Chapter II: Introduction: Name

_The Tractate Abot_ (_Massechet Abot_) is the ninth treatise of _The Order_ or _Series on Damages_ (_Seder Nezikin_), which is the fourth section of the _Mishnah_ (1). It is commonly known in Hebrew as _Pirke Abot_, _The Chapters of the Fathers_, and has also been termed _Mishnat ha-Chasidim_, _Instruction for the Pious_, because of the Rabbinic saying, "He who wishes to be pious, let him practise the teachings of _Abot_" (2). On account of the nature of its contents, it is generally designated in English as the _Ethics of the Fathers_. Taylor entitles his edition _Dibre Aboth ha-Olam_, Sayings of the Fathers of the World_, and has as the English title, _Sayings of the Jewish Fathers_. Gustav Gottheil refers to the _Abot_ as the _Sayings of the Pharisaic Fathers_ (3). Its German title is generally _Die Spruche der Vater_, and in French it is usually rendered _Chapitres_ or _Maximes des Peres_.

(1) See _infra_, [Chapter V], n. 61.

(2) _Baba Kamma_, 30a. See Taylor, _Sayings of the Jewish
Fathers_, p. 3. Maimonides refers to this saying in the
_Foreword_ of his _Eight Chapters_; see Gorfinkle, _The Eight
Chapters_, etc., p. 34.

(3) See _Sun and Shield_, p. 321 _et passim_. See _infra_, n.
8, which accounts for the use of "_Pharisaic_."

The use of the word _Abot_ (fathers), in the title, is of very ancient date. We can only guess at the reason for its being used, and, consequently, there are various explanations for it. Samuel de Uceda, in his collective commentary, says that as this tractate of the _Mishnah_ contains the advice and good counsel, which, for the most part, come from a father, the Rabbis mentioned in it adopt the role of "fathers," and are therefore so designated. This explanation does not, however, deter him from advancing another to the effect that this treatise is the basis of all subsequent ethical and moral teachings and doctrines, and the Rabbis are, in consequence, the "fathers" or prototypes of all ethical teachers and moralists (4). Loeb attributes its use to the fact that the Rabbis of _Abot_ are the "fathers" or "ancestors of Rabbinic Judaism" (5). Hoffman states that the word _abot_ means "teachers of tradition" (_Traditionslehrer_), and points to the expression _abot ha-olam_ (_Eduyot_, I. 4), which, translated literally, is "fathers of the world," but is used to designate the most distinguished teachers, which is a true characterization of the Rabbis of _Abot_ (6). Taylor says in regard to the title, "It takes its name from the fact that it consists to a great extent of the maxims of the Jewish Fathers whose names are mentioned in the pages" (7). Hoffmann's seems the most acceptable explanation.

(4) _Midrash Shemuel_ (ed. Warsaw, 1876), p. 6. The _Midrash
Shemuel_ is a collective commentary, first published in Venice
in 1579, and which has since passed through six editions. See
p. 22, n. 21.

(5) _La Chaine_, etc., p. 307, n. 1.

(6) See Hoffman, _Seder Nesikin, Introd._, p. xx, and p. 258,
n. 36. In this passage of _Eduyot_, Hillel and Shammai are
referred to as _abot ha-olam_; in _Yerushalmi Shekalim_, III,
47b, Rabbi and Ishmael and Rabbi Akiba, and in _Yerushalmi
Chagigah_, II, 77d, all the pairs of _Abot_ I are similarly
designated.

(7) Taylor, _loc. cit._

PURPOSE

The original aim of _Abot_ was to show the divine source and authority of the traditional law revealed to Moses on Mt. Sinai, and to demonstrate its continuity from Moses through Joshua, the elders, and the men of the Great Synagogue, down to those Rabbis who lived during the period between 200 B.C.E. to 200 C.E. Loeb maintains that _Abot_ was originally a composition of the Pharisaic Rabbis who wished to indicate that the traditions held and expounded by them, and which the Sadducees repudiated, were divine and, in time and sequence, uninterruptedly authoritative (8). This line of continuous tradition is plainly seen in the first two chapters. A second and probably later purpose was to present a body of practical maxims and aphorisms for the daily guidance of the people.

