Limmud Bay Area 2016

Since the tenth century, there is a tradition to regularly study a Talmudic book of wisdom, Pirkei Avot (Chapters of the Fathers). The book was specially edited for popular consumption and it consists of short, pithy, wisdom-for-life statements collected from 66 Rabbis who lived in the first two centuries of the Common Era. The six chapters of the book are studied every Shabbat, one chapter at a time, in three complete cycles, from Passover until Rosh HaShanah. Our text is chapter 2, and it is taken from Yitz Greenberg's just published book, Sage Advice, a new edition of "Chapters of the Fathers" with his translation, a historical introduction offering his theory of the distinctive rabbinic interpretation of Judaism and a new commentary applying its wisdom to our contemporary situation.