Ethics of our Fathers: Preparing for the Days of Judgment
Every summer, there’s a custom in Jewish life to study a single volume of Jewish law and ethics, chapter by chapter, week by week: Pirkei Avot, “Ethics of our Fathers.” It’s an unusual text — of the sixty tractates in the Mishnah, the foundational codification of Jewish oral law, it is the only one that contains no legal rulings at all. Instead, it offers guidance on how to live as a righteous person, how to go beyond the strict letter of the law. And there’s a reason this particular summer custom carries extra weight: its teachings turn out to be a quiet rehearsal for the High Holidays that follow just weeks later — especially Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, known in Jewish tradition as the Day of Judgment.
“Be Patient in Judgment”
The very first chapter of Pirkei Avot contains a teaching attributed to the Men of the Great Assembly, the body of scholars and prophets who shaped Jewish practice in the early Second Temple period: “Be patient in judgment.”
At first glance, this looks like straightforward advice for Judges. And indeed, that’s one classical reading. The twelfth-century philosopher and legal codifier Maimonides (Rambam) taught that a judge should never rush to a ruling based on a first impression of the facts — even a case that looks identical to one they’ve handled many times before deserves fresh deliberation, since some overlooked detail might change everything. A judge, in this view, must also be patient in explaining a ruling, so that the reasoning is genuinely understood and accepted, not simply imposed.
Patience Beyond the Courtroom
But the same instruction, read more broadly, speaks to anyone in a position of responsibility over others. Leaders are cautioned against judging the people who follow them too harshly or too quickly. Real patience means taking the time to understand the conditions that brought someone to where they are — and often, once you do, the small amount of good a person shows becomes more visible than the failures. This kind of patient leadership, tradition teaches, is what allows values to be carried faithfully from one generation to the next.
An Ancient Lesson for Modern Educators
The instruction extends further still, to Educators. A teacher has to assess the individual character of each student and shape a distinct path for their growth — a tall order when a teacher is responsible for many students at once. It’s a strikingly modern-sounding demand: in today’s classrooms, many students carry an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), and teachers are expected to adapt their approach to each student’s particular way of learning. The ancient instruction anticipated exactly this kind of individualized attention. This is a great teaching as we begin a new school year.
A Rehearsal for Rosh Hashanah
Judges, leaders, educators — three different roles, one shared demand: don’t rush to judge. And that demand turns out to be a rehearsal for something larger. Because Rosh Hashanah is, in Jewish tradition, the day the entire world and all of humanity stand in judgment. So there’s a striking parallel worth sitting with: the same patience we’re taught to extend to others in judging them is the patience we hope will be extended to us.
Judging Others Favourably
Pirkei Avot returns to this theme later in its first chapter, with a further teaching: judge every person favourably. If there’s any way to interpret someone’s actions charitably, that’s the interpretation you should choose. Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi — known as the Baal HaTanya, the founder of Chabad Chassidism — pushed this even further: even when an act is unambiguously wrong, one can still judge the person favourably, by recognizing that it was the specific circumstances and temptations bearing on that individual that led them to act as they did. That’s not the same as excusing the act — it’s choosing to see the person behind it with compassion.
Maimonides and the Days of Judgment
Maimonides makes a striking claim about this time of year in his Laws of Repentance (chapter 3). Every individual should be viewed as perfectly balanced between merit and guilt at all times. And the world as a whole should be viewed the same way. Meaning the very next action a person takes can tip the scales toward good or away from it. That’s a demanding thought to sit with during the Days of Judgment. We’re told to see our own choices, right now, as consequential in exactly this way. And to respond by increasing acts of kindness, charity, and prayer as we ask for forgiveness.
Forgiveness Between People
And just as we’re asked to judge others generously, tradition asks something specific of us in return. Forgiveness between people isn’t automatically covered by the prayers of the season. Jewish teaching holds that G-d does not forgive wrongs committed against another person. This is until that person has been approached directly and asked for forgiveness, up to three times. Only if forgiveness is refused after three sincere attempts is the obligation considered fulfilled. The judgment we ask for from G-d and the judgment we’re asked to extend to others are tied together. It works in both directions.
A Prayer for the New Year
May we all be patient, careful, and deliberate in judgment, and see others with a good eye. So that, in turn, we too are judged for a good, sweet, healthy New Year.
Shana Tovah. May you be written and inscribed in the Book of Life for the coming year, 5787.
