Pirke Avot

Glossary

• ’am ha-arets: literally “people of the land,” or illiterate, simple people
• Amon: the son of King David, who was in love with his half-sister, Tamar
• Bile’am: a non-Israelite prophet
• Epicurus: a rabbinic term for an unbeliever, derived from the name of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus, whose philosophical school of Epicureanism stressed the pursuit of pleasure
• Gehinnom: the Jewish equivalent of hell
• hate lordship: that is, do not try to obtain a powerful position
• Hillel and Shammai: the most famous pair of sages of the late Second Temple Period and predecessors of the rabbinic sages
• Jochanan ben Zakkai: the leading sage at the end of the Second Temple Period and considered the founder of rabbinic Judaism
• Jose ben Jo’ezer and Jose ben Jochanan: the first of the famous five pairs of teachers who continued the chain of tradition until the sages Hillel and Shammai
• Joshua: one of the leaders of the Israelites who governed them after they reached Israel
• King Jerobeam: the first ruler of the Northern Kingdom of Israel after ten of the twelve tribes of Israel broke away
• Korach: a rebel who led a revolt against Moses
• men of the Great Synagogue: a legal body at the time of the return from the Babylonian Exile and the rebuilding of the Temple
• Moses: the biblical patriarch who led the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt
• place of evil waters: probably an allusion to heretical thinking
• prophets: Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and others whose books are contained in the Bible
• Rabban Gamliel: possibly Hillel’s grandson, known in Christianity as the teacher of the Apostle Paul
• Rabbi Jehuda ha-Nasi: or “Rabbi,” the final editor of the Mishnah
• Sanctuary: the Temple, which at the time of the writing of Pirke Avot had been destroyed
• seventh year fruits: the Sabbath Year, during which the land should lay bare
• Shema and the Prayer: the two main Jewish prayers, said every morning and evening in the synagogue or at home
• Shime’on ben Gamliel: a man who was active during the Jewish War of 68 CE
• ten sayings: that is, the ten sayings by which the world was created, referring to the tenfold “and God said” elements in the biblical story of Creation
• tithing: refers to the 10 percent of each crop that an Israelite farmer had to give by way of Temple tax, used to pay the priests but also to help needy people