Photo Credit: Jodie Maoz
Avot 5:7
Seven things characterize an unformed person (golem), and seven a wise person (chacham):
- A wise person does not speak before one who is greater than he in wisdom;
- And does not break into his fellow’s speech;
- And is not hasty to answer;
- He asks what is relevant, and he answers to the point;
- And he speaks of the first [point] first, and of the last [point] last;
- And concerning that which he has not heard, he says: I have not heard;
- And he acknowledges the truth.
And the reverse of these characterize an unformed person.
Continuing the fifth chapter’s numbered structure and framework, the seventh mishna lists seven traits of a wise person (chacham). The mishna starts by mentioning that there are seven traits of an unformed person (golem) and seven of a wise one, but then goes on to list only the seven traits of the wise and concludes by saying that the reverse applies to the unformed person.
The translation of golem as “unformed” is based on other Mishnaic sources that speak of “golmei klei matakhot” – unshaped metal vessels. The term indicates an object that is yet to be finished. In his introduction to Avot, Maimonides, following Aristotle, distinguishes between moral and intellectual virtues, and highlights how moral virtues help lead to intellectual virtues. In this mishna, Maimonides suggests that these seven traits can be divided into moral and intellectual virtues. Explaining the difference between the golem and the chacham, Maimonides writes:
And an unformed person is a man that has intellectual virtues and moral virtues. However, they are not complete and properly organized. Rather, they have clutter and confusion and there is a lack mixed in with them. And because of this, he is called a golem – to compare him to a tool that a craftsman has made that has the [initial] form of [its] function [but] is missing its completion and refinement…. And a wise man is one to which these two types of virtues have come to completeness, as is needed…. And all of these are the opposite with the unformed person, since he is not complete – as we have explained – and he has not reached this level.
A golem is incomplete, but more importantly, is still in development. To add Dr. Carol Dweck’s language of growth mindset to Maimonides’ closing sentence, the golem “has not reached this level… yet.” Rabbi Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller in his commentary Tosafot Yom Tov suggests that the reason the mishna begins with the golem even though it only elaborates fully on the chacham is to allude to a developmental process. Nobody is born wise; wisdom must be learned. We must each strive to progress from being an unfinished golem to a refined chacham.
Rabbi Yosef Yavetz similarly suggests that the seven qualities presented in the mishna are not just indicators that allow us to determine who is wise. Rather, they are the actual skills that will inevitably lead one to wisdom. A person who exhibits these virtues, even if he has yet to amass the requisite knowledge associated with a wise person, is still called wise by the Mishna. Utilizing these traits will inevitably lead to wisdom.
Rabbi Marc Angel succinctly summarizes the seven traits of wisdom in this mishna in modern virtue language: “Respectfulness, patience, thoughtfulness, clarity of thought, orderliness, intellectual honesty, modesty.” One helpful modern taxonomy of intellectual virtues that can also fit within our mishna’s structure is provided by Jason Baehr, in his Deep in Thought: A Practical Guide to Teaching for Intellectual Virtues, who breaks intellectual virtues into three categories: (1) those that help initiate the process of learning (curiosity, autonomy, and intellectual humility); (2) those that keep the learning process on track (attentiveness, carefulness, and thoroughness); and (3) those pertaining to overcoming obstacles in the learning process (open-mindedness, courage/growth mindset, and tenacity/grit).
Perhaps most striking of these seven qualities of wisdom in our mishna is that they are completely framed within the realm of social communication. Wisdom is not conceptualized here in any form of abstract internal intellect. Everything revolves around active listening, relevant and organized speech, and intellectual humility. The importance of social relationships to the learning process is something that has been emphasized continually through Pirkei Avot.
What would account for the golem’s struggle to communicate properly? Turning to the psychotherapeutic realm, Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski looks to low self-esteem as the internal psychological challenge that accounts for the behavior of the golem. Rabbi Dr. Reuven Bulka similarly categorizes the golem as an “individual who has a fragile ego, who needs to assert the self and bring it into prominence” in order to overcompensate for insecurity.
Maharal suggests that underlying all seven traits of the wise is the concept of correct and accurate ordering and structure. As neuroscientist Daniel Levitin emphasizes in his The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload, being able to effectively manage our attention so that we are focused and ordered in our thinking and actions is one of the most important keys to success. Eliyahu Samuel in his With Heart and Soul: A Dialogic Commentary on the Ethics of the Sages points to the inverse theme that cuts across the inferred seven traits of the golem: impulsivity. Samuel compares this list with many of the symptoms necessary for a diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and hypothesizes that the sages in this mishna were among the first to create a catalog of symptoms related to inattentiveness.
Yet this unofficial diagnosis is once again tempered by the main message of the mishna, which is that we are all works in progress and that with proper motivation, intervention, and training, the traits of the wise can be cultivated.