Chag same'ach
מֹשֶׁה קִבֵּל תּוֹרָה מִסִּינַי
Moshe received the Torah from
Sinai…
This can only mean the Oral Torah—the teachings of which
Pirkei Avot is an important part—because we already know from the Written Torah
that Moses received it on Mount Sinai and the mishnayot of the Oral Torah are
not meant to repeat what we already know from our written tradition.
On behalf of Avot Today, its contributors and its
commentators, I wish you all chag same’ach, a happy and meaningful
festival in which we can all reflect in depth and at leisure on the intricate
web of laws and ethical principles that shape our daily lives and mould our
very existence.
Since our previous update, interest in our Facebook Group
and Blog has continued to grow.
The Avot Today Facebook Group now has nearly 340 members.
We keep looking for more serious contributors who can write for us on a regular
basis. If you think you might be such a person, please message me (Jeremy). The
Avot Today blog has received over 75,000 site visits from readers since
it started in May 2020.
The blog holds all the Avot posts that feature on the
Facebook Group. It has the advantage that its text can be word-searched and the
topics it covers can also be hunted down by keywords.
Do please share this information with anyone and everyone
you know who loves or appreciates Pirkei Avot. The more the readers, the more
the comments—and the more we can all learn from each other.
I don’t know how many readers of Avot Today have Spanish as
their mother tongue but, if they do, here is something for them: titled “The wonderful role of being a Jewish
woman”: Spreading Judaism for Spanish-speaking women, it’s a 43 minute
presentation by Rabbanit Esther Matot. Rabbanit Matot, who was born and raised
in Argentina, has been dedicated for more than a decade to promoting greater
knowledge of Judaism, especially among women. You can check it out here.
Rabbi Mordechai Schiffman’s regular Psyched for Avot posts
are going from strength to strength. If you have yet to sample Rabbi
Schiffman’s special blend of erudition and psychology, here’s
a link to over 160 shiurim on Pirkei Avot which he gave over the years
at Kingsway Jewish Center. You can also take the time to read the 56 essays,
covering the first three perakim of Avot, which he has made available on his
website here.
Reclaimed!
Many Avot Today readers are also members of the Judaism Reclaimed Facebook Group, here. A much bigger group than Avot Today, with nearly 7,500 members, it describes itself as being “dedicated to discussions relating to Philosophy and Theology in the Torah”. Its many posts and discussions occasionally stray into the territory of Pirkei Avot. The most recent of these is a discussion of the proper response to the death of an enemy, posted in the wake of the death last month of Iran’s President Raisi in a helicopter accident. Judaism Reclaimed has now established a parallel weblog on which it is in the process of reposting all its Facebook posts. At present it has around 70 pieces, all of which can be searched by text and by keyword. You can check it out here.
Rav Asher Weiss on Avot
I’ve bought a copy and look forward to perusing it. Given Rav Weiss’s eminence as a contemporary Torah scholar, I’m sure it will contain many fascinating insights into Pirkei Avot and I hope to share some of them on Avot Today.
