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PIRKE ABOTH

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 642 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PIRKE ABOTH . The penultimate See also:

tract of the See also:fourth See also:part of the Mishnah is the booklet of See also:proverbs in five chapters called Massecheth Aboth (tractatus patrum), better known with a See also:sixth See also:chapter as Pirke Aboth (capitula patrum). For Pirke Aboth in See also:English see The Authorized Daily See also:Prayer See also:Book of the See also:united See also:Hebrew congregations of the See also:British See also:Empire, with a new See also:translation by the Rev. S. See also:Singer. The six chapters are there appointed to be read one on each See also:Sabbath afternoon between See also:Passover and New See also:Year. Formerly they were read, in places at least, on the six Sabbaths between Passover and See also:Pentecost only. The subsections of the chapters are hereinafter numbered as in the Authorized Prayer Book. Chapters i., ii.—The See also:Mosaic See also:succession has first to be established. See also:Moses (i., 1-3) having received the Torah from See also:Sinai, it was handed down to See also:Joshua, the Elders (Josh. See also:xxiv. 31), the Prophets and the men of the See also:Great See also:Synagogue, from one of the last of whom, See also:Simon Justus, it was received by Antigonus of Socho. Next are named (i.

4-15), without any See also:

title, as links in the See also:chain of tradition, five pairs of teachers, the last See also:Hillel and See also:Shammai, elsewhere in the Mishnah called mundi patres (Surenh. iv. 324). Rabban Jochanan See also:ben Zacchai (ii. 9) " received from Hillel and Shammai." Sayings of Jochanan and his five disciples follow, and See also:chap. ii. ends with words of their somewhat younger contemporary, See also:Rabbi Tarphon (Tputtxwv), to the effect Ars longa vita brevis. These sections (i. i-15, ii. 9-21) contain the " See also:Kern der Sammlung " (Strack). After the sayings of Shammai (i. 15) come interpolated sayings (i. 16-ii. 8) of Rabban See also:Gamaliel I., Rabban See also:Simeon, " Rabbi," i.e. R. Jehudah ha-See also:Nasi (cent.

A.D. 1-2), the traditional redactor of the Mishnah, Rabban Gamaliel II. and Hillel, which break the sequence. Chapters iii., iv.—See also:

Maxims of numerous authorities, mostly Mishnah teachers and called Rabbis (Matt. xxii. 7 seq.; J. F. p. 27), not in exact See also:chronological See also:order. Chapters v., vi.—Chap. v. which is sui generis, is presumably of later date than what precedes. Naming no teacher until the end, it combines See also:historical, legendary and didactic elements. It touches upon the miraculous and its See also:place in nature (v. 9). In See also:form it is a See also:series of numbered See also:groups of things, from the ten creative Sayings to the triads of qualities which differentiate the disciples of See also:Balaam and See also:Abraham. R.

See also:

Jacob ben Shimshon's commentary makes Aboth end with the saying of Jehudah ben Tema (v. 23), " Be bold as a See also:leopard, and See also:swift as an See also:eagle, and See also:fleet as a See also:hart, and strong as a See also:lion, to do the will of thy See also:Father wi o is in See also:heaven." Chapter vi., on acquisitio legis, is thought to have been added for use on the last of the six sabbaths above-mentioned (Strack, J. F. Ap. p. 61). In some See also:manuscripts there are seven chapters. Pirke Aboth serves as a primer to the student of rabbinic Judaism. For the most part in See also:simple Hebrew, it has a few sayings in Aramaic (i. 13-ii., 7, V. 25, 26) and some adopted See also:Greek words, as paraclete (iv. 13; See also:Philo). He who would be pious should fulfil the dicta of Aboth (Baba Kam.

3oa). It gives favourite aphorisms of leading Jewish teachers who flourished in or before the earliest See also:

Christian centuries, and supplies material for some interesting illustrations of the New Testament. Too heterogeneous to be represented by a few extracts, the collection II must be read through to be appreciated. Among the sayings of Hillel we See also:miss the best known one, What is hateful to thee do not, &c. (J. F. p. 142), with which we may now compare Ecclus. xxxi. 15 Heb., " Know (?) thy See also:neighbour is as thyself, and consider what See also:thou hatest." Of the See also:precept, " Make a fence to the Torah " (i.i; cf. iii. 17) it may be said that "every-thing is therein." As a See also:doctrine of development and as an ethical principle it is reflected in See also:Clement of See also:Alexandria's view of See also:philosophy as a 4payµos of the vineyard (Strom. i. 20), and See also:Polycarp's saying, " He that has love is far from all See also:sin." The use of Aboth in the synagogue stamps it as authoritative, and, with its See also:intrinsic excellence, has led to its being " the most popular of all rabbinical writings." For midrashic comments upon it see the Aboth of Rabbi Nathan (ed. S. Schechter, See also:Vienna, 1887), or the rendering of it (new ed., New See also:York, 1900) in M.

L. Rodkinson's translation of the Babylonian See also:

Talmud into English.

End of Article: PIRKE ABOTH

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