We are in Maseches Avos, chapter 3, mishnah 6 (in some editions this mishnah is numbered as mishnah 5). Rabbi Nechunya ben Hakanah says: "Kol hamekabel alav ol Torah - ma'avirin mimenu ol malchus v'ol derech eretz; v'chol haporek mimenu ol Torah - nosnin alav ol malchus v'ol derech eretz".
That is: whoever accepts upon himself the yoke of Torah, Heaven arranges that both the yoke of government and the yoke of earning a living are removed from him; and whoever casts off from himself the yoke of Torah has the yoke of government and the yoke of earning a living placed upon him.
The Approach of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai Versus That of Rabbi Yishmael:
Rabbi Nechunya ben Hakanah is expressing here the approach usually associated with Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. In the well known Gemara in Berachos (page 35) Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says that a person must devote his life exclusively to Torah study, for if he is preoccupied with earning a living, when will he find the time to learn Torah and retain it? And one who conducts himself this way, "melachtan na'aseis al yedei acherim" - his work is done for him by others. Rabbi Yishmael, on the other hand, holds that when the Torah says "v'asafta deganecha" - "and you shall gather in your grain" - this is not a curse but a blessing: it is part of the natural order, and a person is meant both to earn his living and to engage in Torah study.
The Gemara does not resolve the dispute on the level of principle, but instead offers an interesting pragmatic answer that seemingly settles the matter: many acted like Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and did not succeed - many indeed followed his instruction, and were unable to sustain that path. From here comes the deliberation of the Gemara and the poskim, the Rema and others, and the general solution that emerges from their words: for most people the correct path is that of Rabbi Yishmael, Torah together with derech eretz - supporting oneself and learning, both together. But there is room in Jewish society for exceptional individuals, like Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai or Rabbi Nechunya ben Hakanah, who cast off the yoke of derech eretz and focus on Torah alone, whose Torah is their occupation.
Who Was Rabbi Nechunya ben Hakanah:
It would not be accurate to say that Rabbi Nechunya ben Hakanah is echoing the approach of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, since he preceded him by a good 150 years. Rabbi Nechunya ben Hakanah was a contemporary of Hillel and Shammai, before the year zero of the Christian calendar, whereas Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was a student of Rabbi Akiva - long after the destruction of the Temple, in the period leading up to the Bar Kochba revolt, in the second century. Nevertheless, there are many points of similarity between them, and no less so the fact that Rabbi Nechunya is credited with authoring Sefer HaBahir, a very early mystical work of Jewish thought that preceded by several centuries the Zohar, which is attributed to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.
The Meaning of the Word "Ol" (Yoke):
Many people misunderstand the word "ol" as though it meant a burden - that whoever carries the burden of Torah will not have to carry the burden of earning a living, and vice versa. That is not what the word means. An "ol" is the bar, the piece of wood placed around the neck of the cow, or of the cows harnessed together, whose function is to ensure that the animal pulls its load properly and stays more or less on a straight path, keeping to the right course as it works in the field. The yoke has nothing to do with the burden itself - the burden rests on the shoulders, on the back or behind, and is pulled by the cows; the yoke is what directs the path along which the cow will walk.
This is the intent of the phrase "the yoke of Torah": every single person has external forces acting upon him that direct his life. It is like someone going down a ski slope - he can turn right or left, he can choose the black run that burns the thighs or the green run that is comfortable and easy, but either way he is heading down the mountain, and something is pulling him forward. A person has two choices in life: either to go with the approach of the yoke of Torah, where the Torah is what pulls him forward and is the way of life he has chosen, or the yoke of government and the yoke of earning a living.
The Three Forces That Guide the World - the Maharal's Explanation:
The Maharal explains in his work "Derech Chaim" that three guiding forces govern the world:
The law of nature: You can open a physics textbook and find it there. Nature has its rules, and a person has to eat in order to live, and that demands something in return - he has to find a way to get the food onto his plate and into his stomach, and so he is governed by the law of nature.
Free choice: A second layer above that. Human beings possess free will, and they are able, as it were, to act against the current of the law of nature. Even though the law of nature dictates entropy, that a room grows messier and messier over time, a person can use his free choice and decide, despite the natural order, to tidy his room and make it pleasant. Similarly, a person who is destined to live to 120 - a being with free choice can perhaps act upon him and shorten his life (this is a dispute among the Rishonim, a complicated and loaded subject). The rule is that a being with free choice can act in a way that changes the course of nature that would otherwise have unfolded.
Divine providence: The actions of the Holy One, blessed is He, and His governance of the world. The Holy One, blessed is He, is not subject to the laws of nature at all, and certainly human choice cannot overpower Him, for He transcends everything. When the Holy One, blessed is He, makes active decisions, He can override the laws of nature and the laws of social dynamics and free choice without any difficulty whatsoever.
On this basis the Maharal explains the words of the Mishnah: a person has two options before him. He can choose a way of life governed by Divine providence, letting Hashem run his life and relying on that completely, while disengaging from any reckoning with the laws of nature and the social dynamics of human choice and rising above them, saying, "I am leaving this for Hashem to manage" - and in such a case Hashem will indeed manage things for him. Or he can say, "I do not have the confidence to live that way, I will live within the natural order" - and then he is governed by the laws of nature and by human choice.
