What a Thief Can Teach You About Wisdom

Welcome to Ethics of Our Fathers: Chapter 4, Mishna 1 (Part I) — Ben Zoma’s “Who is wise?”

Who is wise? Not the person who knows the most, Ben Zoma says, but the one who learns from every person: a critic, an unlearned elder, even a thief.

Chapter 4 of Pirkei Avot opens with four questions from Ben Zoma: Who is wise? Who is strong? Who is rich? Who is honored? Each answer overturns what most people assume. In this first class on the Mishna, Rabbi Greenberg introduces Ben Zoma himself, the brilliant young sage quoted in the Haggadah and one of the four who entered the Pardes, and then focuses on the first question: “Who is wise? One who learns from every person.”

Learning from everyone means learning from people who know less than you, from your critics, from every experience and, as the Rebbe taught, even from people far above you. It takes humility, and also healthy self-esteem: only a secure person can admit he needs others.

🔎 In this video we explore: • Why Ben Zoma was known by his father’s name, and his teaching in the Haggadah: remember the Exodus even at night • The four sages who entered the Pardes, and why only Rabbi Akiva came out in peace • Wise, strong, rich, honored: four stages of a person’s life • Why we honor even an elderly, unlearned non-Jew, and the “University of Bergen-Belsen” • Learning from your critics: the Rebbe’s response to the claim that Chabad was “inactive” • Reb Zusha’s seven lessons from a thief, and the cards hidden in the guard’s pocket • “Let us make man”: why even God consulted before acting • The Rebbe’s lesson: don’t put great people on a pedestal so high you stop learning from them

💡 Key Insights:

• Learning from others is a sign of security, not weakness.
• Humility and healthy self-esteem go together.
• The greatest gift you can give someone is to show that you value what they know.
• Spiritually, “good enough” is a trap: good is good, but better is better.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

📚 Sources discussed: Pirkei Avot 4:1 (Ben Zoma); Pirkei Avot 1:6; Mishnah Berachos 1:5 and the Pesach Haggadah; Talmud Chagigah 14b (the four who entered the Pardes); Vayikra 10 (Nadav and Avihu); Tehillim 119:99; Mishlei 16:32; Tehillim 128:2; Shmuel I 2:30; Talmud Kiddushin 33a (honoring the elderly); Bereishis 1:26 with Rashi; Talmud Sotah 5a; Talmud Tamid 32a (Alexander the Great); the Maharal; the Baal Shem Tov; the Alter Rebbe; Reb Zusha of Anipoli; Reb Mendel Futerfas; the Rebbe