What makes a true friend? How should I balance my time? Why am I so easily influenced by others? How can I cultivate ambition properly? These questions are important—perhaps even essential—to living a good life, but they are difficult and complicated to answer. Ethics of the Fathers, Pirkei Avot, is an ancient text with contemporary relevance that can help us address these challenges. In this course, we will examine perennial questions with the help of the sages in the Ethics of the Fathers; we will also read stories from the Bible as well as contemporary literature and philosophy. In our exploration, we will attempt to uncover what the Jewish tradition teaches us about how to live a good life.