This is the intent of the Mishnah: "Kol hamekabel alav ol Torah" - you can choose to have your life run along a path of total dedication to Torah and its study, and to subordinate yourself to Divine providence, so that the Holy One, blessed is He, will manage your affairs for you. And then "ma'avirin mimenu ol malchus ve'ol derech eretz" - the yoke of government, which is the force of human choice and of people acting upon you, and the yoke of worldly occupation, which is the laws of nature and the natural course of events - from all of these you rise above. And on the other hand, "vechol haporek mimenu ol Torah" - plan B: if you say that the yoke of Torah and full-time study is too much and you do not want to go that route, then "nosnin alav ol malchus ve'ol derech eretz" - the yoke of government will be placed upon you, and the authorities will do with you as they please, and likewise the yoke of worldly occupation, which is the natural order.
The words of the Rambam in Hilchos Talmud Torah:
These ideas seem to echo in the words of the Rambam, as a practical halachic matter, as it were, and it is worth taking note of it. On the one hand, the Rambam writes in Hilchos Talmud Torah (chapter 3, halachah 10): "Kol hamesim al libo la'asok baTorah velo ya'aseh melachah veyisparnes min hatzedakah" - one who decides in his heart to sit and learn Torah without working, and to support himself from communal funds and charity:
"Harei zeh chilel es haShem" - he has committed the gravest of all possible offenses, a desecration of Hashem's name.
"Uvizah es haTorah" - he has treated the Torah with contempt.
"Vekibah me'or hadas" - he has extinguished the light of the faith.
"Vegaram ra'ah le'atzmo" - he has brought terrible things upon himself.
"Venatal chayav min ha'olam haba" - he has uprooted his life from the World to Come.
The Rambam goes on to give the reason: "Lefi she'asur lehanos midivrei Torah ba'olam hazeh" - it is forbidden to derive benefit from words of Torah in this world. "Amru chachamim: kol hanehneh midivrei Torah notel chayav min ha'olam" - whoever chooses to benefit in this world from his Torah takes his life from the World to Come. "Ve'od tzivu ve'amru: al ta'asem atarah lehisgadel bahem velo kardom lachpor bahem" - do not make the Torah into a crown with which to glorify yourself, nor into an axe with which to dig. "Ve'od tzivu ve'amru: ehov es hamelachah usna es harabbanus" - you should love work and despise positions of authority, meaning rabbinic status. "Vechol Torah she'ein imah melachah sofah beteilah vegoreres avon" - study that is not accompanied by work will ultimately cease and will drag a person into sin, "vesof adam zeh sheyehei melastem es haberiyos" - and in the end he will be a robber who steals from people.
This is the famous Rambam that everyone points to, with his position that comes out sharply against the person who says, "I will simply learn and not work."
The Rambam at the end of Hilchos Shemittah VeYovel:
On the other hand, that very same Rambam, in that very same Yad HaChazakah, writes at the end of Hilchos Shemittah VeYovel: every single person in the world - and it seems that even non-Jews are included in this - whose spirit moves him generously, a giving spirit that seeks nothing for itself but gives and does not take, and who does so of his own understanding, not out of social pressure and not out of any other calculation but from an inner spirit that drives him - his deepest, most sincere and most authentic intention is to separate himself from the ways of the world and to stand before Hashem, to serve Him and to labor for Him with the hard labor of a servant, in order to arrive at knowledge of Hashem. For a Jew, the essence of this service is Torah study.
Such a person walks a straight path, he makes no calculations, a wholehearted man who goes straight, just as the Holy One, blessed is He, made him. People complicate life, and he says, "That does not interest me, I do not know and I do not want to know. I want only the Holy One, blessed is He, and that is all I think about, and I think about nothing else." And in language close to that of our Mishnah: he throws off his neck the "ol hacheshbonos harabim," the yoke of the many calculations that people make - the opposite of trust in Hashem. People have to make their practical efforts, and so they think about their pension funds, their budget and how they will manage financially. He does not do this and does not trouble himself with it. Everyone else wants to understand how things will work out and is not prepared to leave it all to the Holy One, blessed is He; but he says, "I want the Holy One, blessed is He, the way a baby wants his mother, and I do not care about anything else."
Such a person becomes sanctified as the holy of holies, and Hashem will be his portion - an echo of the fact that the kohanim take no portion in the Land of Israel because Hashem is their portion. Hashem will be his portion and his inheritance forever in the World to Come, and even in this world, apart from his portion in the World to Come, he will be granted enough. The Rambam promises no more than that: you will not die. Things will work out, you will have food so that you do not die and shelter so that you do not die, and your needs will be provided in the same way that the kohanim and the Levi'im were supported by force of a series of Torah arrangements.
So the Rambam himself acknowledges the existence of a person of the type described in our Mishnah. But the Rambam rules that a person who makes a calculation and says, "I will support myself from charity, I will make a name for myself as the great rabbi and they will support me" - is behaving terribly; he must work for his livelihood, for the Torah does not stand there in order to support him, and one who uses it as a crown or as a spade to dig with is doing the very worst thing: he brings down the Holy of Holies of the Torah into this world as though it were a utensil, and from this comes desecration of Hashem's Name, the extinguishing of the light of religion, harm to himself, sin, and every terrible thing. But all of this stems from the calculation he made, to support himself from the Torah and from his own greatness.
This, however, is not our Mishnah here, and it is not the Rambam's attitude in Hilchos Shemittah V'Yovel. There he is speaking of a person who says: "I make no calculations at all, I cast off literally all the calculations of the world, I do not think about it and I do not care; it is the Holy One's concern how to support me. I want only the Holy One, and that is all." Such a person stands entirely on his own merit, and he is a Holy of Holies - and not only will Hashem give him his portion in the World to Come, but even in this world the yoke of worldly affairs will be removed from him, and in one way or another Hashem will arrange that this person has food, and he will not die.