Brewer’s Blackbird : Teachers vs. Teachings

Brewer’s Blackbird

This is a Brewer’s Blackbird.  Look closely first at the bird.  You’ll see a subtle color palette.  They’re blackbirds, but as the light glints, you’ll see shades of blues and purples as well.  Set off by that piercing yellow eye, they’re mesmerizing.  Now zoom out just a bit; examine his perch.  See the “whitewash?”  It’s natural, of course, but perhaps you’re asking why I’d include it in the photo, much less this teaching.  Fair question.  Now imagine that it’s dusk.  You’ve parked your car under a copse of trees.  And the trees are filled with hundreds of these roosting birds.  Now envision your car….  How to reconcile a single bird’s beauty and a roosting flock’s… well, you know.  Reconciling the good and the bad is largely a question of perspective.

Tradition teaches of an apostate rabbi, Elisha ben Avuya.  He was brilliant, a teacher to eminent Sages.  But he engaged in forbidden activities, and he was fundamentally changed for the worse.  Even his name changed, no longer Elisha but instead Acher, literally meaning “Other.”  After this transformation, he doubled-down, engaging in outrageous behavior.  He was awful.  Yet he remained possessed of his prior knowledge and was an insightful - if perilous - teacher.  The Sages extensively discuss whether it is possible or desirable to separate the teacher from the teachings.  They conclude that with limits and distance, valuable lessons can be learned even from a questionable source.  But it requires a precise perspective.

Millenia later we routinely face the very same issue.  Our news brims with celebrities, politicians, and business leaders whose substantive contributions are indisputable - and whose personal conduct is equally reprehensible.  The Sages offer a reconciling analogy:  think of a nut.  You throw away the shell - coated with dirt and excrement - and keep the meat within.  Distance is critical, too.  Older, mature students may study these teachers, but youngsters should not.  And there is even modern discussion which draws distinctions between “live” people and their written works.  These questions - still, today - remain conundrums.  Perhaps the Blackbird, seen near and far, can remind us what we most need:  perspective.