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The Net Maker Who Claimed No Mind for Torah

A scoffer said heaven never gave him understanding for study. The teacher asked who taught him to weave nets, and the man wept.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Scoffer on the Road
  2. The Trap Closes Softly
  3. How Redemption Starts
  4. Bread and Water of the Soul
  5. Never Enough, Always Near
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The Scoffer on the Road

While traveling from place to place, the teacher met a man who knew neither Scripture nor Mishnah, a scoffer who came at him with mockery. The teacher asked gently: my son, what will you say to your Father in heaven on the day of judgment? The man had his defense ready. Understanding was never given to me from heaven, he said, so how could I have studied?

The teacher did not argue theology. He asked about the man's trade. A fisherman, the man said. And who taught you to take flax, weave it into nets, cast them into the sea, and haul up the fish? At that the man answered proudly that for this, heaven had given him understanding and knowledge.

The Trap Closes Softly

Then the teacher closed the trap: for nets and fishing you were given wisdom, but for Torah, which is as near to you as your own mouth and heart, you claim you were given none? The man broke down and wept. The teacher comforted him, explaining that every person offers this excuse about whatever craft occupies him, but their own deeds testify against them.

The beginning and end of everything is the fear of Heaven and good deeds. Learning without reverence is empty. The chapter warns against laziness and excess in eating, drinking, and sleeping, which impoverish a person, for the words of Torah settle only in the heart of one who wears himself out for them. The reward, the teacher added, is staggered, doubled and redoubled in the days to come.

How Redemption Starts

How is Israel finally redeemed? Not out of suffering or bondage alone, but out of ten people sitting together, each studying aloud with his fellow. So it was in Egypt, where the ancestors clung to Torah even before Sinai, and so it will be again. The fisherman who thought he had no mind for letters had already proven he could learn a hard craft that feeds bodies. The same mind could feed a soul.

He wiped his face with a hand that still smelled of rope and salt. The scoffer posture had fallen off him the way a wet net falls when the haul is done. What remained was a man who had just heard his own skill used as evidence against his excuse.

Bread and Water of the Soul

Elsewhere the same school taught what happens when a person sins. He is, in effect, wishing the world undone, pushing away the feet of the Divine Presence whose glory fills the earth. So God may exile such people from their homes and lands. The difference between one fate and another comes down to whether a person reads and studies.

Picture a king with many sons whom he loves completely. He sends them off to learn Scripture and Mishnah and good conduct, then waits, longing for them to visit. When they do not come, he goes to them himself, finds them bent over their studies, and gathers them up, kissing and embracing them, carrying some on his shoulders and some on his arms back to his city. That is how God gathers His people, like a shepherd carrying the lambs in his bosom.

Never Enough, Always Near

No one should ever say he has studied enough. After an hour comes death. Better to lift your eyes to the sun, moon, and stars that rise early and stay late to do their Creator's will, and resolve to rise early and stay late for Torah in the same way. The words of the Torah are like bread and water, without which a person cannot last even an hour. They are like wine and milk too, raising the young as milk raises a child and gladdening the heart as wine restores the soul.

The fisherman went back toward the water with a different question in his mouth. Not "how could I have studied," but "who taught me the net." If heaven had already answered the second, the first was no longer a wall. It was a door he had been leaning against without trying the latch.

Salt crusted the man's wrists. His hands were rope-hard. His chest lifted when he spoke of knots, tides, and the weight of a full net at dawn. Tears cut clean lines through the dust on his face. He wiped his eyes with a sleeve that still smelled of the boat.

The arms that haul nets can also hold a page steady. Behind him the teacher kept walking. Ahead of him the sea waited, and beside the sea, for the first time, a book did not seem impossible. If heaven had taught him the sea, heaven had not locked the book.

