Avot online: a six-month review

On 8 April we posted a summary of the citation of mishnayot and baraitot from Pirkei Avot in the online media for the first quarter of 2022. That summary revealed that the most popular mishnah online was Avot 1:6 (Yehoshua ben Perachya: “make for yourself a rav, acquire for yourself a friend and judge all people by their merit”); this mishnah was cited no fewer than six times. Second place was shared by three contenders with four citations apiece: Avot 1:14 (Hillel’s “If not now, when?”); Avot 2:21 (Rabbi Tarfon: “It’s not for you to finish the work, but nor are you free to desist from it…”) and Avot 4:1 (Ben Zoma: “Who is wise/strong/rich/honoured...?”). In fifth place, with three citations, was Shimon HaTzaddik’s teaching at Avot 1:2 (“The world stands on three things: Torah, service to God and acts of kindness”).

Overall, Hillel was most frequently-cited contributor to Avot, which was unsurprising given that he was named as the author of seven mishnayot in Avot, more than anyone else. He was cited a total of seven times, followed by Yehoshua ben Perachya on six, Rabbi Tarfon on five and Ben Zoma on four.

Now, at the half-way mark for the year, the total number of online references to Avot stands at 106 (up 60 from 46 at the end of the first quarter). Hillel’s mishnah 1:14 has taken the lead. The most frequently cited mishnayot, together with the number of times they were cited, looks like this:

Hillel (Avot 1:14) 18

Yehoshua ben Perachyah (Avot 1:6) and Ben Zoma (Avot 4:1) 11 apiece

Rabbi Tarfon (Avot 2:21) 9.

The popularity of Avot 1:14 may have something to do with the fact that it is convenient for use by authors who have little or no interest in Judaism or the Torah but who are generally exhorting their readers to do something now rather than at some later time.

More media citations of Avot come from the first perek than any of the others. In terms of popularity, the six perakim rank as follows:

Perek 1: 40 (37.7%)

Perek 2: 22 (20.7%)

Perek 3: 8 (0.7%)

Perek 4: 24 (22.6%)

Perek 5: 7 (0.7%)

Perek 6: 5 (0.5%)

I must admit some surprise at the relatively low level of references to the third perek of Avot, which contains some wonderful material (including all of Rabbi Akiva’s contributions).