Liberal Arts Blog — Question Packages: Ben Zoma, Hillel, Tolstoy (plus a little exercise)
Liberal Arts Blog — Tuesday is the Joy of Literature, Language, Religion, and Culture Day
Today’s Topic: Question Packages: Ben Zoma, Hillel, Tolstoy (plus a little exercise)
What are the most important question packages ever assembled? What are the best answers ever given? Today, three traditional question packages. First, the four questions of Ben Zoma (first or second century CE). Second, the three questions of Hillel (1st century BCE to 1st century CE). Third, the three questions of Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910). A footnote follows. Do you have a favorite question package from any tradition? Can you come up with such a package yourself? Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
BEN ZOMA: Who is wise? Who is strong? Who is rich? Who is honored?
1. Wise: He who learns from everyone. As is stated: “From all my teachers I have grown wise”;
2. Strong: He who controls his impulses. As is stated: “Better one who is slow to anger than one with might, one who rules his spirit than the captor of a city.”
3. Rich: He who is happy with what he has. As is stated: “If you eat of toil of your hands, fortunate are you, and good is to you”; “fortunate are you” in this world, “and good is to you” in the World to Come.”
4. Honored: He who honors everyone! As is stated: “For to those who honor me, I accord honor; those who scorn me shall be demeaned.”
HILLEL: If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?
1. Hillel is perhaps most famous for his response to the demand that he recite the entire Torah standing on one foot. “That which is hateful to you do not do unto others. That is the whole of the Torah. Do and learn.”
2. My view is that he was 100% wrong. That is the Second Commandment and if you don’t understand why the First is First and not the Second and why the Second is Second and not the first you don’t get either the Torah in general or the stories of Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel in particular. Without piety (love of God, in secular terms gratitude) there is no love of others.
3. Another saying of Hillel’s: “Do not separate yourself from the community; do not believe in yourself until the day you die; do not judge your fellow until you have reached their place; do not say something inappropriate, for it will then be appropriated; and do not say, ‘When I am free I will study,’ for perhaps you will not become free.”
NB: “Whosoever destroys one soul, it is as though he had destroyed the entire world. And whosoever saves a life, it is as though he had saved the entire world.”
LEO TOLSTOY: what is the most important time? Who is the most important person? what is the most important thing to do?
1. The most important time is now.
2. The most important person is whoever you are with.
3. The most important thing is help the person you are with.
NB: Tolstoy was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in five consecutive years from 1902 to 1906. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times (1902, 1906, and 1909). He never won either. Tolstoy was a huge fan of Henry George and an inspiration for Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King.
FOOTNOTE — A little exercise
1. Can you make a little package of questions that sums up what you have learned in your life? If so, please share.
2. At the risk of sounding a bit repetitious here is my best shot — three questions and three answers.
3. What are the seven most important virtues (aka life algorithms) in order? Gratitude, kindness, courage, prudence, diligence, excellence, joy.
NB: What is thinking citizenship? The ability to make a strong case for all three sides in the next election marshaling principles, facts, and solutions for each of the seven issues so important they should influence your decision (foreign policy, economic policy, climate change, social justice, education, and political process reform).
How to have the most fun, full life? Assign each day of the week one of your seven favorite things (the ones that bring you the most joy) and assign a certain amount of time each day to both deepen your understanding and appreciation of that joy and to spreading that joy with as many others as you can (digitally or face to face).
Houses of Hillel and Shammai — Wikipedia
The Three Questions — Wikipedia
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, 11/17/20
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned this week related to words, language, literature, religion, culture. Or, even better, the coolest or most important thing you learned in your life related to Words, Language, Literature (eg. quotes, poetry, vocabulary) that you have not yet shared.
This is your chance to make someone else’s day. Or to cement in your own mind something that you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something dear to your heart. Continuity is key to depth of thought.
