Bart Giamatti, the former President of Yale University who would go on to become the Commissioner of Major League Baseball, was once the guest speaker at the dinner of a major Jewish organization. The guests of honor were the members of the New York City Board of Estimate, which at the time consisted of the Mayor, the President of the City Council, the City Comptroller, and the five Borough Presidents. In his remarks, Professor Giamatti quoted a mishnah from this week’s chapter of Pirkei Avos: “Pray for the welfare of the ruling authorities, for if it were not for the fear of it, each man would eat his friend alive.” Later in the evening, Claire Shulman, the Queens Borough President, replied, “Bart, the problem with what you said is that the people on this stage eat each other alive every day.” Professor Giamatti and Borough President Shulman actually represented different approaches to this mishnah.