After introducing the five students of R.Yochanan ben Zakkai, the mishna tells us about their answers to a very important question.
He [Rabban Yochanan] said to them [his students]: Go out and see what is a good way to which a person should cleave.
This is reminiscent of another mishna, the first mishna in this chapter. By considering this parallel mishna we might understand better what it is that Rabban Yochanan was asking:
Rabbi Judah the Prince said: Which is the straight path that a man should choose for himself? That which is beauty to him and beauty for him from the other person.
This first mishna raises an improtant question. Whereas the fist chapter was focused on the political and societal role of Torah adherents in a larger society, this second chapter in Avos gives up that quest. History taught us that a Torah State is no longer possible, for now, and the proper quest is now for a "path" for an individual. The question of "what is the right path" recurrs three times in this chapter ( I include the first mishna of the next chapter). In mishna 10 and 11, the ones we are reading right now, R. Yochanan ben Zakkai asks his students: אמר להם, צאו וראו איזו היא דרך טובה שידבק בה האדם
"Go and see which is the good way to which a person should cling?... What is the bad way from which a person should distance?"
Note the signifcant change, the introduction of the terminology of going, entering, exiting and transitioning. One finds expression in this chapter such as, "come into sin", "exit from the world", "floating on the water", "go out and see". It is as if the model of religious life as a journey begins to resonate and dominate in this chapter; the static and communal outlook gives way to a personal and unsettled travel through life as the predominant religious metaphor. The reasons for it are not hard to understand. As we discussed, the end of the Second Temple period saw the abandonment of the idea of the Jewish Polity based on the three pillars of Torah, Avodah and Sacrifical Service, an idea that the Rabbis struggled throughout this time and throughout this chapter to preserve in some way or fashion, for a religious group at least, if not for the entire state.
If we understand R.Yochanan ben Zakkai's question along these lines, the unusual structure (why ask the same question twice) and parallels(why repeat the same thing twice, once in the positive and once in thhnegative) in these mishnayos become more easily understandable.
I suggest that R. Yochanan, understanding that individual paths to G-d must be in some way integrated with the communal and national path, asked his students how practically can the individual and collective elements be combined. Each one then gave an example. Each example distributed itself along the individual-collective continuum, as follows:
R. Eliezer said: A good eye. R. Yehoshua said: A good friend. R. Yossi said: A good neighbor. R. Shimon said: One who considers consequences. R. Elazar said: A good heart. He said to them, I prefer the words of Elazar ben Arach over your words, for included in his words are your words."
Individual Collective
Good heart Good eye Consider consequences Good friend Good neighbor
A good heart is a purely personal accomplishment. A good eye has in it a communal component; while a property of an individual, it deals with others in the community. One who considers consequences is in the exact middle of the community-individual line because he considers results of his actions to himself and others. Similarly the obverse of this quality is that the one who burrows and does not pay back cheats himself and others. A good friend is heavily weighted toward the communal side but is still in a personal and individual relationship. Good neighbor, of course, is toward the extreme of communal based approach .
I will tell why you almost HAVE to say that these are examples and categories and are not meants to be taken literally.
Look in the next mishna, in which R. Eiezer and R. Yehoshua list three things. You would expect that R. Eliezer would emphasize the "good eye", which to him is the most important thing and R. Yeshoshua will underscore"a good friend"
But they do not. Instead they reverse their positions:
"They (each of the five students of R. Yochanan listed previously) said three things. R. Eliezer said: May the honor of your friend be as dear to you as your own.
"Rabbi Yehoshua said: An evil eye, the evil inclination, and hatred of others (lit., of the creations) remove a person from the world."
You have to say that in the former mishna they speak about specific examples as standing for categories, a feature of Tannaitic literature in general, while in the latter mishna they are speaking of a specific middah and are being literal.
