach Weinberg, explained the second half of the Mishnah in a fascinating way. A man walks past a pool wearing his suit and sees a child drowning. He immediately jumps in to save him; his shoes get soaked, his tie is ruined, and he pulls the child out of the water and is delighted that the child is safe. He returns him to his mother and says, "Here is your child, I saved him from drowning." The mother replies, "You saved my child, I am so grateful, what can I do for you?" and holds out a ten shekel coin to him. His natural reaction will be revulsion and a refusal to accept it, because the coin cheapens the whole matter: he saved the child because that was the right thing to do, because the child needed saving, and not for any compensation. True, the suit was ruined, but so what - he did the right thing because it was right.
However, had the mother offered him ten million shekels, he would have said, "Really, there is no need, but thank you very much," and taken the sum. Now he is ten million richer and he also saved a child. And if the next day he passes that same pool and sees that same child drowning, he will save him again and receive another ten million, and he will be quite pleased with the arrangement. Until the third or fourth time, when the child falls into the water, the first thought that enters his mind will not be, "The poor child is in danger, what must I do?" but rather, "Another ten million shekels is coming my way." In other words, even though the motive ought to be doing the right thing because it is right - like saving a child, like serving Hashem - from the moment a person knows there is a reward and begins to think about it, the reward is liable to become the motive. And then he cheapens the act in a terrible way: once again he is a hired mercenary, saving the child for the money and not for the sake of the rescue, and all his service becomes stained and flawed.
According to Rabbi Noach Weinberg, this is the addition of the second half of the Mishnah: not only must one serve for the right reasons, but even though a person knows full well that there is a World to Come and that it is wondrous - and as the Mishnah says elsewhere, better one hour of contentment in the World to Come than all the life of this world - he is permitted to be aware of it, but if he occupies his mind with it, over time it will distract him and lead him to act for the wrong reason. Therefore, let him not fall into this trap.
"Vihi mora Shamayim aleichem" - And let the fear of Heaven be upon you:
The final clause of the Mishnah adds: "vihi mora Shamayim aleichem" - and let the fear of Heaven be upon you. Although the word love does not appear explicitly in the first half of the Mishnah, that is how the Rambam understands it. And here the danger inherent in serving out of love comes to light: a person may come to feel overly close, and as is well known, familiarity breeds contempt. He becomes so comfortable with the Holy One, blessed is He, that he thinks, "We are friends, He understands me," and he grows a little lax about things that ought not be done. As the Bartenura puts it: love is what moves a person to fulfill the positive commandments properly, and fear is what moves him to keep away from the negative commandments.
The words of the Mishnah echo what is found in the Shema itself, and likewise in the writings of the Rambam and the Ramchal: love of Hashem and fear of Hashem are two sides of one coin, and they always go hand in hand. The first paragraph of the Shema speaks of love - those are the verses the Rambam cited; while the second paragraph, "Vehayah im shamoa" - and it will be if you listen, teaches that if you listen good things will come, and if you do not listen bad things will come - that is a foundation of fear. Even though the motivation should be love, and that is the ideal, a person must not lose sight of the fact that Hashem is Hashem and that actions have consequences, and he must balance his love with fear, so that he can serve Hashem as He deserves to be served.
In summary: In this Mishnah we learned the teaching of Antignos of Socho, the first of the Sages to bear a Greek name, about the proper motivation for serving Hashem. We examined the difference between "reward" and "a prize," the danger contained in this message as it played out with Tzadok and Baitos, and the Rambam's extensive discussion in the tenth chapter of Hilchos Teshuvah: service out of fear as a necessary starting point for the unlearned, for women and for children; service out of love as the level of Avraham Avinu - "one who does what is true because it is true"; the proper love being like the love of one who is lovesick; and the true meaning of learning Torah lishmah - out of love for the One who commanded the mitzvos. Finally we saw the second half of the Mishnah, and its conclusion with "vihi mora Shamayim aleichem" - that love and fear are bound up with one another.