30 Jul WHAT CAN BE, UNBURDENED BY WHAT HAS BEEN; INTRODUCTION TO PIRKEI AVOT

Some congregations
have a custom to
learn Pirkei Avot
during the summer
days, and therefore
we would like to share
a thought on the structure of these mishnayot.
The first mishna starts by stating that Moshe
received the Torah from Mount Sinai and
handed it over to Yehoshua. Yehoshua then
handed it to the sages of his generation, and so
on. Rabbi Ovadia of Bartenura wrote that the
mishna means to tell us that, unlike the scholars
of other nations who wrote man-made ethics
which they themselves came up with, our
ethics are all from Hashem, who told
everything to Moshe Rabbeinu at Mount Sinai.
Therefore, all of Pirkei Avot are the words of
the creator, who conveyed them to Moshe.
But if so, a question should be asked: if all the
lessons and ethics in those mishnayot are given
to Moshe, wouldn’t it be more correct, instead
of attributing the mishnayot to the sages, to
attribute them all to Moshe, meaning that after
saying “Moshe received the Torah from Sinai,”
it could continue with “and Moshe said,” and
then write the whole Pirkei Avot.
I think the answer is that although all the
mishnayot were handed down from Moshe, the

reason each mishna is attributed to a different
sage is because that sage used to say it over
and over again to his generation. The
commentators explain that the mishnayot they
would say were constantly part of their
messages to their students. But why would
they repeat these teachings over and over
again. It seems the reason was that the lessons
they emphasized were the ones that their
generation was lacking, and therefore they
needed to constantly emphasize them to ensure
the people of their generation would improve
their way of thinking and acting.
If so, let’s try to think about what those sages
would emphasize in our generation if they
were living with us today. I would think that it
might have been the first mishna, which tells
us that we should not ignore our past, which is
deeply rooted in conservative ethics. Let’s
explain:
Some of the most ridiculed and laughable
statements repeated in the media are attributed
to Vice President Kamala Harris. For example,
she once said, “The significance of the passage
of time. So, when you think about it, there is
great significance to the passage of time in
terms of what we need to do to lay these
wires,” which left people puzzled by the
seemingly incoherent “word salad.” Another

much more known statement she has repeated
about 2,000 times is, “What can be,
unburdened by what has been,” or “I can
imagine what can be, and be unburdened by
what has been.” These statements made the
American people wonder why she keeps
repeating words that no one really understands.
Her tendency to use such phrases and her
often criticized laugh have led some to view
her as unattractive for the highest office.
However, the question remains: is she really
unaware of what she’s talking about, or is she
sending a very concerning message about what
America and the entire world would look like
under her leadership?
It seems like she is trying to promote the
progressive ideology, which suggests that the
past conservative values holds no significance
and should be unburdened by the new ideology
of the future agenda. The goals of the strange
and “salad” progressives movement which
have no order or structure are indeed
emphasized by her strange “word salad,”
which fits this narrative.
This narrative has declared war on all fronts:
on the basic concept of two genders, where
one may not address a man as a man or a
woman as a woman without risking legal
action. People can choose to identify

themselves from a large variety of genders or
even invent new ones. There is also a war on
the family structure, where one can have
multiple parents from all the above various
genders. Additionally, there is a war on the
basic idea of a nation, with open borders
idealism in America and Europe challenging
the concept of a nation as everyone is
encouraged to blur the notion of borders and
communities.
Accordingly, I think that if the Tannaim were
to live in our time and face our challenges, the
message that would be chosen from all the
many mishnayot in Pirkei Avot would be the
very first one. It tells us that we should return
to the message of the Creator from the time of
creation, given to us at Mount Sinai, which
teaches the basics of life in this very confused
universe.