What is Pirkei Avot? Ethics of the Fathers, explained
By the My Daily Torah team · Updated
In short
Pirkei Avot ("Chapters of the Fathers," usually called Ethics of the Fathers) is a short collection of life advice from the ancient Jewish sages. It's part of the Mishnah, the first written collection of Jewish oral teachings, edited around the year 200. It's almost all advice, not law: blunt, quotable lines about how to treat people, how to use your time and how to keep your ego in check.
So what is Pirkei Avot, exactly?
Picture the best advice from a few centuries of teachers, boiled down to one-liners and stacked together. That's Pirkei Avot.
It's one tractate (basically a volume) of the Mishnah. Almost everything else in the Mishnah is law, like how to keep Shabbat, the weekly day of rest, or how to settle a business dispute. Pirkei Avot is the odd one out, because it's almost all life advice.
It has five chapters, and a sixth was added later. You could read the whole thing in one sitting.
Where does it come from?
״משה קבל תורה מסיני, ומסרה ליהושע״
“Moses received the Torah at Sinai and handed it on to Joshua.”
Most books start with an author. Pirkei Avot starts with a chain.
Its first line follows the Torah, the Five Books of Moses, from Mount Sinai down through the generations: Moses to Joshua, Joshua to the elders, the elders to the prophets, and the prophets to the Great Assembly, a council of Jewish leaders from long ago.
That opening sets the tone for everything after it. The advice isn't pitched as one person's clever opinions. It's pitched as something handed down, person to person, for a very long time.
Then comes the first actual advice: take your time before you judge, raise lots of students, and build a fence around the Torah (extra safeguards that keep you from getting too close to crossing a line).
What's actually in it?
״על שלשה דברים העולם עומד, על התורה ועל העבודה ועל גמילות חסדים״
“The world stands on three things: Torah, service, and acts of kindness.”
Each chapter is a run of short sayings, and many are credited to a specific teacher. Some are a single line. Others are a teacher's two or three favorite rules in a row.
The second saying in the book is one of its most famous. The world stands on three things: Torah (learning), avodah (in its day, the service in the Temple, the holy center in Jerusalem) and gemilut chasadim, which means acts of kindness, the everyday favors people do for each other.
Here's the part people miss. The world doesn't rest on one grand idea. It rests on three, and one of them is just being kind to people.
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Why do people still love it?
״ואל תדין את חברך עד שתגיע למקומו״
“Don't judge someone until you've stood where they're standing.”
Because it's weirdly current. Lines written down about 1,800 years ago read like they were written about your week.
The same passage says don't cut yourself off from the community, and don't say "I'll study when I have free time," because you might never have free time. Anyone with a half-finished to-do list feels that one.
There's also a rhythm to it. Many communities read one chapter each Shabbat afternoon in the weeks between Passover and Shavuot (the holiday seven weeks later that marks the giving of the Torah), and many keep going through the summer.
So every spring, a lot of Jews are reading the same chapter on the same Saturday afternoons.
How do I start with zero background?
Start with chapter 1. It's short, it has the chain and the first sayings, and you don't need any background to follow it.
Read one saying at a time, not the whole chapter. Then ask one question: where would this have helped me this week?
Pick one line and carry it through the day. Text it to a friend, put it on your lock screen, see if it holds up by dinner.
The full text is free online in English, with the Hebrew alongside, on sites like Sefaria.
Questions people ask
Can I read Pirkei Avot online in English?
Yes. The full text is free online, with Hebrew and English side by side, on sites like Sefaria. It's short: five chapters plus a sixth that was added later. Chapter 1 is a good place to start, since it opens with the chain of teachers and the first sayings.
Why is it called Ethics of the Fathers?
Pirkei Avot literally means "Chapters of the Fathers." The "fathers" are the early teachers whose sayings fill the book. Since it's almost all advice about how to live and treat people, not law, English speakers usually call it Ethics of the Fathers.
What are the most famous Pirkei Avot quotes?
A few classics: the world stands on three things, Torah, service and kindness. Don't judge someone until you've stood where they're standing. Don't say you'll study when you have free time, because you may never have it. Short, sharp lines like these are why people keep quoting it.
When do people read Pirkei Avot?
Many communities read one chapter each Shabbat afternoon in the weeks between Passover and Shavuot, and many keep going through the summer. Plenty of people also read it on their own, any time of year, a line or two at a time.
Sources
Every Hebrew line on this page is copied word for word from the source and checked against Sefaria, the free online library of Jewish texts. The English is our own translation.