[Avodah] Avos - milsei dachasidusa or not (was [Areivim] more RCA reaction)

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, May 12, 2010 at 11:30:45AM -0400, Hankman wrote:
: ... In answer to the question about the naming of Avos ... [the Gra]
: says that is to make just this point. As the gemara tells us, one
: meaning of AV is that it is mefurash in Torah whereas a tolda is not. He
: says that throughout Avos the Gr"a keeps pointing out the source in the
: Torah for the opinions in Avos to show that they really are mefurash in
: Torah and thus an av and hence d'Aureisa and not just a "milsei
: dachasidusa."

There is also a second link -- tolados are prohibited because they are
logically included in the av.

Meaning: Avos is called avos because it refers to the categories which
underly halakhah. It's not only no less aboud chiyuvim than the topics
of the other mesechtos, it's about the chiyuvim that are themselves the
reasons for the other chiyuvim. More fundamental.

How different is Avos in content from the truths that R' Simlai said
various nevi'im reduced the 613 mitzvos to -- asos mishpat, ahavas chesed,
and hatznei'a lekhes im E-lokekha; or "simhru mishpat va'asu tzedaqah";
"dirshuni vichyu!"; "tzadiq be'emunaso yichyeh".

Just as R' Simlai later tied the avos of the 613 to various nevi'im's
definition of sheleimus or deveiqus, so does Pirqei Avos discuss goals
of sheleimus as the categories from which the mitzvos emerge as details.


BTW, "Chapters of the Fathers" only reflects the geneological format of
the majority of the first chapter. Not the mesechta as a whole.


Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 48th day, which is
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