I will be busy with university work again soon, so I will probably going to be updating this blog less for now. But I will try to keep it going, just like I will find time to read books on Judaism and learn Hebrew in addition to my actual studies and soon work as well.

This week I decided to make a post about Pirkei Avot. This term keeps coming up in a synagogue newsletter, and I realized that I don’t actually really know what it is. Of course, I have read about it, and I have most likely heard it before, but if someone asked me to tell them about it, I wouldn’t know what to tell.

Pirkei Avot literally means ‘Chapters of the Fathers’ and it is one of the most cited Jewish texts. Some suggest ‘Avot’ should be translated as ‘bases’, not as ‘fathers.’ Why? Because Pirkei Avot provides a basis of ethical principles by the rabbis whose legal rulings can be found in the Mishnah. Starting from the transmission of Torah from Moses to Joshua, the prophets, and the first rabbis, it not only traces the long journey of Torah transmission from one generation to the next, from one rabbi to another, it also gives insight into the worldview of each rabbi, and although the interpretations have changed according to times, Pirkei Avot also shows the unbreakable connection from Moses at Mount Sinai to its teachers thousands years later.

It also provides some very famous sayings that are familiar to many Jewish people today, even if they do not have much knowledge of Pirkei Avot as such.

Shimon HaTzaddik

“The World stands on three things: Torah, the service of G-d, and deeds of kindness.”

Hillel:

“If I am not for myself, who is for me? And when I am for myself, what am ‘I’? And if not now, when?”

There is a lot more to learn about Pirkei Avot, but hopefully writing this helps me remember a little more about it, and if someone asks me what it means, I will be able to tell them a little what it is all about.

I am going to think about words for ‘Word of the Day’ posts next, although unfortunately I don’t think I can keep up posting a new word every day, but I will do it in phases.

Other topics I am thinking of covering: choosing the right shul and the experience of living “in between” two worlds and the feeling of not belonging.