Pirkei Avot §avot_05_01: With ten utterances the world was created.
Source: Pirkei Avot — Ethics of the Fathers (Mishnah, c. AD 200) (avot_05_01) · external_aligned
With ten utterances the world was created. And what does this teach, for surely it could have been created with one utterance? But this was so in order to punish the wicked who destroy the world that was created with ten utterances, And to give a good reward to the righteous who maintain the world that was created with ten utterances.
Witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15)
- manuscript_tradition: Kaufmann Codex (Budapest, 11-13th cent) — earliest complete Mishnah
- manuscript_tradition: Parma Codex de Rossi 138 (Italy, 13th cent)
- critical_edition: Charles Taylor, Sayings of the Jewish Fathers (1877/1897)
- translation: Goldin, The Living Talmud (1957)
- republication: Sefaria — Pirkei Avot