Pirkei Avot

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Pronunciations

Pirkei Avot (peer-KAY ah-VOTE) listen

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Definitions

Example Sentences

  • "Pirkei Avot is so popular that many siddurim...include the full text of this book. In many communities, it is customary to read a section of Pirkei Avot every Shabbat." (source)

  • "It is customary to study Pirkei Avot...on the Shabbats between the holidays of Passover and Shavuot, the seven weeks of the Omer counting." (source)

  • "Every Shabbat afternoon, Grandpa taught us something from Pirkey Avot." (Glinert)

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Languages of Origin

  • Textual Hebrew

Etymology

  • פִּרְקֵי אָבוֹת 'chapters of the fathers' (often called Ethics of the Fathers in English)

      • Who Uses This

      • Religious: Jews who are engaged in religious observance and have some Jewish education
      • Orthodox: Jews who identify as Orthodox and observe halacha (Jewish law)

      Regions

      • North America
      • Great Britain
      • South Africa
      • Australia / New Zealand

      Dictionaries

      • The JPS Dictionary of Jewish Words, by Joyce Eisenberg and Ellen Scolnic, (Philadelphia, 2001).
      • The Joys of Hebrew, by Lewis Glinert (New York, 1992).

      Alternative Spellings

      Pirke Avot, Pirke Avos, Pirke Oves, Pirkei Avos, Pirkei Oves, Pirkey Avot, Pirkey Avos, Pirkey Oves

Notes

  • See also Ethics of the Fathers.

    Most Jews are familiar with at least one or two quotes from Pirkei Avot—there are a few that are much more famous than the rest.

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