Might as Well: What Strength Is Valued?

Adapted from the writings of Dayan Yitzhak Grossman

October 23, 2025

The Associated Press reports:

With nothing but grit, muscle, and an iron jaw, a hugely popular Egyptian wrestler geared up for an extraordinary challenge Saturday: pulling a 700-ton ship across the water with a rope held only by his teeth…

It was no easy task, but Ashraf Mahrous, also known by his nickname Kabonga, has dazzled before with his astonishing strength. Earlier this year, he pulled a train. He has also singlehandedly pulled a locomotive, and four years ago, a truck…

The scene was set Saturday at the shore in Hurghada. Mahrous first pulled a 700-ton ship, and to affirm his challenge he pulled two ships weighing approximately 1,150 tons together.

“I pulled them both, thanks to G-d, to prove to my friends and the whole world that G-d blessed me by being the strongest man in the world,” Mahrous said…

It wasn’t his first ship pull. Six years ago, he tried for two hours before he managed to pull a 4,000-ton ship in the water, a rope strapped to his shoulders, for about 30 meters…

In March, he was formally recognized by Guinness World Records for the heaviest rail pull: He pulled a train weighing 279 tons with a rope held by his teeth for a distance of nearly 10 meters (33 feet). At the time, he received two other certificates, for the heaviest locomotive pull and for the fastest 100-meter road vehicle pull…

His ambitions are far from over. Next, he plans to send a request to the Egyptian presidency for permission to pull a submarine.

He also hopes someday to pull a plane using only his eyelid muscles.[1]

The Mishnah famously teaches that true strength and wealth are moral rather than physical:

Ben Zoma says…Who is a strong man (gibor)? He who conquers his inclination, as it is said: “He who is slow to anger is better than a strong man, and a master of his passions is better than the conqueror of a city.”[2] Who is a wealthy man (ashir)? He who is happy with his share, as it is said: “When you eat of the labor of your hands, you are fortunate and all is well with you.”[3]^,[4]

The Gemara, however, seems to teach that sheer physical strength and wealth are religiously significant as well:

R’ Yochanan said: Hakadosh Baruch Hu rests His Shechinah only upon a person who is mighty and wealthy and wise and humble. And all of these are derived from Moshe.

He was mighty…Derive it from this pasuk: “I grasped the two luchos and cast them from upon my two hands, and I smashed them”…

He was wealthy, as it says, “Carve yourself…”—the fragments (hewn away in carving the luchos) will be yours.[5]

Elsewhere, the Gemara states:

For the master said: The Shechinah rests only upon someone who is wise, strong, wealthy, and tall.[6]

But despite the clear implication that the strength and wealth in question are physical rather than moral, the Rambam seems to have understood them as moral. In the Mishneh Torah, he writes:

And nevuah (prophecy) is bestowed only upon a sage who is great in wisdom and strong in his character (gibor bemidosav), whose inclination never overcomes him in any matter in the world, but he, with his mind, overcomes his inclination consistently…[7]

The Kessef Mishneh suggests that the Rambam here is not citing the Gemara’s requirement of physical strength but is rather formulating his own requirement of moral strength.[8] The Me’il Shmuel (R’ Shmuel Florentin) seems to suggest that the Rambam understands Ben Zoma and R’ Yochanan to have a general machlokess whether “strength” refers to moral or physical strength, and he is ruling like Ben Zoma.[9]

In Shmonah Prakim, however, the Rambam explicitly explains the Gemara’s references to strength and wealth as addressing moral qualities:

Know that every navi did not prophesy until he possessed all the intellectual attainments and most of the character attainments and the strongest among them, and this is what they said, “Nevuah only rests upon a person who is wise, mighty, and wealthy.” “Wise” undoubtedly includes all the intellectual attainments. “Wealthy” is among the character attainments, i.e., histapkus (sufficiency), because they call someone who is mistapeik wealthy…Similarly, “strong” is also among the character attainments, i.e., that he manages his faculties in accordance with knowledge and counsel…and this is what they said: “Who is strong? He who conquers his inclination.”[10]

He writes similarly in Moreh Nevuchim:

As for the principle I laid down, that preparation and perfection of moral and rational faculties are required (for nevuah), it is what the Chachamim say: “Nevuah only rests upon those who are wise, mighty, and wealthy.” We have already explained this in our commentary on the Mishnah and in our large work (the Mishneh Torah).[11]

The Rambam clearly implies here that in the Mishneh Torah, too, he is only explaining Chazal’s stipulation of strength and wealth as requirements for nevuah—rather than setting forth his own independent requirements, as suggested by the Kessef Mishneh, or rejecting R’ Yochanan’s perspective in favor of Ben Zoma’s, as the Me’il Shmuel appears to suggest.[12]

The inconsistency between the Rambam’s apparent understanding of strength and wealth in the context of nevuah as moral qualities and the Gemara citing Moshe’s physical strength and wealth as a basis for those qualities being required was already raised by the Ran, which led him to reject the Rambam’s understanding and instead read the Gemara literally as stipulating that a navi must be physically strong and materially wealthy.[13]

Elsewhere, however, the Gemara teaches that Torah and physical strength are actually incompatible:

R’ Chanan said: Why is Torah called tushiyah? Because it weakens (mateshess) the strength of man.[14]

The Gemara elsewhere relates an anecdote that constitutes a graphic illustration of this incompatibility:

One day R’ Yochanan was swimming in the Yardein River. Reish Lakish (then a highwayman) saw him and jumped into the Yardein after him. R’ Yochanan said to him, “Your strength belongs to the Torah.” Reish Lakish said to him, “Your beauty belongs to women.” R’ Yochanan said to him, “If you do teshuvah, I will give you my sister, who is more beautiful than I, in marriage.” Reish Lakish accepted this upon himself. Reish Lakish wanted to return to retrieve his clothes, but he was unable to muster the strength (to jump as before, because once he accepted the yoke of Torah, tashash kocho (his strength was weakened)—Rashi).[15]

Commenting on the statement in Pirkei Avos that “Beauty, strength (ko’ach), wealth…these befit the righteous,”[16] R’ Yaakov Emden explains that the importance of strength for a talmid chacham and the fact that Torah study weakens a person are actually two sides of the same coin: A reservoir of strength is “a great advantage” for a talmid chacham, because Torah study will sap his strength (as well to enable him to tolerate suffering).[17]

[1]Fatma Khaled and Ahmed Hatem. Popular Egyptian ‘strong man’ goes for another jaw-dropping challenge: Pulling a ship with his teeth. https://apnews.com/article/egypt-strong-man-ship-pull-mahrous-cbc3184a26bdbc84034cc6843bc8f00e.

Cf. here.

[7]Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah 7:1.

[8]Kessef Mishneh ibid. Cf. Lechem Mishneh ibid.

[9]Me’il Shmuel ibid. Cf. Mirkevess Hamishneh (Rav Alfandari) ibid.

[10]Shmonah Prakim perek 7. Cf. Hakdamah Lepeirush Hamishnah, s.v. Vehacheilek hasheini.

[11]Moreh Nevuchim cheilek 2 perek 32.