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It was the angel, newly come to Shtetl, who had suggested to Little Ash that the two of them begin by studying Pirkei Avot. It was, after all, a foundational tractate. Besides, studying Mishnah was meant to come before Gemara, and from what it had seen so far, the angel was not at all convinced that Little Ashmedai had followed anything like an appropriate educational progression.
Also, the angel had not yet finished teaching itself Aramaic, and it found Mishnah — composed in Hebrew as the Oral Law was — much easier than the language of the Gemara.
Little Ash, for his part, was still irritated with the angel for ruining his midnight lessons with Shtetl’s rabbi. But his attempts to be annoying enough that the angel would give up in despair, as all of his former teachers had done, had proven ineffective so far. Equally unsuccessful had been his appeals to logical argumentation — though he had been rather pleased with himself for pointing out that if all-night learning on erev Shavuos was a good thing for humans to do, then surely all-night learning every night must be even better. And so, he had decided that if he was going to be stuck with an angelic study partner anyway, he might as well make the most of it while it lasted.
Sooner or later (probably sooner) it would get tired of him, as teachers always did. Then he could go back to pestering the rabbi, who was too patient and too human to kick him out and make it stick.
As it turned out, an angel and a demon studying a collection of ethical teachings was excellent fodder for passionate arguments. So, against his own will, Little Ash found quickly that he was very much enjoying himself.
So was his new chevrusa. This was, of course, because there is nothing an angel finds more satisfying than carrying out its purpose, and the angel's present purpose was to study with Little Ash.
As evidence of their mutual enjoyment, the pair had been discussing the text for well over an hour, perhaps longer (neither had been paying any attention to the passage of time, given that they had been more interesting things on which to focus)... and they had only just gotten to the seventh verse of the first chapter.
“ Nittai the Arbeli says,” Little Ash read out loud, “ keep a distance from an evil neighbor, and do not become attached to the wicked—”
He broke off without finishing the sentence, recognizing a perfect opening, and turned to the angel who was currently occupying the name of Debate.
“Did you hear that? ‘Evil neighbor’ — that’s talking about me, obviously. I’m a neighbor and I’m wicked. And see, Nittai here says you should stay away from me.”
The angel, sitting with its tallis-wrapped shoulder pressed close against Little Ash’s, was evidently doing a very poor job indeed of maintaining distance. It looked thoughtfully at the text, then back to Little Ash.
“I don’t think so,” Debate said, in the polite way that Little Ash had already learned was a sign that a complete and utter refutation was imminent.
“Why not?” he queried reluctantly. He was, despite himself, curious about how the angel was going to go about refuting such a remarkably unambiguous instruction as Nittai’s was.
“Because,” said the angel, “we were just learning how Yehoshua ben Prachya taught that one person should judge another with the scale weighted generously.”
It indicated the relevant line in the Mishnah, as if Little Ash could have already forgotten. They had had quite the spirited discussion, which had ended only a few minutes earlier (which Little Ash was sure he had won, while the angel believed they had agreed to disagree), as to what it meant to weigh the scales of judgment in a person’s favor and, in fact, whether one should do so at all. The angel had agreed with Rabbi Yehoshua. Little Ash was of the opinion that giving others too much benefit of the doubt put your own self at risk, and anyway people should be held accountable.
Their differing viewpoints were, perhaps, somewhat influenced by the fact that angels by nature see the good that exists within all people, while demons are uniquely skilled at spotting the parallel presence of evil.
“But what do Yehoshua’s scales have to do with anything?” Little Ash complained now. “We’re not talking about that anymore. We’re talking about leaving your wicked neighbors alone so they can be wicked.”
For emphasis, he lifted a hand to point dramatically at the phrase in question — and huffed in annoyance when his chevrusa gently intercepted his dirty fingers before they could touch the holy page.
“Well,” the angel said patiently, “I’m not convinced that is exactly what Nittai HaArbeli is suggesting. But regardless, in your case…”
It paused, and then made a correction that surprised Little Ash.
“I mean, in our case.”
Little Ash opened his mouth to say that there was no our anything, he was a sheyd and the angel was an interference he had never asked for, and any language implying that they were a unit of some kind was obviously unfounded and wrong.
And then, for some reason that Little Ash could not entirely understand, he decided not to say anything at all.
“In our case,” the angel resumed, once it realized that a miracle had occurred and Little Ash had actually closed his mouth without speaking, “when I judge you with the scale in your favor, I think that you are not so very wicked as all that.”
If Little Ash had been surprised before, now he was inclined to be offended. Clearly the angel had not yet noticed how much trouble he was capable of causing. Little Ash would have to get busy, in order to correct that misconception.
He did not even notice that he had, somehow, started thinking as if he expected the future to go on involving the angel.
“So you see,” Debate concluded calmly, “there is no need for me to stay away, or to keep distant. And since Rabbi Yehoshua also said before that one should acquire a companion and a teacher, I think that we are both doing exactly the right thing, by learning together. And we should continue to do so.”
It patted Little Ash’s hand, which it was still holding in its own (to keep the books safe, of course). Whether the pat was intended to express comfort, triumph, or perhaps both, Little Ash couldn’t tell.
Either way, he did feel both (temporarily) triumphed over and, on some inexplicable level, comforted. It was not quite such an unpleasant combination of feelings as he might have expected. He wondered why.
The angel, meanwhile, was also wondering something: why the phrase "attached to the wicked" was lingering in its thoughts so much. After all, it is a known fact that angels do not generally develop personal attachments to anyone , wicked or otherwise.
They sat together, malach and sheyd, shoulder to shoulder and hand in hand, and wondered their own private wonderings.
Eventually, they went back to arguing.