Avos chapter 4, Mishnah 12 - this is Mishnah 412, and according to some countings, 410. Now we come to Rabbi Meir, who was also one of the five final students of Rabbi Akiva. They said of him that he was the greatest of his generation in sheer talent and in the power of his reasoning, an uprooter of mountains, and as such he was recognized as the greatest among them. The body of traditions he received from Rabbi Akiva forms the backbone of the Mishnah, and hence the rule: a 'stam Mishnah' - any Mishnah that is not explicitly attributed to a particular Tanna - can be assumed to be the teaching of Rabbi Meir.
Rabbi Meir lived a rather complicated life. Besides being Rabbi Akiva's leading student, he was also a student of Elisha ben Avuyah, a famous heretic, a min in the language of the Gemara, who began as a great rabbi and Rabbi Meir's teacher and ended up going completely astray. Even so, Rabbi Meir continued to learn from him, arguing that he could take the good and discard the waste. That teacher, Elisha ben Avuyah, is known by the nickname 'Acher' (the other one), while Rabbi Meir himself is often called 'Acherim' (others) - that is, no credit at all is given to his dissenting opinion; the Mishnah simply says, "Acherim omrim" (others say).
Why the nickname 'Acherim'?
His connection with Elisha ben Avuyah.
Another account: at a certain point Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Nassan attempted to take control of the Sanhedrin, and Rabbi Meir sought to serve as Nasi in place of the young Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel II - the son of Rabban Gamliel of Yavneh and the father of Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, the compiler of the Mishnah. The attempt failed: Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel prevailed over Rabbi Meir, and in the end they removed him from the study hall, and Rabbi Meir would listen in through the windows. From that time on he became anonymous - he is called "others," and Rabbi Nassan is called "some say."
In the end Rabbi Meir went into a self-imposed exile, because of this and perhaps for other reasons as well, to Asia Minor - present-day Turkey, and ended his life in an estranged manner. He was married to Beruriah, the daughter of Rabbi Chanina ben Teradyon, the greatest of the woman scholars of the Talmudic period, who had a difficult life of her own. This is the background to the words of Rabbi Meir before us.
The words of the Mishnah and their explanation:
"Rabbi Meir omer: Hevei mema'et be'esek va'asok baTorah" - a person should reduce the amount of his work, and fill the free time with Torah study.
"Vehevei shefal ruach bifnei kol adam" - a person should be exceedingly lowly of spirit, humble in spirit and without arrogance, before every person.
"Ve'im batalta min haTorah, yesh lecha betelim harbeh kenegdecha" - if a person neglects the Torah and does not learn when he is able to, there are many idlers set against him. It is worth noting the language: 'batel' has served as an adjective, and at times even as a verb (to nullify something), and here it becomes a noun - things that leave a person idle and idle him out.
"Ve'im amalta baTorah, yesh lo sachar harbeh liten lach" - if he did indeed toil in Torah study, the Holy One, blessed is He, has great and immense reward to give him.
What is novel in "Hevei mema'et be'esek va'asok baTorah"?
At first glance there is nothing new here, for we have already learned:
In the basis of the previous Mishnah - "one who neglects the Torah out of wealth."
In the first chapter - Shammai says, "Make your Torah fixed."
In the second chapter - Hillel says, "and not everyone who engages excessively in business grows wise," meaning that if a person spends his time at work he will not be able to grow wise.
One possible answer is that this is the first time it is proposed that a person must act actively: it is not enough to set fixed times for Torah, and it is not even enough to fill every free moment with study. He must actually cut back the amount of work and replace it with Torah study. The idea is that in this way a person expresses and demonstrates his love for Torah above all else - even if he loves his work, and the work is good and wonderful, it must nevertheless be subordinate to Torah study. Reducing work hours and replacing them with hours of study shows one's love for and commitment to Torah, and that is the novelty.
"Vehevei shefal ruach bifnei kol adam":
Here too it seems that we have already heard this, for earlier in this chapter, in the fourth mishnah, it says: "Me'od me'od hevei shefal ruach" - "Be exceedingly, exceedingly humble in spirit." What does this add? Rather, since Rabbi Meir is speaking about Torah study, he is saying that a person must be humble before every person - that is, willing to learn from anyone at all. He should not think that he is greater, better or wiser than they are and therefore has nothing to learn from them; on the contrary, one can learn from everybody. This is a novel point relative to his earlier words, and with it this teaching becomes consistent with the words of Ben Zoma at the beginning of the chapter: "Eizehu chacham? Halomed mikol adam" - "Who is wise? One who learns from every person."
"Ve'im batalta min haTorah, yesh lecha beteilim harbeh kenegdach" - "And if you neglect the Torah, there are many idle things waiting to oppose you":
Two basic approaches have been offered on this mishnah:
For one who looks for excuses, there is no end to them. If a person finds a way to justify one reason not to learn, he will have an unlimited supply of further reasons, for there are so many things that need to be done in this world that he will never manage to do them all. If this is his approach, he will never get to learning at all.
There is a punitive aspect here: one who chooses not to learn Torah when he is able to results in the Holy One, blessed is He, punishing him and sending still more things to distract him from learning. The Bartenura explains in his second interpretation that the "idle ones" are wicked people and dangerous animals - terrible people and wild beasts - and through them the Holy One, blessed is He, will punish him and prevent him from learning, as a penalty for not having committed himself to Torah, along the lines of "If you abandon Me for a day, I will abandon you for two."
"Ve'im amalta baTorah, yesh lo sachar harbeh liten lach" - "And if you have toiled in Torah, He has abundant reward to give you":
Beyond the straightforward understanding, some learn that these words too follow the same line as his position about trading work time for study time. A person may feel that he is losing out because he is learning and working less, and therefore the mishnah promises that even in this world, in the physical and material sense, the Holy One, blessed is He, can repay him and compensate him for this: either his livelihood will come from another source, or his work will be done by others, or he will become more efficient, or a blessing will rest on the work he does do. It turns out that there is no loss here at all.
The other approach is that the reward spoken of here is reward in the World to Come: the Holy One, blessed is He, has abundant reward in the World to Come for those who devote themselves to Torah study here. And the novel point lies in the wording "yesh lo" - "He has" - meaning the Holy One, blessed is He, Himself. When the Holy One, blessed is He, gives reward for Torah study, unlike punishments and unlike other categories of mitzvos, He is personally involved: there is no messenger and no angel, and nothing stands between the recipient of the good and the source of the good; rather it comes directly from the Holy One, blessed is He, to the recipient.
One final point worth noting: it says "Im amalta baTorah" - "if you have toiled in Torah" - and not "if you have learned a great deal of Torah." "Amalta" means exertion and hard work, as opposed to the measure of how much was actually learned. This fits with the principle "lefum tza'ara agra" - "according to the pain is the reward" - which we will reach later on: according to the difficulty, the effort and the exertion, so is the reward. Here too, as long as a person has tried his very best, regardless of the result he achieved, according to the measure of his toil so will he merit reward from the Holy One, blessed is He, with His help, in the World to Come.