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