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Many and great teachings have been given to us through the Torah, the Prophets, and the others who followed after them. Because of these, Yisra’el must be praised for discipline and wisdom.
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Those who read them should not only become knowledgeable themselves; those who love learning should also be able to serve those outside, both by speaking and by writing.
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My grandfather Yahushua devoted himself fully to reading the Torah, the Prophets, and the other ancestral sefarim. Having gained sufficient understanding through them, he was moved to write something of his own concerning discipline and wisdom,
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so that those who love learning, becoming bound to these teachings also, might advance still more through a life ordered by Torah.
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Therefore, you are invited to read with favor and close attention, and to grant understanding wherever, despite our labor in interpretation, we may seem unable to render certain expressions with their full force.
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For what is spoken in Ivrit does not carry equal power when transferred into another tongue. This is true not only of this sefer: the Torah itself, the Prophets, and the remainder of the sefarim possess no small difference when spoken in their own tongue.
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In the thirty-eighth year under Sovereign Euergetes, I came into Mitzrayim and remained there. Finding an inheritance of no small instruction,
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I considered it necessary that I also apply diligence and labor to interpret this sefer.
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I gave much wakefulness and knowledge during that span of time until the sefer was brought to completion and released for those living in dispersion who desire learning and who prepare their character to live according to Torah.