(8) _La Chaine_, etc. The Sadducees belonged to the priestly
and aristocratic families. They made light of the oral
traditions, did not believe in the future life, and were
indifferent to the independence of the Jewish nation. The
Pharisees, on the other hand, were constituted largely from
the common people; they were believers in, and strict
observers of, the traditional laws, and were ardent
nationalists. The bitter attack of Jesus on them, which has
resulted in making the word "Pharisee" synonymous with
"hypocrite" and "self-righteous person," was, to say the
least, unjust, as Herford has so lucidly pointed out in his
sympathetic study of the Pharisees. Herford, though not a
Jew, has taken up the cudgels most ably in defence of this
sect, with remarkable insight into the life and literature of
the ancient Jews. He demonstrates conclusively that though
there were hypocrites among the Pharisees, as among all
classes and creeds, yet the average Pharisee was a man of the
most elevated religious ideals, who misunderstood Jesus, but
who, in turn was misunderstood by him. Huxley, in his
_Evolution of Theology_, says, "of all the strange ironies in
history, perhaps the strangest is that 'Pharisee' is current
as a term of reproach among the theological descendants of
that sect of Nazarenes who, without the martyr spirit of those
primitive Puritans, would never have come into existence."
Such great teachers and men of sterling quality and golden
utterance as Antigonus of Soko (I, 3), Hillel (I, 12-14; II,
5-8), Jochanan ben Zakkai (II, 9-19), Gamaliel, whose pupil
was Paul, the apostle (I, 16), and Judah, the Prince (II, 1),
whose sayings grace the pages of _Abot_, were, as Loeb points
out, of the Pharisaic school or party. There is naturally a
large literature on the Pharisees. Herford's _Pharisaism_
deserves careful perusal. See, also, Josephus (ed.
Whiston-Margoliouth), _Antiq._, XIII, 10.6, XVIII, 1, 2-4;
Schurer, _History of the Jews_, etc., II, ii, p. 14 _et seq._;
_Jewish Encyclopedia_ and literature mentioned there; Geiger,
_Judaism and Its History_, p. 102 _et seq._, and Friedlander,
G., _The Jewish Sources of the Sermon on the Mount_, p. 34 _et
seq._

DESCRIPTION

The _Sayings of the Jewish Fathers_ is the oldest collection of ethical dicta of the Rabbis of the _Mishnah_ (9). It is a Rabbinic anthology. It has been happily styled "a compendium of practical ethics" (10), and, as Mielziner has said, "these Rabbinical sentences, if properly arranged, present an almost complete code of human duties" (11). The _Abot_ is, then, a sort of moral code.

(9) There was another, and apparently older, recension of
_Pirke Abot_ on which is based the _Abot de-Rabbi Natan_, an
_hagadic_ or homiletical exposition of _Abot_. Two recensions
of _Abot de-Rabbi Natan_ exist, and have been edited by
Schechter. On this work, see Hoffman, _Die erste Mischna_, p.
26 _et seq._, Mielziner, article _Abot de-Rabbi Natan_, in
_Jewish Encyclopedia_, Strack, _Einleitung_, p. 69 _et seq.,
and Pollak, _Rabbi Nathans System_, etc., _Introduction_, pp.
7-9. An English translation is found in Rodkinson's edition
of the _Talmud_, vol. V, p. 1 _et seq._

(10) Taylor, _loc. cit._ Lazarus, _Ethics of Judaism_, II.
113, calls it "a compendium of ethics."

(11) In _Jewish Encyclopedia_, art. _Abot_.

CONTENTS

Even a superficial reading of _Abot_ will bring home to one the fact that it is made up of various strata. In fact, it falls naturally into the following strands or divisions:

A. Chapter I, 1-15: Chronologically arranged sayings of the oldest
authorities, from the men of the Great Synagogue to Hillel
and Shammai.

B. (1) Chapters I, 16-II, 4: Sayings of the men of the school of
Hillel to Rabban Gamaliel (about 230 C.E.), the son of Judah
ha-Nasi

(2) Chapter II, 5-8: Additional sayings of Hillel.

C. (1) Chapter II, 9-19: The sayings of Jochanan ben Zakkai, the
pupil of Hillel, and of his disciples.

(2) Chapter II, 20-21: The sayings of Rabbi Tarfon, a younger
contemporary of Jochanan ben Zakkai.

D. Chapter III: the maxims of seventeen _Tannaim_ (authorities
mentioned in the _Mishnah_) to the time of and including
Rabbi Akiba. These are not arranged in strictly
chronological order.

E. Chapter IV: The sayings of twenty-five _Tannaim_ after the time
of Rabbi Akiba, who were contemporaries of Rabbi Meir and of
Rabbi Judah Ha-Nasi. These are not chronologically arranged.

F. (1) Chapter V, 1-18: Anonymous sayings forming a series of groups
of ten, seven, and four things, dealing with the creation of
the world, with miracles, and with the varieties of men and
minds.

(2) Chapter V, 19-22: Anonymous sayings touching upon the
varieties of motives and contrasting the good and evil
dispositions.

(3) Chapter V, 23: Sayings of Judah ben Tema.

(4) Chapter V, 24: The ages of man.

(5) Chapter V, 25, 26: The sayings of Ben Bag Bag and of Ben He
He.

