Articles with the tag: chapter 1

Creator of Silence (1:17)

As the hot summer weather takes hold and school lets out, more is shed than winter clothes and late night homework assignments. It seems as if the kick-back, take-life-easy attitude affects our very behavior. Young people are friskier, the rules of dress (even those of modesty, unfortunately) seem more relaxed, talk is looser, and parents give their children more leeway. No wonder then, that the Sages instituted the study of the ETHICS OF OUR FATHERS during these summer months. 

What separates Jewish morals from those of the rest of the world? A simple answer might be gleaned from the 100 year old story concerning the President of Harvard University, Charles W. Eliot. A new hall of philosophy was being dedicated…

Continue reading Creator of Silence (1:17)

Don’t Hate the Rabbis (1:10)

We live in an age when moral criticism is considered in bad taste and offensive. Of course, this makes most mothers politically incorrect. But they are not in such bad company. Their moral high-ground is shared by Judaism, as the Talmud points out,  “All Jews are responsible for one another.”

This brings us to the classic, moral treatise Ethics of our Fathers, whose first of six chapters will be studied this Shabbat afternoon in most synagogues. In Mishnah number ten we are introduced to Shemayah, a proselyte, or perhaps the descendant of proselytes, turned Sage. He and his colleague Avtalyon, who lived in the middle of the first century BCE, refused to take an oath of allegiance to King Herod,...

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Be Part of the Journey (1:5)

In its wake, Passover brings spring, the counting of the Omer days leading up to the festival of Shavuot and the study of that ancient text, Pirkei Avot, Ethics of our Fathers. The opening chapter introduces the moral directives of several Talmudic Sages including Yose ben Yochanan who lived in the second century BCE, in the generation just before the Maccabean revolt.
Rabbi Yose who lived in Jerusalem addresses the issue of hospitality. His statement runs as follows,  “Let your house be open wide and let the poor be members of your household.” The fact that Yose ben Yochanan resided in the capital may explain his emphasis on having guests. As we know, Jews from all over the land made…

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The Dirty Truth (1:4)

The universe is shrinking. I don’t mean in the physical sense. Indeed in that matter, science has finally caught up to the Midrash that explains how the constellations and the planets are expanding. What I refer to is how the world-at-large communicates. Until recently, humans in different parts of the globe could not speak to one another. Then, just over a century ago, the first telephones were connecting families and distant communities. Then the Fax machine brought us even closer together. What followed were CNN and its instantaneous on-the-spot reporting, the World Wide Web, then the latest Pony Express, E-Mail, and now cell phones that make us accessible 24 hours a day. 

With all this talking going on, you would…

Continue reading The Dirty Truth (1:4)

Little Mountain (1:1)

On this very first Shabbat after the Pesach holiday, with the taste of Matzoh and Maror still lingering, preparations for the next festival are already underway.  Soon the two days of Shavuot commemorating the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai will be upon us.  We will eat blintzes, listen to the reading of the Ten Commandments and recite the Yizkor prayer.

However, to do all the above in the proper spirit requires groundwork.  It has therefore become a time-honored tradition to study on each of the six Sabbaths that separate Pesach and Shavuot, one chapter of the famous work, Ethics of our Fathers.  This collection of our Sages’ timeless morals and wisdom was deemed one of the best cultivators…

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A Matter of Trust (1:1)

Pirke Avos literally means the Chapters of Avos. What is Avos? The name of one tractate in the great compendium of Rabbinic literature, the Mishna.  Already in the time of the Geonim (sixth through eleventh century C.E.), the ancient academies of Babylon had a tradition that on Shabbat afternoon, this ethical treatise was assiduously studied. It was no accident or coincidence that the time specifically chosen to study these teachings was between Pesach and Shavuot.  For this is the season of renewal, when the forces of nature regenerate and even man feels the arousal of powerful, instinctual urges demanding satisfaction. Pirke Avos then provides us with timely moral instruction, guarding us from giving in to the pleasures of the moment…

Continue reading A Matter of Trust (1:1)

A Matter of Trust (1:1)

Pirke Avos literally means the Chapters of Avos. What is Avos? The name of one tractate in the great compendium of Rabbinic literature, the Mishna.  Already in the time of the Geonim (sixth through eleventh century C.E.), the ancient academies of Babylon had a tradition that on Shabbat afternoon, this ethical treatise was assiduously studied. It was no accident or coincidence that the time specifically chosen to study these teachings was between Pesach and Shavuot.  For this is the season of renewal, when the forces of nature regenerate and even man feels the arousal of powerful, instinctual urges demanding satisfaction. Pirke Avos then provides us with timely moral instruction, guarding us from giving in to the pleasures of the moment…

Continue reading A Matter of Trust (1:1)

Little Mountain (1:1)

On this very first Shabbat after the Pesach holiday, with the taste of Matzoh and Maror still lingering, preparations for the next festival are already underway.  Soon the two days of Shavuot commemorating the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai will be upon us.  We will eat blintzes, listen to the reading of the Ten Commandments and recite the Yizkor prayer.
However, to do all the above in the proper spirit requires groundwork.  It has therefore become a time-honored tradition to study on each of the six Sabbaths that separate Pesach and Shavuot, one chapter of the famous work, Ethics of our Fathers.  This collection of our Sages’ timeless morals and wisdom was deemed one of the best cultivators…

Continue reading Little Mountain (1:1)

The Dirty Truth (1:4)

The universe is shrinking. I don’t mean in the physical sense. Indeed in that matter, science has finally caught up to the Midrash that explains how the constellations and the planets are expanding. What I refer to is how the world-at-large communicates. Until recently, humans in different parts of the globe could not speak to one another. Then, just over a century ago, the first telephones were connecting families and distant communities. Then the Fax machine brought us even closer together. What followed were CNN and its instantaneous on-the-spot reporting, the World Wide Web, then the latest Pony Express, E-Mail, and now cell phones that make us accessible 24 hours a day. 
With all this talking going on, you would…

Continue reading The Dirty Truth (1:4)

Don’t Hate the Rabbis (1:10)

We live in an age when moral criticism is considered in bad taste and offensive. Of course, this makes most mothers politically incorrect. But they are not in such bad company. Their moral high-ground is shared by Judaism, as the Talmud points out, “All Jews are responsible for one another.”
This brings us to the classic, moral treatise Ethics of our Fathers, whose first of six chapters will be studied this Shabbat afternoon in most synagogues. In Mishnah number ten we are introduced to Shemayah, a proselyte, or perhaps the descendant of proselytes, turned Sage. He and his colleague Avtalyon, who lived in the middle of the first century BCE, refused to take an oath of allegiance to King Herod,...

Continue reading Don’t Hate the Rabbis (1:10)

Creator of Silence (1:17)

As the hot summer weather takes hold and school lets out, more is shed than winter clothes and late night homework assignments. It seems as if the kick-back, take-life-easy attitude affects our very behavior. Young people are friskier, the rules of dress (even those of modesty, unfortunately) seem more relaxed, talk is looser, and parents give their children more leeway. No wonder then, that the Sages instituted the study of the ETHICS OF OUR FATHERS during these summer months. 
What separates Jewish morals from those of the rest of the world? A simple answer might be gleaned from the 100 year old story concerning the President of Harvard University, Charles W. Eliot. A new hall of philosophy was being dedicated…

Continue reading Creator of Silence (1:17)