Pirke Avot, the Chapters [Ethics] of the Fathers, is a collection of rabbinic sayings compiled sometime between 250 and 275 CE. Over the centuries, it has become the principal ethical guide for all Jews. As one Jewish proverb states: "one who wishes to obtain piety and virtue should turn to Pirke Avot." Traditionally, Sephardic Jews study Pirke Avot on Shabbat afternoon from Pessah to Shavuot and Ashkenazic Jews all the way to Rosh Hashanah. Next to the Torah and the Haggada, Pirke Avot has been the most popular text of the Jewish people. Pirke Avot instructs us how we can become better people.

Avot is a slender tractate of five chapters in the Mishna. The "Pirke Avot" has appeared in prayer books and as a separate text for the last thousand years or so. Though not part of the liturgy, the study of Pirke Avot has been part of the minhag (customary practice) in Jewish congregations the world over. It asserts a chain of uninterrupted transmission of this tradition and its authority directly to the tannaim, these same sages and rabbinic teachers. In this way, the law code of the Mishnah, the Oral Law, is provided with a claim of divine authenticity, while establishing the credentials of the sages as teachers of the truth revealed to Moses.