Worth looking into...

If you are seriously committed to Pirkei Avot, here are four random items that may be of interest.

Avot in the social media 1: The larger the audience, the greater the responsibility. Though I try to keep up with the Dee Pirkei Avot Project, I’m sometimes a week or two behind. It’s a little while since the Project covered Avot 1:11, where Avtalyon teaches:

“Sages, be careful with your words, lest you incur the penalty of exile and be dispatched to a place of evil waters and the disciples who follow you drink and die, so the name of Heaven becomes profaned”.

The Project, based on an idea by Rebbetzin Chana Hughes, comments as follows:

“If you have more wisdom or knowledge, then by definition you have more responsibility; the power that you hold to influence others’ lives can be significant. Even if you have increased expertise in one area, people are likely to ask for your advice and ideas. The message [of Avtalyon] is particularly valuable today when social media enable more people than ever before to influence others. Although influencers may enjoy the rush of success and feeling of having an impact, it is also crucial to keep in mind the weight of responsibility that comes alongside it. The larger the audience, the more potential there is for misunderstanding and the clearer the communication needs to be”.

Avot Today will be revisiting the subject of the social media again soon, with a post on getting the right balance between learning Torah and spreading it—so watch this space!

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Avot in the social media 2. Spreading the word. So far, 2023 has been a good year for citations of Pirkei Avot on the electronic media. By the end of June last year, Google Alerts picked up 106 references to Pirkei Avot on blogs, websites and articles in the popular press and journals. This year, over the same period and using the same search terms, the number of citations had shot up to 169, an increase of nearly 60 per cent. The most frequently-quoted Mishnah is from R’ Tarfon (Avot 2:21): “It’s not for you to finish the work, but neither are you free to leave off doing it”, an aphorism that is as likely to be found in the mouths of a politician or business as being repeated by a Torah teacher. Next most-heavily cited is Hillel’s injunction to be like Aaron (Avot 1:12), loving peace and pursuing it. Hillel, with seven mishnayot in Avot, remains the Tanna whose teachings get the most citations (17), followed by R’ Tarfon (8) and Ben Zoma (5). Surprisingly, given its popularity last year, Yehoshua ben Perachyah’s advice to judge others favourably has hardly been cited at all in 2023. Does this reflect a change in social attitudes, or is there some other explanation?

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Be afraid—or at least respectful! At 4:15, R’ Elazar ben Shammua says:

יְהִי כְבוֹד תַּלְמִידְךָ חָבִיב עָלֶֽיךָ כְּשֶׁלָּךְ, וּכְבוֹד חֲבֵרְךָ כְּמוֹרָא רַבָּךְ, וּמוֹרָא רַבָּךְ כְּמוֹרָא שָׁמָֽיִם

 "Respect for your student should be as precious to you as your own; respect for your friend should be like your awe for your teacher—and you should be as much in awe of your teacher as you are in awe of Heaven”.

This Mishnah has been rendered into a song, Moireh Rabbach, by simcha singers and brothers Shea and Avrumi Berko, who add:

These inspiring words … portray the love and dedication that Rebbeim and Mechanchim have for their precious Talmidim day in day out, which leads to the awesome respect and admiration that parents and Talmidim alike, give in return to their beloved Rebbeim and Mechanchim.

You can access this song on this link (duration 4 minutes 22 seconds).

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Eternal wisdom. There’s a new ArtScroll title on Pirkei Avot, published this spring: R’ Yechiel Spero’sThe Eternal Wisdom of Pirkei Avot. According to the publisher’s website:

In The Eternal Wisdom of Pirkei Avos master teacher and storyteller Rabbi Yechiel Spero shares with us an insight, a story, and a takeaway for every mishnah in Pirkei Avos. By combining the brilliant understanding of the Tannaim with stories as contemporary as today, Rabbi Spero offers us a powerful way to bring the messages of Pirkei Avos into our daily challenges and experiences, enhancing our relationships and bringing new, joyful meaning to our lives.

I’ve not yet had a chance to see it for myself but I’m all in favour of bringing the messages of Avot into our daily challenges, whether through stories of our sages or by seeking out novel interpretations of the messages themselves.