The original aim of Abot was to show the divine source and authority of the traditional law revealed to Moses on Mt. Sinai, and to demonstrate its continuity from Moses through Joshua, the elders, and the men of the Great Synagogue, down to those Rabbis who lived during the period between 200 B.C.E. to 200 C.E.[…] A second and probably later purpose was to present a body of practical maxims and aphorisms for the daily guidance of the people.
The Sayings of the Jewish Fathers is the oldest collection of ethical dicta of the Rabbis of the Mishnah. […] It has been happily styled “a compendium of practical ethics”[…]. The Abot is, then, a sort of moral code.
This is a short book, about half of it are footnotes. I moved them to the end of the book.
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