rabbis in the east (70 to 1000 ce) 279
were more explicit. Avot is a collection of proverbs uncharacteristic in
its literary form both of the Mishnah and of rabbinic literature in gen-
eral. Its teachings are grouped loosely into mnemonic forms often based
on numeration:
They [each] said three things. R. Eliezer said, ‘Let the honour of thy fellow
be dear to thee as thine own, and be not easily provoked, and repent one
day before thy death; and warm yourself before the fire of the Sages, but
be heedful of their glowing coals lest you be burned, for their bite is the
bite of a jackal and their sting the sting of a scorpion and their hiss the hiss
of a serpent, and all their words are like coals of fire ... If love depends on
some [transitory] thing, and the [transitory] thing passes away, the love
passes away too; but if it does not depend on some [transitory] thing it will
never pass away. Which love depended on some [transitory] thing? This
was the love of Amnon and Tamar. And which did not depend on some
[transitory] thing? This was the love of David and Jonathan.As a compilation of wisdom traditions, Avot has most in common with
biblical wisdom texts such as the book of Proverbs, but occasionally it
seems to have had in mind the specific scholarly environment of the rab-
binic academies:
There are four types among them that sit in the presence of the Sages:
the sponge, the funnel, the strainer, and the sifter. ‘The sponge’ – which
soaks up everything; ‘the funnel’ – which takes in at this end and lets out
at the other; ‘the strainer’ – which lets out the wine and collects the lees;
‘the sifter’ – which extracts the coarsely- ground flour and collects the fine
flour.On the other hand, a stress on charitable giving as a religious obligation
was of much wider relevance to all Jews, and reflects a frequent ethical
theme:
There are four types of almsgivers: he that is minded to give but not that
others should give – he begrudges what belongs to others; he that is
minded that others should give but not that he should give – he begrudges
what belongs to himself; he that is minded to give and also that others
should give – he is a saintly man; he that is minded not to give himself and
that others should not give – he is a wicked man.
Avot is unusual in the rabbinic corpus in its focus specifically on eth-
ics, but both Talmuds have much to say in passing about the importance
of hesed (‘ loving- kindness’) and teshuvah (‘repentance for sin’), as well