Jonathan Schofer offers the first theoretically framed examination of rabbinic ethics in several decades. Centering on one large and influential anthology, The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan, Jonathan Schofer situates that text within a broader spectrum of rabbinic thought, while at the same time bringing rabbinic thought into dialogue with current scholarship on the self, ethics, theology, and the history of religions. Notable Selection, Jordan Schnitzer Book Award for Philosophy and Jewish Thought, Association for Jewish Studies

The clear and compelling wisdom of the rabbinic sages can become a companion for your own spiritual journey. At the heart of Judaism is an ethical imperative to live life from your true self, as the image and likeness of God. To do this, you must see the greatness of God manifest in all things, and therefore engage each moment with grace, humility, and justice. This imperative flowers in the words of the early Rabbis (250 BCE-250 CE), who captured God's call to be holy in Pirke Avot, a collection of pithy sayings on how best to live an ethical life. This engaging introduction to the wisdom sayings of the rabbinic sages puts you in direct conversation with them, allowing the sages to speak directly to you about what matters in life and how to live it with dignity. With fresh, contemporary translation and provocative commentary, Rabbi Rami Shapiro focuses on the central themes in this Jewish wisdom compendium--study, kindness, compassion. He clarifies the rabbinic proverbs and parables in order to expose the ethical principles at their root. By recalling the ancient voices of the rabbinic sages, he shows us the contemporary significance of their timeless wisdom and distills Pirke Avot not as a book about ethics but as a practical guide to living ethically today. Now you can experience the wisdom of the early Rabbis even if you have no previous knowledge of Judaism or rabbinic literature. This SkyLight Illuminations edition presents the ethical teachings of the rabbinic sages, with insightful yet unobtrusive commentary that conveys Pirke Avot's core challenge of God to the Jewish people, and through them all humanity: We are to be holy as God is holy. We are to be, in a human way, what God is in a divine way.

The Ethics of the Sages: An Interfaith Commentary on Pirkei Avot examines the profound teachings of one of the most well-known and beloved texts of Jewish life from the standpoints of other religious and philosopical systems. Each of the teachings contained within Pirkei Avot are analyzed in relation to similar or parallel teachings from Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, and other spiritual traditions.

Advice for those seeking to deepen and build their relationship with God.

The clear and compelling wisdom of the rabbinic sages can become a companion for your own spiritual journey. At the heart of Judaism is an ethical imperative to live life from your true self, as the image and likeness of God. To do this, you must see the greatness of God manifest in all things, and therefore engage each moment with grace, humility, and justice. This imperative flowers in the words of the early Rabbis (250 BCE–250 CE), who captured God’s call to be holy in Pirke Avot, a collection of pithy sayings on how best to live an ethical life. This engaging introduction to the wisdom sayings of the rabbinic sages puts you in direct conversation with them, allowing the sages to speak directly to you about what matters in life and how to live it with dignity. With fresh, contemporary translation and provocative commentary, Rabbi Rami Shapiro focuses on the central themes in this Jewish wisdom compendium—study, kindness, compassion. He clarifies the rabbinic proverbs and parables in order to expose the ethical principles at their root. By recalling the ancient voices of the rabbinic sages, he shows us the contemporary significance of their timeless wisdom and distills Pirke Avot not as a book about ethics but as a practical guide to living ethically today. Now you can experience the wisdom of the early Rabbis even if you have no previous knowledge of Judaism or rabbinic literature. This SkyLight Illuminations edition presents the ethical teachings of the rabbinic sages, with insightful yet unobtrusive commentary that conveys Pirke Avot’s core challenge of God to the Jewish people, and through them all humanity: We are to be holy as God is holy. We are to be, in a human way, what God is in a divine way.

Pirkey Avoth—Chapters of the Sages—is one of the most well known texts in Jewish tradition. It contains the ethical and moral principles guiding the Jewish way of life as handed down by the sages. In essence, it is a guidebook for living. In this bilingual edition, Reuven P. Bulka, a highly regarded rabbi, author, and editor who also has a Ph.D in psychology, provides the reader with a modern translation of Pirkey Avoth, as well as an analysis of the text based on his experience in Torah study and his knowledge of psychology. Much commentary has been written on this important work, yet Rabbi Bulka's commentary differs in that he focuses on the psychological wisdom contained in this classical text. He seeks the thematic connections between each of the chapters, showing that Rabbi Yehuda haNasi, who compiled Pirkey Avoth, chose the statements and their order deliberately. Rabbi Bulka does not resort to explication through outside sources but rather offers an understanding of each chapter on its own, giving the reader a springboard to further exploration aid elaboration of this most significant work. Pirkey Avoth is divided into six chapters. The first five deal with different dimensions of existence, including the transmission of Jewish values, the direction of one's "life-path," the means of keeping sanctity in one's life, the values that become part of one's personality, and how Torah is and should be expressed in life. The sixth chapter, also known as "The Acquisition of Torah," focuses on what is meant by a "Torah-true" personality, which is not easily attained but encompasses all that is good in life. Rabbi Bulka has enabled the contemporary reader to access the wisdom of the Jewish sages by presenting Pirkey Avoth in a manner applicable to today's world, in today's terms.

Sage Philosophy is an anthology of three main parts: Part one contains papers by Odera Oruka clearing the way and arguing about his research over the last decade on indigenous sages in Kenya. Part Two introduces verbatim interviews with a given number of those sages, while Part Three consists of published papers by scholars who are critics or commentators on the Oruka project. The author has spent the last decade in Kenya carrying out his research. It is the general stand of the book that the sages turn out to be thinkers or philosophers in no trivial sense, despite their lack of modern formal education. This study is a critique for all those scholars who hitherto have found no practice of critical philosophy in traditional Africa.

The first ever book-length study of the influential Stoic concept of wisdom.

A Year with the Sages uniquely relates the Sages' understanding of each Torah portion to everyday life. The importance of these teachings cannot be overstated. The Sages, who lived during the period from the fifth century BCE to the fifth century CE, considered themselves to have inherited the oral teachings God transmitted to Moses, along with the mandate to interpret them to each subsequent generation. Just as the Torah and the entire Hebrew Bible are the foundations of Judaism, the Sages' teachings form the structures of Jewish belief and practice built on that foundation. Many of these teachings revolve around core concepts such as God's justice, God's love, Torah, Israel, humility, honesty, loving-kindness, reverence, prayer, and repentance. You are invited to spend a year with the inspiring ideas of the Sages through their reflections on the fifty-four weekly Torah portions and the eleven Jewish holidays. Quoting from the week's Torah portion, Rabbi Reuven Hammer presents a Torah commentary, selections from the Sages that chronicle their process of interpreting the text, a commentary that elucidates these concepts and their consequences, and a personal reflection that illumines the Sages' enduring wisdom for our era.

In Pirke Avot: Timeless Wisdom for Modern Life, William Berkson provides a fresh, insightful, and exciting approach to this central and compelling classical Jewish ethical text. He, with the assistance of Menachem Fisch, provides a clear and comprehensible translation of the tractate, and his historical commentary draws insightfully on the sources of Jewish tradition for its explication of its sayings. Most significantly, Berkson brings the ideas found in Avot into conversation with a wide variety of philosophical, psychological, and religious perspectives so that the reader can drink deeply from the wellsprings of wisdom that Avot offers for contemporary persons – Jews and non-Jews alike. This book is a most important contribution to Jewish conversation in our time! "-- Rabbi David Ellenson, President Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religon