Beginnings

בס״ד

About this Blog

     These commentaries were originally written by the author with the intention of making them an "Ethical Will" for his children and my children. This was in 1998.  I have benefitted from reading them from time to time over the years, and I have always been amazed by his unique insights into this monument of Torah wisdom.  I have often toyed with the idea of making these commentaries more available, until I came up with the idea of serializing them into a blog.  With my brother's hesitant permission, I now begin.

     In a larger sense, I am greatly indebted to the author, my big brother, Marty Jaffee, for enriching my life these many years.  I dedicate this blog to him.

With gratitude to the Creator,
Nisan Baruch ben Avraham

About Pirkei Avos

     The Mishnah is the basic legal code of the Oral Torah.  Sixty two of its tractates touch upon all possible halakhic questions in the conduct of Jewish life.  The sixty third, Mishnah Avos, is not about halakhah.  It is about values, middos, ways of being with other people, and the ways of relating to HaShem. It begins with a long string of teachings stemming from Moshe Rabbenu on Mt. Sinai down to the sons and disciples of Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, the compiler of the Mishnah, who died around 220 CE.  Its five chapters contain dozens and dozens of penetrating sayings about the moral life and the shaping of values.

     Even among unlearned Jews, Mishnah Avos has been studied and restudied.  It is the only chapter of the Mishnah to have entered virtually every Jewish prayerbook.  In the siddur it is usually called Pirkei Avos, and you can probably find it after the minchah prayers for Shabbos.  The versions of Avos found in the siddur differ in small ways from those found in the printed editions of the Mishnah. And both differ in yet other ways from the versions of the Mishnah found in handwritten copies of the Mishnah that survive from the Middle Ages.  Sometimes in my commentary I discuss some of these differences.

     In the siddur's versions of Pirkei Avos, and in the Mishnah's versions of Mishnah Avos, you will usually find six chapters.  The last of these, called Perek Kinyan Torah ("The Chapter of Acquiring the Torah") is understood to be an addition to the Mishnah from late Talmudic times.  It was added to the Mishnah in the early middle ages when the custom arose to recite a perek of Avos during each Shabbos between Pesach and Shavuos.  Now there are six perakim, one for each Shabbos.  Perek Kinyan Torah is beautiful.  But I have neither translated it here nor commented upon it.  I am satisfied to have worked on the five original chapters of the Mishnah.  That was hard enough !

How My Commentary Works

     I have translated the five original chapters of Mishnah Avos in a way which tries to preserve the original meaning of the Hebrew as understood by the great Jewish commentators Rambam, Rashi, and many others.  But I've also tried to make the translation sound like the Mishnah was spoken by real people whom we might ourselves know.  So the translation is very colloquial and, at times, even informal.  You'll see what I mean if you compare my translation to others you might find.  When I was preparing the translation, I felt like I was making friends with the Sages for the first time, learning how they spoke and expressed themselves.

     The translation also tries to help you read the Mishnah by breaking each section into smaller paragraphs so you can see how they fit together.  This is often lots easier than reading line after line of unbroken type.  

     After every numbered paragraph of the Mishnah, I have offered some comments.  These are my attempt to get at the heart of each Sages's lesson.  In order to prepare my commentary, I studied every Mishnah commentary I could find.  I've already mentioned those of Rambam and Rashi.  I also used all the meforshim found in the main 19th century editions of the Mishnah, some Hasidic sources, and the great collection of Mishnah commentaries found in the Midrash Shmuel.  I have by no means studied every possible commentary. But I did my best to find out what the great medieval and early modern Rabbis thought about Mishnah Avos.  I have learned so much from them.  Every time I opened their works, I was stunned by their insights and critical intelligence. Sometimes I quote them directly in my comments. Sometimes I merely allude to them. Sometimes I go my own way in reaching for the Mishnah's meaning. But always I depend upon and learn from them.  I hope you will find my own commentary as enjoyable to read as it was for me to write. 

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