Maharal on Avot—Pereq 3, Mishnah 13

IN FOLLOWING UP LAST WEEK'S CALL FOR INPUT, I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO THROW OUT SOME IDEAS FOR COURSES I WOULD DO NEXT YEAR-- 1) THE BOOK OF PROVERBS (taking up some of the verses in that book, and the ways various scholars understood the message they were trying to convey), 2) THE GUIDE OF THE PERPLEXED (part I, an exercise in Biblical terminology-- explaining how words in Tanakh that seem to ascribe physical experiences to God should be understood), 3) PEREK HELEK (The tenth chapter of Sanhedrin, which deals with the required beliefs to earn the World to Come; we would open up with Rambam's famous introduction to that chapter). PLEASE RESPOND WITH YOUR CHOICE OF COURSES, AS WELL AS AN ASSESSMENT OF HOW THE COURSE HAS WORKED FOR YOU (how often you have had a chance to read the material, your assessment of where the material was most and least successful, etc.), I APPRECIATE YOUR INPUT.

MA`ASEROT SEYAG LA`OSHER

R. Aqiva says that tithing one's wealth protects it. By ma`aserot we generally mean not only the agricultural tithes mandated by the Torah, but also the customary monetary tithe many Jews donate from their yearly income. (Some authorities actually believed that the monetary tithe is also mandated by the Torah, some think that it is Rabbinic, but the general view is that is a longstanding custom). Maharal at some point in his discussion raises the issue of why R. Aqiva points specifically to tithes, not to charity generally. The answer, fundamentally, is that he believes the number ten connects a person to God more than other numbers, so that charity focused on the number ten has a greater connection to haQadosh Barukh Hu. He provides three main reasons as to why the number has these special qualities. I am going into these reasons at some length because I find them interesting-- they are an attempt to invest numbers with metaphysical meaning, relying on their essential nature. Maharal is claiming that ten as a number has a physical significance, such that giving a tenth of one's income is different than charity generally. It is that claim that I find worth following carefully:

1.. Maharal notes that after the number nine, there are no new numbers. The number ten, therefore incorporates all the numbers in it (meaning, it is the number after which all numbers are repeating what has come before). He says, therefore, that the number ten and 1000 are really the same in important ways. Basically, he is saying that in a base 10 number system, the number ten is numerically central. As such, it represents God and a connection to God.

2.. Maharal twice notes the idea that areas have 9 parts to them. The first way he does it is to point out that a given area has a beginning, middle, and end. Since areas have two dimensions, however, we can split the beginning, middle, and end, either lengthwise or widthwise. That creates a nine boxes in the area-- the box that is at the beginning both in terms of length and width, the one that is at the beginning in length, but the middle in width, and so on. (The way to visualize it is to put two lines lengthwise in a box, making a beginning, middle, and end in terms of length, and then two lines widthwise, for the same reason. You get nine boxes). The ten, Maharal says, is the element that brings the entire area together (or, it stands outside the area and unifies it-- he says it various ways, but the essential point is that the area has nine parts, and the tenth unifies it).

Maharal actually says this again later, slightly differently. He points out that if you start in the center and spread out in four directions, there would be a beginning, middle, and end in each direction, meaning twelve boxes (the beg., middle, and end to the East, to the West, to the North and to the South). However, a circle is 3/4 of a square, so that the circle would only have nine. The tenth would be the center point, the one that brings it together.

3.. The third example of ten is really more about the special properties of the number nine. Quoting Ibn Ezra (who was highly interested in mathematical issues), Maharal notes that if we make two columns, with the number 9 at the top, straddling both, and the numbers from 8-5 on one side and from 1-4 on the other, (like this:

9,

1.. 1

1.. 2

1.. 3

5 4,

we get a circle with some interesting properties-- 9x9 is 81, which is the first line in the figure. 9x8=72, the second line in the figure. If we continue (turning around at 5, so 9x5=45, which is the bottom line read from right to left), we get the entire 9 times table. So if 9 makes a perfect circle, ten is the number that bands them together.

In all of these reasons, the number ten comes after the number 9, which completes some kind of complete unit. The ten, therefore, goes beyond (or above, or outside) that unit, bringing it all together in some way. That connects the number ten to God for Maharal, explaining why giving one in ten to charity particularly elicits wealth from God (and why the Hebrew words for a tenth-- `aser-- and to become wealthy-- to have osher or tit`asher-- are similar).

WHAT THE TENS TELL US ABOUT GOD

Although Maharal's focus was clearly the explanation of the role of ten, he incidentally reveals his picture of God's interaction with the world. To the extent that ten parallels the relationship of God to the world, it would seem that the world is a complete unit on its own. Outside of that unit (or at its center, but not as part of its general makeup), stands HaQadosh Barukh Hu, unifying those elements in some way. This is a view that combines the image of God as other with the image of God as intimately involved, both of which are necessary for a full portrayal of the Jewish view of God.

THE NEED FOR SUPERNATURAL PROTECTION FROM SIN

The next clause in the Mishnah says that nedarim, voluntary oaths one takes that convert something permissible into something prohibited, guard one's perishut, one's status as one who abstains from sin. Keeping in line with his statement at the beginning of the Mishnah that all of these modes of protection are meant to maintain one's acquisition of qualities that are otherwise unnatural, Maharal asserts that goodness (or at least good deeds) is actually an unnatural acquisition, since people have the evil inclination from birth, as a natural part of their persona. Good deeds, on the other hand, are acquired, and therefore need protection.

Even before going on, compare Maharal's assumption about the evil inclination with current notions of people's basic goodness. While modern thinkers claim that people are fundamentally good, with exceptions largely to be blamed on the environment, Maharal is assuming that our drives towards evil are much more natural than our drive to restrain ourselves. The urge to steal, to lust after various prohibited pleasures, and so on, are more innate than the urge to live a moral, spiritual life. Our growth in spirituality, therefore, is an example of the triumph of our higher elements ruling over our baser, more natural ones. To aid in that process, we need the (similarly unnatural) mechanism of oaths.

SILENCE IS NOT ONLY GOLDEN, IT’S MORE INTELLECTUAL

The last protective mechanism in the Mishnah is silence, which protects our wisdom. To explain how, Maharal points out that wisdom is an intellectual aspect of a person, while speech is a physical one. When involved in speech, therefore, a person is involved in his physical side, which contradicts his expressing his physical side. Staying silent, therefore, allows for the expression of the person’s intellectual side, thus safeguarding their wisdom.