Avos chapter 4, mishnah 17 (in some editions it is still part of mishnah 13). Here we meet Rabbi Shimon - this is Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the famous Tanna, one of the five great students of Rabbi Akiva.
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai:
Rabbi Shimon was a young student already in the days of Yavneh, that is, before the decrees of Hadrian and the Bar Kochba revolt, and afterwards he continued his studies with Rabbi Akiva. He is one of the five students who received semichah from Rabbi Yehudah ben Bava, together with Rabbi Yehudah and others.
After he spoke out against the Romans he was forced to go into hiding and live in a cave, where he remained for thirteen years - during which he became the holy and lofty man the Gemara describes. He came from the north, from the Galil. The Mechilta (Mechilta of Rabbi Shimon) and the Sifrei are attributed to him: as we said in the previous mishnah, Rabbi Yehudah is the author of the Sifra, the halachic midrash on Vayikra, while the Mechilta on Shemos and the Sifrei on Bamidbar and Devarim were written primarily by Rabbi Shimon.
Rabbi Shimon is also described as the author of the Zohar, the foundational work of Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism, which was first published only in the thirteenth century, but which according to tradition originates with Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. As Jewish mystical thought became more popular and more central over the past few centuries, so too Rabbi Shimon became a more familiar and revered figure, to the point that Lag BaOmer in Israel is virtually his hilula - a celebration of his memory, his teachings and his students. He became a larger than life figure.
The wording of the mishnah:
"Sheloshah kesarim hen: keser Torah, keser kehunah u'keser malchus, v'keser shem tov oleh al gabeihen" - there are three crowns: the crown of Torah, the crown of priesthood and the crown of kingship, and the crown of a good name rises above them all.
A question arises immediately: seemingly the mishnah mentions four crowns, yet Rabbi Shimon opens by saying that there are only three. How can this be resolved?
The three crowns and their sources:
The basic understanding, as the Bartenura and others learn, is that there are only three crowns in the Torah - three segments of Jewish society that the Torah obligates a Jew to honor, and each one of them is based on a verse:
The crown of Torah - the verse in Vayikra, "v'hadarta pnei zakein" - one must show honor to the elder, and a 'zakein' is one who has acquired wisdom. This is the sage, the talmid chacham.
The crown of priesthood - the verse "v'kidashto... kadosh yihyeh lach" - and you shall sanctify him... he shall be holy to you, which refers to Aharon the Kohen, the first Kohen Gadol. This is the view of the priesthood as a source of holiness and awe.
The crown of kingship - the verse in Devarim dealing with appointing a king over Israel: "som tasim alecha melech" - you shall surely set a king over yourself. The king is placed above us, and therefore he is deserving of our honor and is required to earn it.
These three categories - the sages, the priesthood and the kingship - are the people whom it is fitting and obligatory to honor.
It is worth recalling here the famous words of the Rambam in Hilchos Talmud Torah: the crown of kingship was given to David and his descendants, and the crown of priesthood was given to Aharon and his descendants, and these are beyond the reach of anyone who is not part of the appropriate dynasty. But the crown of Torah lies ready and waiting - whoever wishes may come and take it. It fits him precisely, it is his inheritance, and it is enough for him to go and take it in order to acquire it.
Three sources of authority:
The Bartenura learns that the Torah obligates us to honor these three segments of society. The other side of the coin - and this is a suggestion of my own, which I have not seen stated explicitly, though it seems straightforward - is that these three categories are the three areas from which authority in Jewish society flows:
The talmid chacham: he has been given the authority to legislate and to rule on questions and the like.
The kohen: he is responsible for certain matters, such as ruling on negaim, and he is also the only one permitted to serve in the Beis HaMikdash. There is no afternoon tamid offering without a kohen, and from here we see that the kohanim are important intermediaries and figures of authority.
The king: he is authorized in matters of the moment and matters of state, and that is of course authority in every sense.
These, in my view, are two sides of the same coin: authority in Jewish society flows from the talmidei chachamim, from the kohanim and from the king, and precisely because they are a source of authority, the Torah obligates us to give them the honor they deserve.
And the crown of a good name surpasses them all:
The point of the Mishnah, as the Bartenura and many others learn, is that even if a person is a scholar, or a kohen by birth, or a king - if he does not have a good name, he is not worthy of the title. It is not enough for a person to bear the title in name, happening to be the king or the kohen or the great scholar; he must have an unblemished reputation in order to be worthy of the honor that his station in life entitles him to. There is an additional layer here, a higher crown, that must rest upon him - the verification that he has a good name, confirming that he is indeed deserving of the honor he is meant to receive.
The three crowns in every person's life:
There is another way to look at this: in every person the three foundations of serving Hashem exist in some form - Torah, avodah and gemilus chasadim:
Torah - this is the crown of Torah in its plain sense.
Avodah - everyone is on some level his own kohen: his table is an altar, and he prays Shemoneh Esrei in the morning corresponding to the morning tamid.
Gemilus chasadim - the king's role is to make sure that the needs of the people are met, and that is the essence of chesed: doing kindness with others and seeing to their needs.
It is therefore incumbent upon a person to fulfill these three things, and this is how he should look at his life.
The three crowns on the vessels of the Mikdash:
There is a midrash in Shemos Rabbah, which we will take up in the sixth chapter, according to which a crown rests upon three of the vessels of the Mikdash - a zer, a crown or diadem, whatever you wish to call it, upon the rim of three vessels:
The Shulchan - upon which the lechem hapanim rests, and which is connected to kingship even in its dimensions, in the number of tefachim it measures (I will not go into the details now). In any case, it works out according to the measures of kingship.
The golden Mizbe'ach, the inner altar - which parallels and corresponds to the measures of the kehunah.
The Aron - the resting place of the Luchos and the Sefer Torah of Moshe Rabbeinu. It too has a zer of its own, and it parallels the forty-eight ways through which Torah is acquired, the character traits of the talmid chacham.
To sum up: it is indeed important that a person occupy himself with Torah, with avodah and with acts of kindness - but it is no less important that he do so in a way that earns him a good name, in a way that people respect and appreciate, so that they understand that these things are being done properly and in the right manner. If a person lives his life as a talmid chacham, or as one who is expert in prayer and service, or as one who devotes himself to kindness, but does so in a way that does not earn him a good name - then he is not truly worthy of the title, and something very important is missing. He must acquire the crown of a good name, which rises above all the foundations of his life.