ETHICAL WILLS

to Judaism for passing on advice and wisdom. There is the model, for example, of Pirkei Avot , which is a collection of moral aphorisms This is an ancient form that we can trace back at least to the biblicil book of Proverbs and beyond that into ancient Near Eastem especially Egyptian, literature. There is also the model of the midrash, which presents itself as exegesis of the biblical text. Thisis a more recent form, of course, relatively speaking, since it is impossible to have a midrash unless there is a canonical text, and that did not develop until late antiquity. Nonetheless, the midrashic styl was certainly available to the authors of the ethical wills. So we have to ask again, why the form of a will?

The answer, I think, lies in the literature’s claim t authority. Pirkei Avot , for example, makes its statements in the name of famous ancient sages. The claim here is one of discipleship. We ar¢ told in the beginning of the book that Moses received all Torah fron Sinai and passed it on to Joshua, Joshua to the elders, and so on. The

later aphorisms, stated in the names of Shamaiah, Abtalion, Hillel Akiba, Eliezer, and so on are understood to draw their authority through a chain of discipleship stretching back to Moses himself. This is the oral law written down. We know from the New Testament ani from the Islamic Hadaith that in the Near East this is a commol strategy for claiming authority.

The midrash bases its claim on a somewhat different four dation, namely the written text of the revelation. It has a call on of attention and allegiance because it claims to express what is implicit in the very words of the Holy Writ given at Sinai. The authority invoked here is not this or that sage, but the words of what we al possess in common, the Tanach. This, of course, is again a commo? mode for claiming authority in Judaism , dating back at least to tht peshers of the Dead Sea Scrolls . This community claims to find it

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