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Pirkei Avos with a Twist of Humor

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Pirkei Avos is the thirty-ninth tractate of sixty-three tractates of the Mishna, the Oral Law. The Mishna is the legal commentary on the Torah, the Five Books of Moses (the first five books of the Bible). Pirkei Avos is also known as The Chapters of Our Fathers and is the only portion of the Mishna that focuses on ethics. Once I understood that, not being Jewish, I was able to read the book in context.

Pirkei Avos With a Twist of Humor is a profoundly "Jewish" book that has lessons for everybody. It is a light-hearted approach to the serious subject of ethics which combines in-depth commentary on each of the sayings with a humorous story or joke. There are 294 notes at the end of the book, some of which are great lessons in and of themselves.

I enjoyed reading this book very much. Since I did not understand any of the Hebrew or Yiddish, it's fortunate that Mr. Bobker translated most words and phrases. I gained respect for the ethical structure that the Jewish people use in their everyday lives. I enjoyed the subtleness of some of the discussions and was surprised at the variety of opposing opinions cited. There are many interpretations and many logical approaches to each of the sayings.

Mr. Bobker is extremely knowledgeable about the subject. He grouped the sayings by topic (Law and Order, Charity, etc.) which gives you a focused discussion on each topic.

I read this book straight through, but the the savoring of thoughts and theories and quotations will have to come later, as I dip back into it; reading a page here and there. As Mr. Bobker says, "Go ahead! Open it at random: you will be pleasantly surprised."

I don't know all there is to know about the Talmud as when I was growing up in the early 1950's in Detroit off of Dexter and Davidson I was surronded by relatives from Poland,The Pale in Russia, Germany and Yiddish. Please forgive for saying so but when my Bubbi brought me to the Orthodox Temple the rituals and High Hebrew were a whole new world for me. The Pirkei Avos, often also called The Sayings of the Fathers, is a collection of rabbinical teachings and sayings from various sages, and is a part of the Mishna, one of the two books making up the Talmud, which is the record of Jewish oral law. Over the years my approach to interpreting the Pirkei Avos and othe parts of the Talmud were mostly self directed. The discussions in or out of Hebrew School tended to be fairly serious, since the Talmud is a pretty serious document and the book by Joe Bobker is like a breath of fresh air anda new way for Jews and non Jews to look at Judiac law and philosophy.

The book also has a great introduction and teaches the reader a little about the many sayings. But even with all the verbage the book never sets itself up as a scholary end all way of looking at this part of the oral interpretations of the Talmud.Joe Bobker writes in an statement labeled "Caution" that the book should be seen as merely an introduction to "Jewish law and lore," and that "the information contained in it may not always be entirely accurate". So don't use this book to study with use it to be basically amused, laugh at life, a nd yet it's also beautiful and has some wonderful things to teach whether Gentile or Jew.

Read this if you're interested in a easy discussion of Jewish ethics or if you like Jewish humor. This is a cute book, funny on a serious topic, meant to bring that topic down to earth a little and help people relate to it.