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How did the first person drown if Hillel says drowning comes from having drowned someone? The shiur develops that divine justice operates differently from human courts - punishing not just the act but the character deficiency it reveals. Since nothing happens to anyone undeserved, our primary response to suffering should be self-examination rather than revenge.
This shiur examines a fundamental Mishna in Pirkei Avos where Hillel sees a skull floating in water and declares that it drowned because it had drowned someone, and those who drowned it will also drown. Rabbi Zweig addresses several challenging questions: How did the first person drown if drowning comes from having drowned someone? Why is this principle taught through a story rather than stated directly? And why does God's measure-for-measure justice differ from a court's punishment? The analysis begins with the principle that God's justice operates on two levels - not just the legality of an act, but the character deficiency it reveals. This is illustrated through the story of Dovid and Bathsheba, where the prophet Nathan tells a parable about a rich man stealing a poor man's only sheep. Rabbi Zweig explains that Dovid's sin wasn't technically adultery (since Bathsheba was divorced for military expediency), but rather the cruelty of a wealthy king taking the one precious thing from someone who had nothing else.
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Pirkei Avos - Hillel's teaching about the skull floating in water
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