The Second Pair: Yehoshua ben Perachyah and Nittai the Arbelite
"Make for yourself a teacher, acquire for yourself a friend, and judge every person on the scale of merit" — and beside it, from his partner: "distance yourself from a bad neighbour, and do not despair of retribution."
The second pair works under the early Hasmonean rulers — the days of John Hyrcanus, when the kingdom is already independent and the split between Pharisees and Sadducees is only taking shape.
Yehoshua ben Perachyah, the nasi, said: "Make for yourself a teacher, acquire for yourself a friend, and judge every person on the scale of merit." The three parts rise in order. A teacher — "make" one, even if none is ready-made: choose, and accept the authority. A friend — "acquire," that is, pay something; friendship is not had for nothing. And judgement of a person defaults in his favour until proved otherwise; a whole field of Jewish ethics of speech grew out of that line.
Nittai the Arbelite, the av beit din — from Arbel in the Galilee — said: "Distance yourself from a bad neighbour, do not associate with a wicked person, and do not despair of retribution." The pair is a mirror: one teaches how to draw people close, the other whom to keep away from. Both halves are needed, and their standing side by side in one tractate is itself a statement: to draw close is not to stop discriminating.
Nittai's last words — "do not despair of retribution" — are read two ways: as "evil will not go unanswered," and as a warning to oneself — do not suppose that you will be passed over.
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Avot 1:6 — “make yourself a teacher, acquire a friend, judge on the scale of merit”
- Avot 1:7 — “distance yourself from a bad neighbour… and do not despair of retribution”
- Chagigah 16b — the pairs and the dispute over semichah; which of the two was nasi and which av beit din
Basis: Talmud and midrash.
People and places
Yehoshua ben Perachya · Nittai of Arbela · The Oral Torah · Sanhedrin