Subversive Principles

“Forget everything you think you know about Avot, the supposed ‘Ethics of the Fathers’ and founding document of rabbinic Judaism. David H. Aaron applies the strategy of defamiliarization to dispel your preconceptions. Through his close reading of the Jewish classic in the light of Greco-Roman culture and modern social theory, Avot emerges as a revolutionary tract rather than an affirmation of traditional wisdom. Written and presented well, Subversive Principles is a winner.”
—Bernhard Lang, University of Paderborn, Germany

“Drawing on the theoretical work of Bourdieu and Foucault, David Aaron provides a refreshingly innovative and often startlingly insightful commentary on the first two chapters of Mishnah-tractate Avot.  Aaron explores possible meanings of this text in its original Greco-Roman context, in which early rabbinic master-disciple circles were akin to those of Hellenistic philosophical schools, particularly Epicureanism. He also proposes an ethics of reading for handling difficult, albeit canonical, texts from the past. Thought-provoking and highly recommended.”
—Richard S. Sarason, The Deutsch Family Professor of Rabbinics and Liturgy, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion