Adapted by Dr. Allan Weissman
2023
287 pages
Reviewed by Ben Rothke
We have many volumes of the writings of quite a number of rabbinic greats. But of others, we have very little. Rabbi Jonathan Ziring, rosh yeshivah at Yeshiva Migdal HaTorah in Modi’in, quotes Rabbi Mosheh Lichtenstein, who describes the difference between rabbis whose main contribution was their writing and those whose main contribution consisted of teaching Torah. He explains that many great Acharonim held positions in very small towns. Their communal duties were limited, giving them ample time to write. And some of these great Acharonim wrote prolifically. Other rabbis ministered over very large communities, which significantly limited their writing time and resulted in a limited written oeuvre.
Some rabbis, however, are able to accomplish both. Rabbi Hershel Schachter has immense communal duties, from serving as rosh yeshivah at Yeshiva University and senior posek for OU Kosher to providing guidance to his countless students, many of whom are communal rabbis and teachers, and more. It would take years to listen to his myriad shiurim, with over 6,700 (as of this writing) on the YUTorah website. And yet he has found the time to write six Hebrew sefarim and many articles.
One of the latest additions to his writings is a series of books that presents more of Rabbi Schachter’s insights to the public. My friend and neighbor Dr. Allan Weissman, MD, is a devoted student of Rabbi Schachter and has never left his orbit. Over the last decade, Dr. Weissman has dedicated himself to bringing Rabbi Schachter’s brilliant insights to the written page. This includes volumes of “Rav Schachter on” Tefillah, the Parsha, the Haggadah, and the Moadim. The latest addition to the series is Rav Schachter on Pirkei Avos.
Masechet Avot starts with the transmission of the Torah, beginning with Moshe and continuing to the Anshei Knesset Hagedolah, about a thousand years later. Avot is all about tradition, and as Dr. Weissman notes in his introduction, Rabbi Schachter brings with him to every shiur a rich and weighty mesorah. This is based on the Torah he learned directly from his great teacher Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik, during a relationship that spanned many decades.
Dr. Weissman writes that Rabbi Schachter considers it to be his primary goal in life to faithfully transmit his mesorah of the Torah Shebe’al Peh to as many students as possible. In this remarkable work on Avot, Dr. Weissman serves as Rabbi Schachter’s partner in that endeavor.
Avot is all about tradition, and as Dr. Weissman notes in his introduction, Rabbi Schachter brings with him to every shiur a rich and weighty mesorah.
As an introduction to Avot, Rabbi Schachter cites a characteristically sharp insight of the Vilna Gaon. The Gemara (Bava Kamma 30a) gives three opinions about how to achieve piety: fulfill the matters of tractate Nezikin; fulfill the matters of tractate Avot; or fulfill the matters of tractate Berachot. The Vilna Gaon (Mishlei 2:9; Yeshayahu 1:2) explains that these correspond to the three realms of mitzvot: Nezikin, containing the laws of torts and damages, corresponds to the interpersonal mitzvot, bein adam lachaveiro. Berachot, containing the laws of prayer and blessings, corresponds to the mitzvot between man and G-d, bein adam laMakom. Avot, however, corresponds to a third category, the mitzvot between man and himself, bein adam l’atzmo. Rabbi Schachter explains that the foundation of the requirement to refine one’s character traits, the focus of this masechta, is for man to embody the image of G-d in which he was created. This therefore is an obligation man has to himself, “to maintain his tzelem Elokim by exhibiting proper middos.”
This relates to another aspect of Avot. Rabbi Schachter cites Rabbi Soloveitchik, who noted that “the Masorah regarding middos must be transmitted by personal example and not through a verbal shiur as is the case regarding the Masorah of halachos . . . in the area of middos, a talmid must observe his rebbi in practice, through his deportment and demeanor, and thereby learn how to properly conduct himself.” Rabbi Schachter himself, as all who have encountered him know, is a shining example of the refined character and middot that are the subject of this volume.
After enlightening the reader with Rabbi Schachter’s mesorah on Pirkei Avot, the book concludes with a chapter on derech halimud (methodology of Torah study) and Rabbi Schachter’s approach to it.
Dr. Weissman has done a tremendous service in bringing Rabbi Schachter’s mesorah on Pirkei Avot to the public in this fascinating and insightful book.
Ben Rothke lives in New Jersey and works in the information security field. He reviews books on religion, technology, and science.