Avos 1:6 - Austritt vs Gemeinde

 

(For a background on the terms Austritt and Gemeinde, see here)

 

Yehoshua Ben Perachyah And Nittai Of Arbel Received [The Oral Tradition] From Them. Yehoshua Ben Perachyah Said: "Provide Yourself With A Master; Acquire For Yourself A Friend; And Judge Every Person Favorably."

Nittai Of Arbel Said: "Keep Away From A Bad Neighbor; Do Not Fraternize With A Wicked Man; And Do Not Abandon Belief In [Divine] Retribution."

We do not know anything about Nittai Haarbeli. No sayings or teachings of his, except for this one have come down to us. More is known about R. Yeshoshua ben Perachia. This sage was forced to escape to Alexandria when King Yannai attempted to kill  the sages (Sotah 47a). We are told that he keenly understood human nature and the pitfalls of leadership. "In the beginning, had someone told me go up to a high position, I would have bound and set him in front of a lion (figuratively, rendered him of no power). Now that I achieved a high position, anyone who would tell me to give it up, I would pour a pitcher of hot water over him ( Menachos 109b). Perhaps this connection to the escape to Egypt and his warning of the perils of  arrogance are what connects him to the tradition that Yeshu was his student.

It is clear that these two sages lived at a period when the government not only turned its back on religion but openly allied itself with Saduccees, or (some claim) Essenes. It was a time when the vision of Shimon Hatsaddik of a Jewish polity that sustained itself upon the principles of justice, Torah, and Temple Worship appeared remote and improbable. In other words, it was a time much like our own.

How does the religious camp conduct itself in times such as this? This question repeatedly recurs in Jewish history and life. Two, and only two options present themselves and historically we know that the Torah leaders always split about this. Some felt that they must secede from the unjust and corrupt society around them and form their own communities, with their own leaders and internal social norms that bind them and keep them safe from the pernicious influence of the compromise and low standards of the corrupt society around them. Thus R. Yeshoshua ben Perachia says: "Make yourself a Rav and acquire for yourself a friend", that is, choose the right people to lead you and form for yourself a group of like minded individuals under their leadership".

The problem in following this course is the tendency of close knit communities to gradually come to view all those who do not "belong" with suspicion, to tag all outsiders as unbelievers and to question the purity of their motivations and actions. Hence, R. Yeshoshua teaches us that those who follow this course must be vigilant to "judge everyone favorably".  

NIttai Hoarbeli, on the other hand, advocates remaining within the mainstream, for the great majority of simple folk are decent people, though they might err out of ignorance. How does one not then become co-opted and corrupted? Yiras Hashem must be an essential part of the make up of a person who lives with other people but aspires to act diffferently from them. One must make case-by-case decisions. The personal relationship with Hashem and the sense that He constantly judges and evaluates is the basic prerequisite to doing so successfully. A man can dwell with the common-folk but he must know to separate and withdraw from the bad neighbor, NOT join the evil doers and not lose sight of the recompense that awaits him who  allows his environment to submerge him.