Avos:1:2

The world stands of three things: Torah, Avodah and Dealing Kindess.

This enigmatic statement is difficult to explain; after all, there are many important things that sustain the world and why should we focus specifically on these three. Neither is it clear how and in what manner does the world "stand" on them and what that actually means. The commentators do not really explain the "Torah, Avoda, Gemilus Chassadim", which is to say that they either avoided defining them precisely or assumed that they were so well understood that no elaboration was required. A precise defintion would, however, be very useful. What does Torah mean, for example? It could refer to the book of Torah, to a set of teachings, to Pentateuch, or to the totality of Jewish religion. We previously attempted to explain these terms as representing Shimon Hatsaddik's political philosophy and in this way tried to address the question. Now, we will try to bring contemporary sources to bear on it to determine what these terms meant at the time of Shimon Hatsadik. We will refer mainly to Ben Sirah, a contemporary of Shimon Hatsaddik, and the Shmone Esrei that is now recognized to share the same conceptual and syntactic features and as per Brochos 28 (and critical scholarship), originated at the same time. Having done so, we will of course have particularized this mishna it to a long bygone era and drained it of all relevance. We will then need to explain what Shimon's Hatsaddik's teaching means to us in our own time. This requires that we take up the larger question of how to apply ancient teachings in the modern era. It is self evident that this endeavor will require a long conversation and have to be broken into several shorter discussions.

Before we proceed, let's take a moment to discuss the significance of the number "three".  As we just pointed out, the world stands of a great many things, including according to R. Shimon ben Gamliel, truth and peace. I propose that picking three examples is a mishnaic convention.

Anyone who had ever studied the Mishna recognizes that list-making is at the core of the Tannaitic method. Many if not most mishnayos are based on lists. There are indications that much of the activity of forming lists took place in the early Second Temple period as the soferim struggles with the mass of tradition and precedent that they inherited from the generations that returned from Babylon. Let's propose for a moment that at that time, a group of scholars titled sofrim, or scribes, was active in collecting and systemizing the laws and customs that they received by tradition. "Why were they called sofrim? Because they arranged the Torah by numbers: the chiefs of (Shabbos) labors are forty minus one, four chief categories of damages, etc (Yerushalmi Shekalim 5 quoted by Tosafos to Kiddushin 30a)".

What did Torah likely mean in the language of Shimon Hatsaddik? We can't be sure. Let's see what it meant to Ben SIra.

Conventional scholarly wisdom has it that Ben Sira wrote in Jerusalem during the first quarter of the second century BCE, making his book one of the most precisely dated and located of ancient Bible-related texts.  Ben Sira’s grandson, who translated the book from Hebrew to Greek in Egypt sometime after 132, refers in his prologue to his grandfather’s study of “the law and the prophets and the other books of our fathers.”  Some say that this refers to Ketuvim, the part of Tanach that was not yet well defined in his time. Whether so or not, clearly Torah contained far more than only the known laws. In Ben Sirah, Torah is eternal and cosmic and located but not contained within a book. It is identified specifically with the people of Israel and dwells in Jerusalem. One certainly gets a sense that that it is an all encompassing spiritual presence, much in the same way as we use the word Torah.

So the Creator of all things gave me a commandment, and he that made me caused my tabernacle to rest, and said, Let thy dwelling be in Jacob, and thine inheritance in Israel.
Sirach 24:9	He created me from the beginning before the world, and I shall never fail.
Sirach 24:10	In the holy tabernacle I served before him; and so was I established in Sion.
Sirach 24:11	Likewise in the beloved city he gave me rest, and in Jerusalem was my power.
Sirach 24:12	And I took root in an honourable people, even in the portion of the Lord's inheritance.
Sirach 24:13	I was exalted like a cedar in Libanus, and as a cypress tree upon the mountains of Hermon.
Sirach 24:14	I was exalted like a palm tree in En-gaddi, and as a rose plant in Jericho, as a fair olive tree in a pleasant field, and grew up as a plane tree by the water.
Sirach 24:15	I gave a sweet smell like cinnamon and aspalathus, and I yielded a pleasant odour like the best myrrh, as galbanum, and onyx, and sweet storax, and as the fume of frankincense in the tabernacle.
Sirach 24:16	As the turpentine tree I stretched out my branches, and my branches are the branches of honour and grace.
Sirach 24:17	As the vine brought I forth pleasant savour, and my flowers are the fruit of honour and riches.
Sirach 24:18	I am the mother of fair love, and fear, and knowledge, and holy hope: I therefore, being eternal, am given to all my children which are named of him.
Sirach 24:19	Come unto me, all ye that be desirous of me, and fill yourselves with my fruits.
Sirach 24:20	For my memorial is sweeter than honey, and mine inheritance than the honeycomb.
Sirach 24:21	They that eat me shall yet be hungry, and they that drink me shall yet be thirsty.
Sirach 24:22	He that obeyeth me shall never be confounded, and they that work by me shall not do amiss.
Sirach 24:23	All these things are the book of the covenant of the most high God, even the law which Moses commanded for an heritage unto the congregations of Jacob. ...to be continued

Comments

[Ariel]

Reminds me of Mishlei 8:22-31 where Wisdom talks about how she was present before God created the world.