G. Chapter VI: The acquisition of the _Torah;_ praise of the
_Torah_.

LANGUAGE

The language of _Abot_ is easy Mishnaic Hebrew, with portions of four verses (I, 13; II, 7; V, 25, and V, 26) in Aramaic, which is closely related to Hebrew. It is worthy of note that these Aramaic portions originated with the school of Hillel (12).

(12) On the language of the _Mishnah_, see Mielziner,
_Introduction to the Talmud_, pp. 15-16, and Lauterbach in
_Jewish Encyclopedia_, vol II, p. 614. On the use of Aramaic
in the _Mishnah_, see Schurer, _History_, I, ii, p. 8 _et
seq._, and Bacher, in _Jewish Encyclopedia_, art. _Aramaic
Language Among the Jews_. Several centuries before the common
era, Aramaic was the vernacular of the Jews. Hebrew, however,
remained in use as the sacred language ([lashon ha-kodesh]),
it being the language of the learned, and was employed for
literary, liturgical, and legal purposes. This accounts for
the Mishnah being written almost entirely in Hebrew, though
Aramaic was spoken on the streets. It is related of Judah
ha-Nasi that he disliked the Aramaic jargon to such an extent
that he forbade its use in his home, where even the servants
spoke Hebrew with elegance (_Rosh ha-Shanah_, 26b). When
scholars used Aramaic in his presence, he chided them for not
speaking in Hebrew or in Greek (_Baba Kamma_, 82b).

DEVELOPMENT OF ABOT (13)

(13) On the subject-matter of this section, consult Hoffmann,
_Die erste Mischna_, pp. 26-37; idem, _Mischnaiot Seder
Nesikin_, _Introd._, pp. XX-XXI; Brull, _Enstehung und
ursprunglicher Inhalt des Traktates Abot;_ Loeb, _La Chaine_,
etc.; Ginzburg, _Spruche der Vater, erstes Capitel historisch
beleuchtet_ (Liepzig, 1889); Strack, _Die Spruche der Vater_,
_Introd._, pp. 7-8; idem, _Einleitung_, p. 52, and Rawicz,
_Commentar des Maimonides_, p. 105, n. 3.

It is apparent from the literary construction of _Abot_ that it has been edited several times, and that, in its earliest form, the _Abot_ collection was much smaller than we have it to-day. Originally, probably shortly after the time of Hillel, it may have been merely a sort of appendix to the _Tractate Sanhedrin_, with typical sayings of each of the heads of the _Sanhedrin_. These dicta are contained in what is designated as section A. Later, presumably by Rabbi Akiba, there were added to this original kernel of _Abot_ the sayings of Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkai and his most illustrious pupils, which comprise section C. This resulted in the grouping together of the sayings of ten generations of traditional authorities, as follows: (1) the men of the Great Synagogue, (2) Simon, the Just, (3) Antigonus of Soko, (4) Jose ben Joezer and Jose ben Jochanan, (5) Joshua ben Perachiah and Nittai, the Arbelite, (6) Judah ben Tabbai and Simeon ben Shatach, (7) Shemaiah and Abtalion, (8) Hillel and Shammai, (9) Jochanan ben Zakkai, and (10) the latter's disciples. By association of idea with this number ten, there were added to this collection numerical sayings of ten, and, then, others of seven and four, found in chapter V, 1-9 and 10-13.

Into this enlarged kernel of pithy sayings of the oldest authorities, which may be characterized as the _Abot of Rabbi Akiba_, later _Tannaim_--Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi, and others--interpolated additional sayings of the afore-mentioned Rabbis, and also typical utterances of their disciples, and of other well-known teachers. This accounts for the presence in _Abot_ of the body of maxims of the six generations of the school of Hillel, designated above as section B 1, and which was very properly introduce after the aphorisms of Hillel and of his contemporary, Shammai. The thread of tradition being interrupted by this interpolation, it was again taken up by the introduction of another body of Hillel's sayings (B 2), thus providing for a natural transition from Hillel to Jochanan ben Zakkai. Proof of the fact that section B is an addition is that in the _Abot de-Rabbi Natan_--which, as has been said above, is based on an older version of _Abot_ (14)--the sayings of Jochanan ben Zakkai follow immediately upon those of Shammai. The sayings of Judah ha-Nasi, the redactor of the _Mishnah_, and of Rabbi Gamaliel, his son, were undoubtedly added after the time of Judah.

(14) See _supra_, p. 13, n. 9.

Chapter III contains the sayings of authorities who were the predecessors of Judah, the first two having lived before the destruction of the second Temple. Chapter IV is made up of the dicta of a number of Rabbis who were contemporaries of Judah. These two chapters were, no doubt, inserted by Judah, the redactor of the _Mishnah_ as we virtually have it to-day. Evidence that Chapter IV is an addition to the original _Abot_ is that it has a number of aphorisms which are repetitions of some found in Chapters I and II. The greater part of Chapter V, as stated above, was a portion of the _Abot_ of Rabbi Akiba.