Translation of The Title
In the Talmudic sense, the word avot, meaning "fathers", refers to fundamentals, or principal categories. Thus, the principal categories of creative work forbidden on Shabbat are called avot melacha, and the principal categories of ritual impurity are referred to as avot tum'ah. Perakim, or in the conjunctive form pirkei, means "chapters". Thus Pirkei Avot means "Chapters of Fundamental Principles".
The recognition of ethical maxims as 'Fundamental Principles' may derive from the high regard in which the Torah and Talmud hold such wisdom. "Love your neighbor as yourself," states the Bible (Leviticus 19:18), an injunction that Akiva ben Joseph in Genesis Rabbah 24:7 famously calls a "great principle" of the Torah (or perhaps "the greatest principle"). In Shabbos 31a, Hillel says "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your friend: This is the entire Torah, the rest is the explanation, go now and learn it." The attribution of Biblical Wisdom books to King Solomon (e.g., Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, Book of Wisdom) attests also to the central importance that Jews of this period placed on transmitting the ethical way of life.
Because of the more common usage of avot as meaning "fathers", Pirkei Avot is often rendered in English as "Chapters of the Fathers", or even more loosely, "Ethics of the Fathers". While this translation engenders an appealing and not entirely mistaken image of "patriarchal teachings", this is probably not the primary intention of the work's title. The term 'avot' is not usually used as an honorary designation for 'rabbis' or 'sages'; in rabbinical usage, it refers to the Patriarchs of the Bible. However, the possibility that the wording of the title was designed to support multiple renderings cannot be ruled out.
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