Recommended reading? Not so easy

Last week a member of the Ask the Beit Midrash Facebook group asked its 4,500 members to recommend a good commentary on Pirkei Avot for him to study over the coming months. Readers offered a number of suggestions, each of which had something to commend it. This is what I posted:

Hold on there! You want a recommendation but haven't given a clue as to your general preferences. Pretty well ALL commentaries on Pirkei Avot are unique and interesting, so it would be good to know

(i) what language/s you can handle,

(ii) are you looking for mussar, history, textual analysis, chasidut or a pot-pourri,

(iii) do you prefer ancient or modern? For what it's worth, I can offer some suggestions:

1. Maharal, Derech Chaim: long, detailed and somewhat repetitive but with a wide range of different approaches and quite a few barbs and bombshells besides.

2. Maharam Shik: highly original and stimulating perspectives.

3. Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau: Yachel Yisrael (in Hebrew), Rav Lau on Pirkei Avos (in English): wide-ranging and informative compendium of old and new perushim plus comments from the author.

4. Rabbi Menachem Mordechai Frankel-Teumim, Be'er Ha'avot: modern but traditional, elegantly written and intelligent, this work has gone to at least three editions.

5. Chasdei Avot and Birkat Avot of the Ben Ish Chai: colourful, entertaining and with some punchy mussar and cunning gematriot too.

6. Pirkei Avot im Biurim ve'amorot kodesh, extracted from the late Lubavitcher Rebbe. You don't have to be Chabad to appreciate this book, which has a huge amount to commend it, with many points to ponder.

Finally, it's worth keeping an eye on the Avot Today Facebook Group and its easy-to-search blog at avot-today.com. Both feature book notices on new (and occasionally not-so-new) titles on Avot.

There are many other titles that spring to mind. Some are personal favourites but not necessarily what I’d recommend a stranger, such as the one found in Rabbi Baruch HaLevi Epstein’s Baruch She’amar al HaSiddur. Others are of particular historical interest, such as the Abarbanel’s Nachalot Avot—which sheds light on his views of government—and Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch’s commentary which was published at a time of rampant assimilation. Some of the best reading on Avot does not even come from formal commentaries at all: the Ramchal’s Mesillat Yesharim and Rabbi Eliezer Papo’s Pele Yo’etz make numerous telling references to Avot and would both be the poorer without them.

I’m curious to know which commentaries (or other works that refer to Avot) have commended themselves to members of this weblog. Please feel free to share your recommendations, comments and reflections by posting them on the Avot Today Facebook Group.