Pirke Avot
Timeless Wisdom for Modern Life
By $28.00 ·
Paperback, 6" x 9", 240 pages
ISBN: 9780827609174
Translation with Menachem Fisch
Available: October 2010
The great Jewish ethical tradition through a contemporary lens
":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
In this new edition of the well-known Jewish classic, Berkson helps us see that Pirke Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) is more than just a fundamental religious text; it is also a compelling, contemporary ethical guide.
Berkson looks at the individual sayings, or mishnayot, through the interpretations of the great Jewish commentators and also within the broader context of Western thought—through views found in the Bible, the ancient Greeks, the Enlightenment, Buddhism, Confucianism, and American culture today.
The book’s most important and innovative feature is its exploration of the relationship between the beliefs of the ancient Sages and modern psychology, particularly the key to good relationships: ethical conduct. The result is a book that goes far beyond the plain meaning of the sayings to explore their ethical, psychological, and religious significance for us today.
Included are an extensive index, historical chart, glossary, and the full text of Pirke Avot in English and Hebrew on facing pages.
About William Berkson Ph.D.
William Berkson completed his PhD in history and philosophy of science under Sir Karl Popper at the London School of Economics. He is author of Fields of Force: The Development of a Worldview from Faraday to Einstein and Learning from Error: Karl Popper’s Psychology of Learning. Since 1994 he has been the director of the Jewish Institute for Youth and Family, www.mentsh.com.
Berkson's speech topics include "How the Sages of the Talmud Invented Judaism," "The Jewish Sages vs. Modern Psychology," Einstein vs. Heschel on God," "The Great Mitzvah Muddle," "Was There an Exodus and Does it Matter?" "Liberal Jews and the Marriage Movement," and "Judaism vs. Mysticism." He is available to speak at conferences and at Scholar-in-Residence programs, among other events. His talks are geared to both young adults and adults.
Willing to Travel, Honorarium Negotiable.
