Avot of Rabbi Natan

Avot de-Rabbi Nathan (Hebrew: אבות דרבי נתן‎‎), usually printed together with the minor tractates of the Talmud, is a Jewish aggadic work probably compiled in the geonic era (c.700–900 CE). Although Avot de-Rabbi Nathan is the first and longest of the "minor tractates", it probably does not belong in that collection chronologically, having more the character of a late midrash. In the form now extant it contains a mixture of Mishnah and Midrash, and may be technically designated as a homiletical exposition of the Mishnaic tractate Pirkei Avot, having for its foundation an older recension (version) of that tractate. It may be considered as a kind of "tosefta" or "gemarah" to the Mishna Avot, which does not possess a traditional gemarah. Avot de-Rabbi Nathan contains many sentences, proverbs, and incidents that are not found anywhere else in the early rabbinical literature (Cashdan 1965). Other rabbinical sayings appear in a more informal style than what is found in the canonical Mishna Avot redacted by Judah I.

Touching its original form, its age, and its dependence on earlier or later recensions of the Mishnah, there are many opinions, all of which are discussed in S. Schechter's introduction. There are two recensions of this work, one of which is usually printed with the Babylonian Talmud in the appendix to Seder Nezikin [the sixteenth volume], preceding the so-called Minor Treatises, and another, which, until the late 19th century, existed in manuscript only. In 1887 Solomon Schechter published the two recensions in parallel columns, contributing to the edition a critical introduction and valuable notes. There were likely other recensions as well, since the medieval rabbis quote from other versions.

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