TorahFishermanFear Of HeavenStudyEliyahuRepentanceWisdomDeeds
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From the tradition

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The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Tanna debei Eliyahu Zuta 14:1Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Zuta

Translation of the source text.Tanna debei Eliyahu Zuta, Warsaw 1880 · Public Domain

One time I was walking from place to place, and a certain man found me who had in him neither Scripture nor Mishnah, and he was mocking and scoffing with words, and he came against me. I said to him: My son, what will you answer your Father in heaven on the day of judgment? He said to me: Rabbi, I have words with which to answer Him -- understanding and knowledge were not given to me from heaven, that I should read and study. I said to him: My son, what is your work? He said to me: I am a fisherman. I said to him: My son, who taught you and told you to bring flax and weave it into nets and cast it into the sea and bring up the fish from the sea? And he said to me: Rabbi, in this, understanding and knowledge were given to me from heaven. I said to him: To bring flax and to weave nets and to cast into the sea and to bring up fish from the sea, understanding and knowledge were given to you from heaven; but for the words of the Torah, of which it is written, "For the matter is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it" (Deuteronomy 30:14), understanding and knowledge were not given to you from heaven? Immediately he would raise his voice and weep and sigh. I said to him: My son, let it not grieve you; rather, all other people who come into the world give this same answer regarding the matter in which they are occupied, but their deeds testify against them.

And concerning them, and concerning those like them, and concerning those who do as they do, what does Scripture say of them? "Moreover those who work in combed flax shall be ashamed, and those who weave white cloth" (Isaiah 19:9). The beginning and the end of all matters is the fear of Heaven and good deeds. And let a person not read and study yet have no fear of Heaven, as it is said, "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the LORD; a good understanding have all those who do them" (Psalms 111:10), and it says, "The end of the matter, all having been heard: fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole of man" (Ecclesiastes 12:13). Who impoverishes himself? The one who is excessive in eating and drinking and sleeping, as it is said, "For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty, and drowsiness clothes a man in rags" (Proverbs 23:21), and it says, "Do not love sleep, lest you come to poverty; open your eyes and you shall be satisfied with bread" (Proverbs 20:13); and "bread" and "wine" mean nothing but the words of the Torah, as it is said, "Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed" (Proverbs 9:5), and it says, "The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of the learned, to know how to sustain with a word him who is weary; He awakens morning by morning, He awakens my ear to hear as the learned" (Isaiah 50:4). You have thus learned that the words of the Torah are absorbed in a person's heart only by one who grows weary for them.

And thus the holy spirit would bring good tidings to the disciples of the wise and say to them: My children, even though I gave you much good in this world, and needless to say in the days of the son of David and in the world to come, that you shall have a great reward, doubled and redoubled, do not treat the words of the Torah lightly and do not be excessive in eating and drinking and sleeping, as it is said, "Return to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope; even today I declare that I will restore double to you" (Zechariah 9:12), and it says, "And I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten, the cankerworm and the caterpillar and the palmerworm, My great army which I sent among you, and you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the LORD your God who has dealt wondrously with you, and My people shall never be ashamed" (Joel 2:25-26), and it says, "Instead of your shame you shall have double, and instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion; therefore in their land they shall possess double; everlasting joy shall be theirs" (Isaiah 61:7). We have thus learned that Israel shall eat double in the days of the son of David; and even if a single one of Israel should dwell at the end of the world and several rivers should sweep before him, the Holy One, blessed be He, will split all those rivers and bring that Israelite to Him, as it is said, "Therefore behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, that they shall no longer say, As the LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but, As the LORD lives who brought up and led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country and from all the countries where I had driven them, and they shall dwell in their own land" (Jeremiah 23:7-8).

And how do you know to say thus? For Israel are not redeemed out of trouble, nor out of bondage, nor out of being tossed about, nor out of confusion, nor out of distress, nor out of having no food, but out of ten people who sit beside one another, and each of them reads and studies with his fellow, and their voice is heard, as it is said, "But on Mount Zion there shall be deliverance, and it shall be holy" (Obadiah 1:17). And so too we find with our early forefathers, that they were not redeemed from Egypt except through the words of the Torah, even though they had not yet reached the forty days of the receiving of the Torah and had not yet come to that hour; rather, they did Torah all their days. Therefore it is said of them, "And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant; therefore say to the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out" (Exodus 6:5,6). And just as Israel were redeemed from Egypt by the merit of being fruitful and multiplying, so too they will be redeemed in the future by the merit of being fruitful and multiplying. And how do you know it is so? That Israel are not redeemed unless they are fruitful and multiply and fill the whole world, as it is said, "For you shall spread out to the right and to the left, and your seed shall inherit the nations and make the desolate cities to be inhabited" (Isaiah 54:3).

