Pirkei Avot: The Ethics of Our Ancestors
$25.00
This curriculum was developed in response to three expressed needs in the Jewish Educational community. Pirkei Avot is a constant companion to many Adult Education and Supplementary school programs across the country. It is an easy book to read and provides many topics of discussion on moral and interpersonal relations within our community. In a sense it is like that “old tired horse” dragged out for yet another race. You many not expect to get a lot of mileage out of it, but it remains dependable.
For years I have avoided Pirkei Avot for just this reason. It tends to be overused and under-utilized. In studying it with commentaries I was struck by the wealth of topics covered: history, sociology and theology are only a few of the areas represented in these pages.
Thus the first need addressed was to give the text a new look, a new approach and thus make it more acceptable and exciting to students and teachers alike. For this I thank Fran Hirschman, my coauthor and educator who convinced me the material was worth a look – and who would have stood with me in this project had she the time.
There is a lack of materials for older students (6th grade and above) in Rabbinic texts. Yes, there are textbooks “about” the texts. Yet there are so few texts accessible to students and teachers alike. Hopefully this endeavor will begin to remedy the situation. To this end I must thank the Conference for the Advancement of Jewish Education (CAJE) and its spiritual heir NewCAJE for providing myself and others like me the opportunity to try new methods of pedagogy, and lending us a forum to experiment. Without CAJE and NewCAJE Jewish Education would be so much the poorer.
If you think there is a dearth of Rabbinic textual material, think of how miniscule the average supplementary school student (or for that matter the liberal Jew) knows about the Medieval commentators to those texts. We are in the process of losing the brilliance of Abravanel and Maimonides along with the knowledge of Rabbenu Yona or Midrash Shmuel. They have a place in our “dialogue of generations,” a place that should not be denied them.
Thus I hope I have provided a venue for their perusal and appreciation. For this I thank my family – an entity that constantly amazes me with their love or our tradition and lifestyle.
