Sunday, January 27, 2013

Pirkei Avot 2:4

Pirkei Avot 2:4

"He [Rabban Gamliel] used to say: Do His will as your will in order that He do your will as His will. Annul your will before His will in order that He annul the will of others before your will."

A simplistic reading of this mishna would be that if we do what G-d wants, He will give us what we want, and if we subordinate what we want to His will, we will prevail over others.  However this treats G-d as a mafia don or a feudal lord who will take care of us if we simply do what He wants.  The problem with this interpretation is that it is amoral, which G-d cannot be.  It views the world as a Nietschean power struggle.  In this view, everything is about will.  The more sophisticated reading of this mishna is that if you do G-d's will, you will be doing what is right, and if you annul your selfish will in favor of His ultimate moral law, you will also be doing what is right, and your will will therefore have the power of goodnes and Heaven behind it.  Others will see the virtue of your position, and will therefore be drawn to it and treat it as having ultimate validity.

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