Shemonah Perakim of the Rambam - Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Shemonah Perakim of the Rambam By Rabbi Yaakov Feldman Eight Chapters of Maimonides/Rambam's book, the Shemonah Perakim: an Introduction to Ethics of our Fathers/Pirkei Avot on Jewish thought & ethics. New English translation by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman. Buy Shemonah Perakim of the Rambam at a special online price at: www.targum.com

Introduction to Shemonah Perakim

We’re presented here with a beguiling statement of purpose:

These eight chapters serve as an introduction to a work so full of meaning and so challenging for most that we could hardly plumb its depths without these introductory chapters. It’s as if Rambam were promising to take us through a room so dark and even so daunting, that we’d have to use a very powerful and precise light to see our way through it. Thus, he must first teach us the workings of the special lamp itself before we could even attempt to traverse.

But what masterpiece would call for all that? Strangely enough, it is none other than one of the most commonly read classical Jewish works, Pirkei Avot (“The Ethics of the Fathers”), that well-known array of seemingly straightforward, homey pieces of advice for living an honest life that our Sages laid out for us, millennia ago.

Rambam’s point is that Pirkei Avot is far more than what it seems. In fact, it is a work that explores the makeup of human character and the self in general, and it allows us a glimpse into the hearts and spirits of the pious and prophets along the way.

As we’ll see, though, it isn’t clear from the outset just who can be considered pious. In fact, the ideas we might have of what piety is all about are going to be challenged. What makes a person a prophet will also be confronted. Because while we might have our impressions, we really don’t know, and we either under- or overestimate the prophet’s “otherworldliness.”

We’ll notice, too, that Rambam mentions two concepts here that are very foreign to the modern mind: “perfection” and “true good fortune.” How can a person ever be “perfect”? Can one ever be partly perfect and otherwise imperfect? And what is “true good fortune”?

Finally, Rambam humbly refuses to take credit for what he will be saying, for one reason or another, and claims only to be a conduit of others’ wisdom. What we have here, then, is the promise of guidance through layer upon layer of revelation into the human heart, soul, and mind, and a look beyond the ordinary into self-perfection, piety, and prophecy.

Buy Shemonah Perakim of the Rambam at an online discount at: www.targum.com