עִברִית
שַׁמַּאי אוֹמֵר, עֲשֵׂה תוֹרָתְךָ קֶבַע. אֱמֹר מְעַט וַעֲשֵׂה הַרְבֵּה, וֶהֱוֵי מְקַבֵּל אֶת כָּל הָאָדָם בְּסֵבֶר פָּנִים יָפוֹת:
English
Shammai said: Make your Torah a set priority; Say little and do much; And receive every person with a pleasant face.
Commentary
Rodef Shalom Commentary- (2024) Zev ben David, ואוש
In the British History Podcast, the host frequently brings up problems in taught and received history once you take into account the circumstances, biases, and time gap between the writers of history and the characters in it. We somehow internalize that wordplay, puns, and passive-aggressively roasting your opponent through complements are novel innovations of highly educated information age.
As I read this week’s mishnah, I wondered: given what is generally said about Shammai’s demeanor from other sources, I have to wonder if whoever wrote this down did so with a punchline. I get the image of Shammai with a caprophagic grin, greeting everyone while silently judging them and keeping his cards close to his chest. The character of Aaron Burr in Hamilton likewise intones: “talk less, smile more. Don’t let them know what you’re against or what your for.” And yet if this were the case, wisdom still seeps through. Traditionally rabbinic dialogue has focused on the words עֲשֵׂה as make vs do, and קֶבַע as a wide range of things in the orbit of the word fixed which itself is problematic notion in spacetime. But what leapt off the page for me was that Shammai calls us to make or do our own Torah, for if he thought there were only one, he sure could have used the words “our Torah”. On the one hand the idea of taking self-possession of the Torah and our interactions with it appeals to me, but I keep tripping over the choice of possessive pronoun. During the Seder we are told that it is the wicked child who asks “What your ancestors did for you in fleeing Egypt. This draws me back to the tongue-and-cheek possibility at play. Perhaps the author thought of Shammai as one who asserts the Torah is yours, not his to worry about. Perhaps he was a man who indeed talked much and did not act. Sidebar: most rabbinic commentator have dragged out this line to suggest that we should under promise and overdeliver, but the plain-sense reading to me suggests that the notion is that actions speak loader than words more than the magnitude of a promise vs your likelihood of completeing the action promised.
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Discussion Topics
Topic 1:
Whose Torah is it?Do I have to act for the Torah to become mine?
Can you make the Torah yours without doing it?Topic 2:
Show MeWords are cheap, actions are expensive
How far should we go to make Torah ours?Topic 3:
You're So NiceHow do we make ourselves pleasant?
Is it better to be nice than good?Translations
English
Mishnah Yomit- Dr. Joshua Kulp
Shammai used to say: make your [study of the] Torah a fixed practice; speak little, but do much; and receive all men with a pleasant countenance.
Open Mishnah
Shammai says, “Make your Torah [study] fixed, say little and do much, and receive every person with a pleasant countenance.”
Open Mishnah
The Mishna with Obadiah Bartenura- Rabbi Shraga Silverstein
Beth Shammai say: Make your Torah primary [i.e., let your principal endeavor, day and night, be in Torah. And when you tire from learning engage in some occupation; and do not make your occupation primary and your learning secondary. [I have found it written: “Make your Torah consistent. Do not be stringent (in ruling) for yourself and lenient for others, or stringent for others and lenient for yourself. But make your Torah consistent — for yourself as for others. And thus is it written in Ezra (7:10): ‘For Ezra set his heart to expound the Torah of the L rd and to do and to teach the children of Israel’ — just as he set his heart to do, so did he teach the children of Israel (to do).], say little and do much, [as we find with our father Abraham, of blessed memory, who first said (Genesis 18:5): “I will take a loaf of bread,” and then (Ibid. 7): “And he took a calf, tender and good.”], and receive all men with a kindly countenance. [When you invite guests to your house, do not receive them with your face “sunk in the ground,” for if one does so, even if he bestowed upon them all the gifts in the world, it is accounted to him as if he gave them nothing. Shammai adduces three exhortations relating (respectively) to the three eminences mentioned by Jeremiah (9:22): wisdom, strength and wealth. Relative to wisdom he says: “Make your wisdom primary”; relative to wealth, “Say little and do much”; and relative to strength, “Receive all men with a kindly countenance. That is, one should suppress his inclination not to give and wage war with his recalcitrant heart. And we learned: “Who is strong? One who suppresses his (evil) inclination.]
Sayings of the Jewish Fathers (Pirqe Aboth) translated by Charles Taylor
16. Shammai said, Make thy Thorah an ordinance; say little and do much; and receive every man with a pleasant expression of countenance.
Deutsch
Mischnajot mit deutscher Übersetzung und Erklärung
Talmud Bavli- Lazarus Goldschmidt (1929)
ŠAMMAJ SAGTE: MACHE DEIN TORASTUDIUM ZUR STÄNDIGEN BESCHÄFTIGUNG. VERSPRICH WENIG UND TUE VIEL. EMPFANGE JEDEN MENSCHEN MIT FREUNDLICHEM GESICHTE.
Talmud Bavli. Lazarus Goldschmidt. 1929 [de]
Source: nli.org.il
Digitization: Sefaria License: Public Domain
Français
Maximes des Pères- Rabbi Rivon (2023)
Chamaï disait: «Fais de l’étude de la Tora une occupation fixe. Parle peu et agis beaucoup; accueille toute personne en lui faisant bonne figure.»
Español
Ritual de oraciones para todo el ano- Marcos Edery (1965)
Shamai dice: dedica un horario al estudio de la Torá; habla poco y haz mucho y recibe a todos los hombres con amable expresión.
Português
Ética dos Pais- Bruno Manuel (2023)
Shammai diz: “Faz da tua Torá [o teu estudo] fixa, diz pouco e faz muito, e recebe todas as pessoas com uma aparência agradável”.
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