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Tanna debei Eliyahu Zuta 13:1Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Zuta

Translation of the source text.Tanna debei Eliyahu Zuta, Warsaw 1880 · Public Domain

The transgressors of Israel, what is their end? Rather, because at the moment when they commit transgressions they desire the destruction of the world, and it is as though they push away the feet of the Divine Presence, as it were, in the manner of what is said, "The whole earth is full of His glory" (Isaiah 6:3) -- therefore, just as they desire the destruction of the world, so the Holy One, blessed be He, exiles them from their houses and from the land of their dwelling, and does not return them to their land, and sends them out to the place of ruin, as it is said, "And I will purge out from among you the rebels and those who transgress against Me" (Ezekiel 20:38).

And what difference is there between the one who reads and studies and the one who does not read and study? They told a parable. To what may this be compared? To a king of flesh and blood who had many sons and loved them with a complete love, and he sent them to Scripture and to Mishnah and to the learning of proper conduct, and he looked forward to them and said: When will they come to my house that I may see them? And when he sees that his sons do not come, he himself comes and goes to them and stands over them and finds them reading and studying and occupying themselves with proper conduct; immediately he seats them between his knees and kisses them and embraces them and hugs them, and brings them to his city, some of them he takes on his shoulders, and some on his arms, and some before him, and some behind him. And thus did the Holy One, blessed be He, do, as it is said, "As a shepherd tends his flock, he gathers the lambs with his arm and carries them in his bosom, and gently leads those that are with young" (Isaiah 40:11). And if you say: since He lowered Himself like a shepherd, perhaps He is small -- behold, see what is written after it; immediately: "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and meted out the heavens with a span and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? Who has directed the spirit of the LORD, or being His counselor has taught Him?" (Isaiah 40:12-13). Behold, the Holy One, blessed be He, does not do thus except because His mercies are abundant in the world.

And how do we know that the Holy One, blessed be He, would find them reading and studying and occupying themselves with proper conduct? As it is said, "They shall walk after the LORD; He shall roar like a lion; when He roars, then the children shall come trembling from the sea" (Hosea 11:10) -- and "sea" means nothing but the words of the Torah, as it is said, "All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full" (Ecclesiastes 1:7); and it says, "They shall come trembling like a bird out of Egypt and like a dove out of the land of Assyria, and I will settle them in their houses, says the LORD" (Hosea 11:11).

And let a person not say to himself: Have I not already read and studied until this day, well and good, I no longer need to learn afterward? Let him not say so. Rather, let a person say to himself thus: after an hour comes death; and let him lift up his eyes and look at the heavens and say: Who created these, the heavens and the earth, the sun and the moon, the stars and the constellations, which rise early and stay late to do the will of their Creator every single day continually -- so shall you rise early and stay late for the words of the Torah, to do the will of your Creator every single day continually, as it is said, "And let us know, let us pursue to know the LORD; His going forth is established like the dawn" (Hosea 6:3).

And let a person look at himself and know that the words of the Torah are likened to water and to bread. And what has Torah to do with bread and water? Rather, to teach you that just as it is impossible for a person to be without bread and water even one day, so it is impossible for a person to be without Torah even one hour, as it is said, "This book of the Torah shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it; for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success" (Joshua 1:8). And are these not matters of a fortiori reasoning? If of Joshua son of Nun, who occupied himself with Torah from his youth to his old age, it is nevertheless written, "This book of the Torah shall not depart," then other people, how much more so.

And let a person look at himself and know that the words of the Torah are likened to wine and to milk, as it is said, "His eyes shall be red with wine and his teeth white with milk" (Genesis 49:12). The verse says that wine is better than milk; the teeth, that is the child -- what is milk? It raises the child; and wine gives ease of spirit to the elders and gladdens his heart and restores his soul and brightens his eyes. So too the words of the Torah raise those who learn them and give ease of spirit to whoever labors in them and gladden his heart and restore his soul and brighten his eyes, as it is said, "The Torah of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes" (Psalms 19:8-9).

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