Introduction This mishnah begins the teachings of the second “pair”. Note again the heavy concentration on learning and the continuation of the tradition, points which we noted in previous mishnayoth.
Joshua ben Perahiah and Nittai the Arbelite received [the oral tradition] from them. Joshua ben Perahiah used to say: appoint for thyself a teacher, and acquire for thyself a companion and judge all men with the scale weighted in his favor. Joshua ben Perahiah’s three pieces of advice have one common factor: they are concerned with a person properly socializing himself with other human beings. A person should not isolate himself for that may lead to moral problems and to feelings of despair. In order to accomplish this he must do three things: 1) find himself a teacher to teach him Torah; 2) find himself a friend; 3) have a positive attitude in his dealings with others. 1) When the mishnah states that one is supposed to find for himself a teacher, it means a fixed teacher with whom he can have a long lasting relationship. This teacher is ideally supposed to teach him all that there is to know. Avoth de Rabbi Nathan, which is a later expansion on Mishnah Avoth teaches an interesting parable. “Rabbi Meir used to say: He that studies Torah with a single teacher, to whom may he be likened? To one who had a single field, part of which he sowed with wheat and part with barley, and planted part with olives and part with oak trees. Now that man is full of good and blessing. But when one studies with two or three teachers he is like him who has many fields: one he sows with wheat and one he sows with barley, and plants one with olives and one with oak trees. Now this man’s attention is divided between may pieces of land without good or blessing.” 2) One of the main purposes of having a friend is to study with that friend. When a person learns alone, there is no one to correct his mistakes, no one to compliment him on his insight and no one whom he can bounce his ideas off. Traditionally Jewish learning has always been done in “hevrutot” which literally means “social circles”. Usually this is two people sitting together and learning a Jewish text. From personal experience, this is a much more effective means of learning than sitting by oneself, a more common way of learning in modern universities. 3) Judging every person with favor is perhaps some of the sagest advice the mishnah can give in teaching a person to succeed in society. One who is constantly skeptical of others’ actions and motives will certainly not be able to have the friends or teachers mentioned in the previous two clauses of the mishnah. We saw this ideal in Mishnah Sanhedrin when the Rabbis actually legislated that a court is obligated to search for means to exonerate the accused.