Pirkei Avot- Ethics of the Fathers
Chapter 1
1. Moses received the Torah from Sinai and transmitted it to
Joshua; Joshua to the elders; the elders to the prophets; and the prophets
handed it down to the men of the Great Assembly. They said three things: Be
deliberate in judgment, raise up many disciples, and make a fence around the
Torah.
2. Shimon the Righteous was one of the last survivors of the
Great Assembly. He used to say: On three things the world is sustained:
on the Torah, on the (Temple) service, and on deeds of loving kindness.
3. Antigonus of Socho received the Torah from Shimon the
Righteous. He used to say: Be not like servants who minister unto their master
for the sake of receiving a reward, but be like servants who serve their master
not upon the condition of receiving a reward; and let the fear of Heaven be
upon you.
4. Yosi ben Yoezer of Tzeredah and Yosi ben Yochanan of
Jerusalem received the Torah from them. Yosi ben Yoezer of Tzeredah said: Let
your house be a meetinghouse for the sages and sit amid the dust of their feet
and drink in their words with thirst.
5. Yosi ben Yochanan of Jerusalem said: Let your house be
wide open and let the poor be members of thy household; and do not talk much
with women. This was said about one's own wife; how much more so about the wife
of one's neighbor. Therefore the sages have said: He who talks too much with
women brings evil upon himself and neglects the study of the Torah and will in
the end inherit Gehenna.
6. Joshua ben Perachyah and Nittai the Arbelite received the
Torah from them. Joshua ben Perachyah said: Provide for yourself a teacher and
get yourself a friend; and judge every man towards merit.
7. Nittai the Arbelite said: Keep far from an evil neighbor
and do not associate with the wicked; and do not abandon belief in retribution.
8. Judah ben Tabbai and Shimon ben Shetach received the
Torah from them. Judah ben Tabbai said: Do not make yourself like those that
present before judges. When parties to a Torah suit are standing before you
they should be in your eyes as wicked men, but when they have departed from
they should be in your eyes as innocent, if they have accepted the verdict.
9. Shimon ben Shetach said: Examine the witnesses diligently
and be cautious in your words lest through them they learn to falsify.
10. Shemayah and Avtalion received the Torah from them.
Shemayah said: Love work; hate domination; and seek not undue intimacy with the
government.
11. Avtalion said: Sages, be careful with your words lest
you incur the penalty of exile and are called to a place where the waters of learning
are impure and the disciples that come after you drink of them and die; and the
Heavenly Name is consequently profaned.
12. Hillel and Shammai received the Torah from them. Hillel
said: Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving
your fellow creatures and bringing them close to the Torah.
13. Hillel used to say: He who aggrandizes his name, loses
his name. He who does not increase his knowledge, decreases it. He who learns
not, forfeits his life. He who makes unworthy use of the crown (of the Torah)
shall pass away.
14. Hillel used to say: If I am not for myself who will be
for me? Yet, if I am for myself only, what am I? And if not now, when?
15. Shammai said: Make your study of the Torah a fixed
habit. Say little and do much, and receive all men with a cheerful face.
16. Rabban Gamaliel said: Provide yourself with a teacher
and remove yourself from doubt, and do not accustom yourself to give tithes by
estimation.
17. Shimon his son said: All my days have I grown up among
the wise and I have not found anything better for a man than silence. Studying
Torah is not the most important thing rather fulfilling it. Whoever multiplies
words causes sin.
18. Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel said: On three things the
world is sustained: on truth, on judgment, and on peace, as it is it says
(Zechariah 8:16): "Speak the truth to one another, render in your gates
judgments that are true and make for peace."
