Commentary on the Mishnah: Eight Chapters

Moses Maimonides composed and revised his commentary on the Mishnah over many years. Writing in Judeo-Arabic, he clarifies each mishnah in light of the discussion in the Babylonian Talmud, often determining what the final legal decision was. The commentary is preceded by a lengthy introduction to the Mishnah, which presents the history of rabbinic tradition. Some individual tractates were also given introductions, in which Maimonides lays out general principles or explores an important related topic. Maimonides’ introduction to his commentary on Pirke Avot, consists of eight chapters that address a variety of theological, ethical, and psychological themes central to the Arabic intellectual tradition. This introduction became an immensely popular summary of Maimonides’ views on ethics and was called simply the Eight Chapters (Shemonah perakim), meriting its own commentaries. This work reflects Maimonides’ embrace of Aristotelianism, filtered through figures like al-Fārābī (ca. 870–ca. 950) and Ibn Sīnā (ca. 980–1037), and his attempt to reconcile those Arabic theories with rabbinic teachings. This excerpt considers the question of whether it is better to obey the law while desiring to transgress, or to do so because it is what one wants to do, comparing the views of the “philosophers” and the rabbis.