Shemoneh Perakim
שְׁמוֹנָה פְּרָקִיםHebrew text: Wikisource, Public Domain.
About the Shemoneh Perakim on TorahSages
Shemoneh Perakim, the eight chapters, is the introduction the Rambam wrote to Masechet Avot in his peirush on the Mishnah, which he composed in Arabic; Rabbi Shmuel ibn Tibbon translated it into Hebrew. Before explaining Pirkei Avot, the masechet of middot, the Rambam sets out what a person is: the powers of the soul, where mitzvot and aveirot are found in them, the illnesses of the soul and their healing through the middle way between two extremes, and, in the last perek, bechirah — that a person is free to choose, and how this stands with Hashem’s knowledge. It is the foundation of the Rambam’s approach to middot, and it is learned before Pirkei Avot or beside it.
TorahSages has the complete Shemoneh Perakim in Hebrew, all eight perakim.