Q&A: Tractate Avot
Tractate Avot
Question
Hello and blessings.
Rabbi Ovadiah of Bartenura, in his commentary on the first mishnah in Tractate Avot, says:
“Moses received the Torah from Sinai — I say this because this tractate is not founded on the explanation of one of the commandments of the Torah, like the other tractates of the Mishnah; rather, it is entirely ethics and character traits. And the sages of the nations of the world also composed books, inventing from their own hearts teachings in ethics about how a person should conduct himself with his fellow. Therefore the tanna began this tractate with ‘Moses received the Torah from Sinai,’ to tell you that the traits and ethical teachings in this tractate were not invented by the sages of the Mishnah from their own hearts; rather, these too were said at Sinai.”
Does the Rabbi know of a source for the claim that these things were indeed transmitted at Sinai? And what bothers him so much about explaining that the sages said Tractate Avot based on their own reasoning?
Answer
Not only do I not know of a source, I am almost convinced that it is not true. As far as I’m concerned, Pirkei Avot is roughly like Dale Carnegie.
As for what led him to write that, it’s obvious. Precisely because people think that it isn’t so, and therefore do not attribute much importance or strong authority to Pirkei Avot. Exactly like the statements that its general principles and details were given at Sinai (which originally was said only about the Written Torah, and it is customary to apply it to all the details of the Oral Torah, which of course doesn’t even begin to make sense). And likewise the legends about divine inspiration that every Talmudic sage supposedly had, and so on.