In Jewish Studies, we had a big project. We learned about chapter two in Pirkei Avot. And had to choose five verses and for each of them we had to write the meaning lesson. We had to find a song that connected. And write why it connects. Here are my five paragraphs.
Verse 3
The summary of verse three is “Be careful to befriend people in power because, in your time of need, they won’t help you.”(Avot 2:3) The way I interpreted it is that put yourself first in a friendship with someone who will take advantage of you. A lesson I think that can connect to this verse is you shouldn’t have a one-way friendship since it never benefits you. Another lesson I learned is that people don’t always give back what you give to them. The song I thought can connect to this verse is “One Way Friendship” sung by IVOXYGEN. A quote from this song that represents this verse the most is “You keep one way You keep one-way Friendship Where am I? You ain’t listening You ain’t listening Kill my vibe Kill my soul”(IVOXYGEN). I think this connects to this verse because in this song IVOXYGEN expresses how it feels to be having a one-way friendship where IVOXYGEN is giving and not at all getting. Another quote from this song is “ Keep on acting up. Solo talk. On a stage. You ain’t listening. You ain’t listening. Do you know what I feel.”(IVOXYGEN) This quote also expresses how people in power in your time of need they won’t listen like how the song says “You ain’t listening. Do you know what I feel” IVOXYGEN is saying how this friendship is only about the other person and IVOXYGEN isn’t getting anything out of it. Because they’re not listening or paying any attention to IVOXYGEN’s needs.
Verse 8:
Verse eight has a very interesting and complex and talks a lot about different concepts and how everything you do has an effect on you later in life or the rest of the world the two main ideas that it talks about are “The more you have the more you work and the more you give the more the world is at peace.” (Avot 2:8) An appropriate lesson that I thought I could take from this is that you have to work hard to get what you need. The song I choose is called “Beer On the Table” sung by (Thompson) The quote from this song that I choose is “It’s killing me but then again it’s keeping me alive. It puts the gas in my truck, butter on my biscuits, and A couple of bucks when I’m itching for a scratch-off ticket. That poker makes me broker every Saturday night. I still got running water and they ain’t cut off the lights. Come Friday night, my friends and I, start peeling off them labels. Working hard all week puts beer on the table”(Thompson). I thought this quote most represented this verse because the song is talking about how if you work hard you will get want as it says in the verse the more you have the more you have to work which relates to the concept of the song where the more you work the more you have.
Verse 9:
This verse says, “Don’t claim credit for your knowledge, give credit to G-d who created you to indulge in knowledge”(Avot 2:9). The way I interpreted it is God plays a role in everything you do. The message/lesson I took from this verse is that give your credit to G-d because he made it all. A song I thought had a very similar message is “The best things in life are straight from His hands Like the raising kids on a piece of land A little peace of mind when the day is done Where you think that comes from? That’s gifts from God Oh, yeah It makes you thankful for the hills that we climb, for the waves that we ride For the lows and the highs, for the wrongs made right For the songs we sing, for the dreams we dream Makes you thankful for everything” (Tomlin) This long but meaningful quote does relate to verse nine because in the quote it says to be thankful because it all comes from g-d which relates to the verse because the verse is saying that we can’t claim our knowledge as our own because G-d gives us everything. The song also states the best things from G-d are direct. So why would we claim knowledge if G-d gave us the power to indulge in knowledge? Because we can’t claim other things that G-d gave us for example if you read the Torah and then said all that knowledge is mine but in reality, G-d gave us the Torah and gave us the power to understand it so all the credit should go to G-d.
Verse 16:
Verse sixteen is an important verse even though it may be short it holds a deeper meaning. In the verse, it states, “If you are evil it will drive you away from the world”(Avot 2:16). Don’t let yourself be driven away by bad deeds. The message of this verse is that benign evil comes with consequences. And doesn’t just drive you away it drives the people around you away from you. So that is why I chose this song called “Evil Ways” by the artist Santana the quote I choose says “You’ve got to change your evil ways, baby Before I stop lovin’ you. You’ve got to change, baby, And every word that I say is true. You’ve got me runnin’ and hidin’ all over town You’ve got me sneakin’ and a peepin’ and runnin’ you down. This can’t go on Lord knows, you’ve got to change, baby”(Sanatana) It says in the song that you have to change your evil ways the lord knows you have to change which connects to the verse because they both talk about evil driving you away and how it’s not just driving you away it’s driving the people around you away. In another part of the quote from the song. They both also talk about how the person is looking for the evil one and how it’s not fair and that the evil one should change not the one whos looking for them.
Verse 4:
In verse four it says “Do not say something that cannot be understood [trusting] that in the end it will be understood”(Avot 2:4). What I thought the meaning of this verse was that don’t try and confuse people so they will only understand after. Make it clear what you are trying to say. A lesson that can be learned is not to lie because it’s not fair to the person you are lying to because they will not understand the truth. The song I choose to connect to the verse is called “ Don’t Lie” By Black Eyed Peas. The quote I choose from this song is “No, no, no, no baby, no, no, no, no don’t lie No, no, no, no, yeah you know, know, know, know you gotta try What are you gonna do when it all comes out When I’m here to see you, what you’re all about No, no, no, no baby, no, no, no, no don’t lie Yeah you know, know, know, know, you gotta try (stop, st-st-stop, st-st-stop lying)”(Black-Eyed Peas). The way that this connects to the verse is that they both talk about the concept of not lying. Another way that they connect is that in a way they both have something to say about how it’s not fair to the person being lied to. And how it’s more unfair to the person being lied to because now they don’t understand what is actually going on. Both the verse and the song say that with a lie the realization of the truth will only come after and that’s not fair.
The songs are:
Bibliography
YouTube, YouTube, 12 Sept. 2008, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tKIPuLfeKg&ab_channel=uklangang. Accessed 31 May 2023.
YouTube, YouTube, 2 Feb. 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws28qWnPwig&ab_channel=AngelDust. Accessed 31 May 2023.
YouTube, YouTube, 24 Jan. 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgmkipN09Ns. Accessed 31 May 2023.
YouTube, YouTube, 25 Jan. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qol6ksygqI&ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv=8qol6ksygqI&ab_channel=JoshThompson-Topicb_channel. Accessed 31 May 2023.