Quarterly report: Avot in the online media

July to September 2022

This is the third of our quarterly roundups of citations of teachings from Pirkei Avot in articles, news items and reviews posted on the internet. It covers the period 1 July to 30 September 2022 and features references to Avot that I have picked up through Google Alert, discounting any items that have been repeated or syndicated from an earlier source.

So far this year we have found 146 Avot citations. During the third quarter there were only 40 Avot citations, as against the first and second quarters (46 and 60 respectively). Of the 40, no fewer than eight—that’s 20 percent—were to Avot 1:5, where Yehoshua ben Perachyah teaches us to make for ourselves a teacher, acquire a friend and judge other people favourably. Second comes Ben Zoma’s four-fold Mishnah at Avot 4:1 (“who is wise/strong/rich/honoured?”), with five citations. No other mishnah or baraita gets more than two citations.

The year to date

Over the first nine months of 2022, the single most popular teaching in Avot remains Hillel’s at Avot 1:14 (“If I am not for me, who is for me? And if I am only for me, what am I? And if not now, when”), with a total of 14 citations, two up on Ben Zoma (above) who gets 12 and three ahead of Yeshoshua ben Perachyah (above) who receives 11.

The most heavily quoted Tanna is Hillel with 24 citations, spread across four separate mishnayot. Next come two single-entry Tannaim: Yehoshua ben Perachyah’s mishnah receives 19 citations and Ben Zoma’s stands at 16. Far behind in fourth place is Rabbi Tarfon, whose two mishnayot between them are quoted 10 times.

Several well-known rabbis are rarely mentioned online at all. These include Rabbi Akiva (whose four teachings receive between them only three references) and his talmidimRabbi Meir and Rabbi Yose (cited just once each). Those great stalwarts of the Mishnah, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya, Rabbi Yehudah bar Ila’I, Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, Rabbi Yose ben Chalafta and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, have not been cited at all.

The distribution of citations between the six perakim remains uneven. Of the 146, 52 are from the first perek, which contains both Yehoshua ben Perechyah's popular mishnah and three of Hillel's teachings. A distant second is the fourth perek, with 35. Next is the second perek, with 28. The other three chapters muster only 31 citations between them.

We hope to bring you a full report on Avot citations for the full year 2022 some time early in January 2023.