Sunday 2 May 2021

Avot in Retrospect: a summary of last month's blogposts

In case you missed them, here's a list of items posted on Avot Today in April 2021:

Sunday 25 April 2021: Truth and Putting People Right: What is the relationship between conceding the truth and forcing it on to others?

Wednesday 21 April 2021: Creative Quarantine and Avot as ArtJerusalem's Kol HaOt challenges artists to compose works based on Avot under trying conditions.

Sunday 18 April 2021: Keeping Cool, Avot-Stylea rabbi references Avot in an opinion piece for City Sun Times. Which mishnah does he have in mind?

Wednesday 14 April 2021: Derech Yasharah -- the road that leads to Israel: Rabbi BenZion Meir Chai Uziel gives a modern Zionist flavour to an ancient proposition found in Avot 2:1.

Sunday 11 April 2021: The Flaming Coals -- not so bad after all? Some apparently superfluous words in Rabbi Eliezer's warning about not to mess with the chachamim are given a positive slant.

Thursday 8 April 2021: March in April: a New Book on Avot: introducing a new book on Avot with a decidedly historical focus, Who Were the Fathers? by Martin March.

Wednesday 7 April 2021: "If I am not for me": the possible and the plausibleone of Hillel's best-known aphorisms comes up for scrutiny. The Baruch She'amar offers a tantalising explanation that we have misunderstood it for the past two millennia. Does this explanation convince?

Sunday 4 April 2021: The Fantastic Mr Jackal, or "Let Sleeping Foxes Lie": Foxes appear twice in the mishnayot of Avot, but are the Tannaim actually referring to what we regard today as foxes?

Thursday 1 April 2021: Are Politicians Immune from Good Behaviour? Avot 3:15 cautions against embarrassing one's fellow humans in public. Walter Bingham wonders how, if at all, this applies to Israeli party activists.

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Avot Today blogposts for March 2021 here
Avot Today blogposts for February 2021 here
Avot Today blogposts for January 2021 here
Avot Today blogposts for December 2020 here
Avot Today blogposts for November 2020 here

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