Read Pirke Avot and Improve Your Grasp of Ancient Hebrew

Mishnaic Hebrew is delightful. That of Pirke Avot is easy to segue into, after reading selections from Proverbs and Qohelet. Here is a small sample:

רבי טרפון אומר׃ 

היום קצר

והמלאכה מרבה

והפועלים עצלים

והשכר הרבה

ובעל הבית דוחק

Pirkei Avot 2:15

Rabbi Tarfon says:

The day is short,

the work is heavy,

the workers lazy,

the wages high,

the master of the house, insistent. 

As R. Neusner says, “Tarfon captures the human condition. There is plenty of work, but not much time to accomplish it. The workers are paid well and work little. The employer – and that is God! – is pressing. And you are in the middle.” (Jacob Neusner, Torah from Our Sages: Pirke Avot. [pointed Hebrew text included] Translation and Explanation; Dallas: Rossel Books, 1983; p. 84).

Those familiar with the New Testament will be reminded of turns of phrase in the parables of Jesus. Jesus, too, emphasized that the wages are high. That is, God gives to us in disproportion to what we give to him (Matthew 20:1-16).

Nota bene: I’m not saying Neusner’s edition is the best, but it is the one I happen to have on my shelf.

Here is the same text with vowels (those of Hanokh Yalon in the Albeck Mishnah), but as R. Iyov says, it’s better to read Hebrew to the best of your ability without vowels, and then, if necessary, check your work.

 

רַבִּי טַרְפוֹן אוֹמֵר׃ 

הַיּוֹם קָצָר

וְהַמְּלָאכָה מְרֻבָּה

וְהַפּוֹעֲלִים עֲצֵלִים

וְהַשָֹכָר הַרְבֵּה

וּבַעַל הַבַּיִת דּוֹחֵק

Comments

[Alan]

Do you happen to have access to the new edition of Kahati (with the commentary of R'Ovadia of Bartenura included)?

Why not use the traditionally oriented commentators to explain a traditional text?

[JohnFH]

Alan, I do not have the new edition of which you speak, though I wish I did.

I am interested in how the text was traditionally understood, but also in the sense it had for its authors and first tradents.

Contemporary interpretation would do well to draw from a knowledge of both senses of the text in the process of appropriating it for today.