A Gathering Place of Fools

Mishnah Avos 3:3 teaches in the name of Rav Chanina son of Tradyon: Two who sit together and do not exchange words of Torah are a gathering of mocking cynics, as it is stated (Tehillim 1:1), “And among a gathering of cynics he did not sit.” The Modzitzer Rebbe records in Kelalei Oraisa (os shin) that he heard from the elder chassid Rav Meshulem of Plontsk how the Modzitzer’s grandfather, the Kuzhmirer Rebbe, once visited the town of Plontsk. A wealthy gvir there, a learned lamdan and a Misnagged who knew the Rebbe, invited him to stay at his home and prepared a meal in his honor. As they sat at the table, the host was in a good mood and asked the Rebbe to say a few words. The Kuzhmirer Rebbe grabbed the table with both hands and shoved it far away, to underscore his words: “Chazal say, ‘If two are sitting together but there are no words of Torah shared between them, then this is a gathering place of fools.’ It should have said that they themselves are fools. Why does the Mishnah’s criticism seem to focus on the gathering place and not on the fools themselves? Rather, if two Torah scholars sit together and have no words of Torah to share, it must be due to the impurity of the place where they sit, because that table served previously as a gathering for fools, and their negative influence affected it.” The Modzitzer adds that afterwards he found this explanation in the name of Rav Michele of Zlotshuv.