Customer Reviews

Pirkei Avos: Ethics of the Fathers (Artscroll Mesorah Series)

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This is a good translation of Perkei Avos. It doesn't have much (or really any) commentary but that is made up for by the fact that it is a pocket sized edition. Being without the commentary it isn't really good for serious study (though it isn't really meant as such). However, it is good for those times when a convenient portable copy is useful (at work, while traveling). Being a pocket sized book you can have it with you just about wherever you go.

I have reading and studying ' Pirke Avot' since I first read a translation of it my father, Alav Ha-Shalom had in our home. I have quite a few editions, and each one adds something. So too the Artscroll which is in the Siddur as the last part of the Shabbat Minchah section.

There are many insightful remarks in the Artscroll interpretation. But the greatness of Pirke Avot is of course that we can learn it and learn it again and again, and each time find a new meaning or way in understanding.

I had the privilege of learning ' Pirke Avot' a number of years with Rabbi Chaim Eisen who gave the most detailed and thorough reading of it imaginable. It took him thirteen years to get through it one time.

In any case this Artscroll should be of real help to those who know some Hebrew and need the English translation to give them the fuller meaning.

Ethics of the Fathers is practical wisdom for everyday living. I read the book in one sitting with highlighter in hand. The truths expounded in this book were truly relevant to everyday living and shed much light upon Torah and what the Holy One expects of us and what we can expect of Him.