Avos chapter 1, mishnah 10. Before us is the fourth of the five pairs - Shemayah and Avtalyon. According to the Bartenura, based on the words of Chazal, both of them were converts. This is a striking testimony to the merit-based system that prevailed among the Sages: those best suited for the position are the ones who rise to the leadership of Israel, even if they came from non-Jewish parents.
There is a difficulty with this, however: the accepted rule is that a gentile of pure descent who converts should not hold a position of authority over the public, leadership and rule over the community. For that reason some understand - and this is the approach of the Derech Emunah, the Maharal and Tosafos - that they themselves were not converts, but rather their fathers were converts, while they were already born as Jews with Jewish blood in them.
Either way, these two led the Jewish people during a genuinely dangerous period. True, the entire Hasmonean era was dangerous, but they led precisely during the Jewish civil war between Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, the sons of Queen Shlomtzion, and they stood at the head of the nation when Pompey turned Judea into a Roman client state. These were difficult days, and out of them come the pieces of advice before us.
"Ehov es hamelachah":
Shemayah's first statement: "Ehov es hamelachah" - love work. It is worth noting that the word "melachah" carries with it a connotation of creative activity. His main intent here is that work in and of itself is a good thing, even if a person does not need it for his livelihood. An idle person, who has nothing to do, nearly loses his mind; a situation in which a person cannot be a productive member of society is extremely frustrating. Therefore a person should embrace every opportunity to do and to be productive.
Moreover, work has direct benefits for a person, both for his physical well-being and for his spiritual well-being:
Physically: hard work is simply good for a person's health, as the Machzor Vitry points out. Being outdoors and physical activity are essential to his well-being.
Spiritually: work preserves a person's humility and guards him from sin. There is a non-Jewish saying that idle hands are the devil's workshop, and that is indeed the sense here: someone with nothing to do ends up in things that are not good, and the yetzer hara gets the better of him.
And all this is before we have even spoken about the basic benefit of working for a livelihood. It is very important that a person stand on his own and support himself, for there is dignity in that. There is, in our times, a stream within Judaism that minimizes the importance of work, and in certain circles even looks down on it somewhat, but that is not the view of this Tanna and it is not mainstream Jewish thinking historically.
We are all commanded to resemble the Creator, to walk in His ways. And although the Holy One is exalted above all, what we can say about Him is mainly what He is not: the Holy One is, as it were, independent - that is, He is not dependent on anyone else. He is a self-sufficient being, creating and giving, and a person must resemble Him: to make himself independent, so that he is not dependent on others. There is dignity in this, and there is in it a sense of selfhood and independence that is important to a person's basic identity.
In addition, as mentioned, "melachah" hints at creative activity. There is an extraordinary satisfaction in a job well done, in bringing something into existence that did not exist before - and thanks to you. Creating is a uniquely satisfying human experience that a person should embrace; it is part of what it means to be a human being, and it is a good thing.
"U'sna es harabbanus":
Shemayah continues: "U'sna es harabbanus" - and hate lordship. "Rabbanus" can be read in the narrow sense - the rabbinate itself, or in the broader sense - holding a position of authority. Some understand that this is simply an extension of the previous statement: even if a person is the great rabbi, and he might think, "it is beneath my dignity to work and hold a job" - that is not correct.
The Bartenura cites Rav Kahana's statement in the Gemara in Pesachim. This is what the leader of the generation said, in literal translation: "peshot nevelah b'shuka v'tol agra" - be willing to skin the carcass of an animal like a butcher, in the marketplace, in full public view, and take your wages. Butchering is not a particularly dignified trade, and it is filthy and foul smelling - and even so, a person should do it in the public marketplace and earn a living. "V'lo teima Kahana ana gavra rabba" - let a person not say: I am Kahana, I am a great man, and it is beneath my dignity to work and support myself. He is mistaken.
A person should not think that way. He should embrace hard work, support himself, and take pride in standing on his own. This is part of a person's basic dignity and part of what it means to be created in the image of God - to be independent and to create oneself. All of us labor to recreate ourselves in a spiritual way, and it begins even with the most basic thing: taking responsibility for every area of your life, not only the spiritual but the physical as well.
A second approach explains that "hate positions of authority" is a new and broader idea: a person should not seek authority and a kind of dominion over the public. There are two basic reasons for this:
Authority is not good for the one who holds it: The Bartenura quotes the Gemara in Yoma (86) that authority over the public buries the one who holds it - literally, it buries the person who has it, because it exacts a heavy price from him through the pressure. This is how the Rambam in his Commentary on the Mishnah understands the words of Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah quoted in the Haggadah: "I am like a man of seventy years" - the Gemara explains that he was not seventy at all but a young man, and only his hair had turned white. The pressure of responsibility for leading the Jewish people exacted such a heavy price from him that he turned white overnight. In our own time as well, you can see in photographs of leaders how much they aged during their years in office - a position of authority takes a toll on a person, and therefore one should avoid it.
Authority corrupts: The Rambam goes further - it corrupts the one who holds it. There is an echo here of the words of the nineteenth century historian Lord Acton: power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Once a person is in a position of authority and leadership, he is forced to be a politician, and that means compromising his morality: flattering lowly elements in order to secure his standing, and taking care of people in ways that compromise his ethics. Therefore one should avoid positions of authority, which ultimately force a person to sacrifice his own moral well being.
"V'al tisvada la'rashus":
The final part of the Mishnah: "v'al tisvada la'rashus" - do not make yourself known to the authorities, to the government. The word "rashus" is somewhat unusual; in the time of the Mishnah the accepted term for the government was "malchus," and here "rashus" means the one who holds the ruling power. We do not find Rishonim who explain why this less familiar word was chosen, but they do discuss its etymology: some say it comes from the person who has the reshus, who holds the authority and is licensed to act; others learn that it comes from the word "rosh," head. And one may speculate - and this is only speculation - that in the days of Shemayah the political situation was completely unstable: the Romans had taken control in the wake of a Jewish civil war, and they themselves were going through civil wars of their own, and since it was unclear who was in charge of what, he did not use the term "malchus" but rather "rashus."
Three approaches underlie the instruction to stay away from the authorities:
The Bartenura: Once a person becomes known to the authorities and works with them, this inevitably damages his character, since he has to ingratiate himself with them and do things he would not otherwise do or want to do. Therefore he should guard the purity of his character and the purity of his purpose and keep his distance from them.
Rashi: The problem is that politicians see nothing but their own interests, and they use a person as a tool; once they are finished using him, they will chew him up and spit him out. A Mishnah in the next chapter deals with precisely this point.
The Meiri: Based also on the laws of the Nasi, a person should remain anonymous in the eyes of the government - keep his head down and make himself unknown to them, so that they will not exploit him, will not take his money, and will not press him into service. For once they know he exists, they will find a way to make the best use of him - which is not to his benefit at all.
And one final comment in closing: in the modern State of Israel we have a Jewish state run by Jews, and that seems to be a good thing. Accordingly, the way this Mishnah applies in a democratic State of Israel requires fresh consideration.