Torah and Pirkei Avot

About the Torah and Tanakh

The Torah, the Five Books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy), stands at the heart of Jewish life and learning. Together with Nevi'im (the Prophets) and Ketuvim (the Writings) it forms the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible, whose name is made from the first letters of these three parts. Jews understand the Written Torah to have been given together with an Oral Torah, a living tradition of interpretation that was later set down in the Mishnah (about 200 CE) and discussed at length in the Talmud. In the synagogue the Torah is read aloud from a handwritten scroll in weekly portions, so that the whole of it is completed in a yearly cycle that ends and begins again at the festival of Simchat Torah. Much of the Hebrew Bible is also part of the Christian scriptures, where it is known as the Old Testament. In India, the Bene Israel, Cochin Jewish and Baghdadi Jewish communities have kept these readings alive for centuries.

Readings from the Tanakh

Pirkei Avot: Ethics of the Fathers

Pirkei Avot, 'Chapters of the Fathers', is a tractate of the Mishnah, the collection of Jewish oral teaching compiled around 200 CE under Rabbi Judah the Prince (Yehudah ha-Nasi). Instead of law, it gathers the ethical sayings of the sages, beginning with a chain of tradition from Moses at Sinai. Many Jews study one chapter each Shabbat afternoon in the weeks between Passover and Shavuot, and in many communities through the summer as well.

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