This trans­lat­ed series of lec­tures pre­sent­ed (2004) and revised for pub­li­ca­tion in Hebrew (2007), attempts to bring togeth­er the reflec­tive world of the yeshi­va and method­olog­i­cal dis­ci­plines of the acad­e­my. The goal is to read the tan­naitic (mish­na­ic sages) dis­putes of the Fathers regard­ing the trans­mis­sion of the Torah as it is pre­sent­ed in the mish­na­ic trac­tate Pirkei Avot. The spe­cial fea­ture of this work is to exam­ine these dis­putes as they emerged from the hous­es of study with­out the medi­a­tion of the amora’im (Tal­mu­dic schol­ars), thus reveal­ing the philo­soph­i­cal, ide­o­log­i­cal, and reli­gious foun­da­tions of Jew­ish beliefs and val­ues. The mate­r­i­al is arranged chrono­log­i­cal­ly, from the begin­ning of the Sec­ond Tem­ple until its destruc­tion. The teach­ings of the sages are eval­u­at­ed with respect to the his­tor­i­cal details of their eras and locales, as well as their char­ac­ter. Sec­tions include From Prophe­cy to Halakha; The Peri­od of the Pairs — Between Reli­gion and the State; Hil­lel and Sham­mai and their Stu­dents; When Dis­putes Pro­lif­er­at­ed in Israel; Destruction.