anthology. It has been happily styled "a compendium of practical
ethics" (10), and, as Mielziner has said, "these Rabbinical sentences,
if properly arranged, present an almost complete code of human duties"
(11). The _Abot_ is, then, a sort of moral code.

(9) There was another, and apparently older, recension of
_Pirke Abot_ on which is based the _Abot de-Rabbi Natan_, an
_hagadic_ or homiletical exposition of _Abot_. Two recensions
of _Abot de-Rabbi Natan_ exist, and have been edited by
Schechter. On this work, see Hoffman, _Die erste Mischna_, p.
26 _et seq._, Mielziner, article _Abot de-Rabbi Natan_, in
_Jewish Encyclopedia_, Strack, _Einleitung_, p. 69 _et seq.,
and Pollak, _Rabbi Nathans System_, etc., _Introduction_, pp.
7-9. An English translation is found in Rodkinson's edition
of the _Talmud_, vol. V, p. 1 _et seq._

(10) Taylor, _loc. cit._ Lazarus, _Ethics of Judaism_, II.
113, calls it "a compendium of ethics."

(11) In _Jewish Encyclopedia_, art. _Abot_.




CONTENTS

Even a superficial reading of _Abot_ will bring home to one the fact
that it is made up of various strata. In fact, it falls naturally
into the following strands or divisions: