His position
According to the Mishnah Hillel went to Jerusalem with
the intention of studying Biblical exposition and
tradition. The difficulties which Hillel had to
overcome in order to be admitted to their school, and
the hardships he suffered while pursuing his aim, are
told in a touching passage (Talmud, tractate Yoma
35b), the ultimate purpose of which is to show that
poverty cannot be considered as an obstacle to the
study of Torah. Some time later, Hillel succeeded in
settling a question concerning the sacrificial ritual
in a manner which showed his superiority over the
Benei Betheira (literally, sons of Betheira), who were
at that time the heads of the Sanhedrin. On that
occasion, it is narrated, they voluntarily resigned
their position as Nasi (President) in favor of Hillel.
After the resignation of the Benei Betheira, Hillel
was recognized as the highest authority among the
Pharisees (predecessors to Rabbinic Judaism). Hillel
was the head of the great school, at first associated
with Menachem, a scholar mentioned in no other
connection, afterward with Shammai, Hillel's peer in
the teaching of Jewish Law.
Whatever Hillel's position, his authority was
sufficient to introduce those decrees which were
handed down in his name. The most famous of his
enactments was the Pruzbul, (προσβολή), an institution
which, in spite of the law concerning cancellation of
debts in the Sabbatical year (Deut. xv) ensured the
repayment of loans. The motive for this institution
was the "repair of the world", i.e., of the social
order, because this legal innovation protected both
the creditor against the loss of his property, and the
needy against being refused the loan of money for fear
of loss. A likewise tendency is found in another of
Hillel's institutions, having reference to the sale of
houses. These two are the only institutions handed
down in Hillel's name, although the words which
introduce the pruzbul show that there were others.
Hillel's judicial activity may be inferred from the
decision by which he confirmed the legitimacy of some
Alexandrians whose origin was disputed, by
interpreting the marriage document (ketubah) of their
mother in her favor (Tosef., Ket. iv 9; B. M. 104a).
Of other official acts no mention is found in the
sources.
Hillel and ShammaiIn the
memory of posterity Hillel lived, on the one hand, as
the scholar who made the whole contents of the
traditional law his own (Soferim xvi. 9), who, in
opposition to his Judaean colleague, Shammai,
generally advocated milder interpretations of Halakha
(Jewish law and tradition) and whose disciples stood
in like opposition to Shammai's disciples. It was in
this time that the rabbinical tradition was recorded,
with Hillel as its 'founder'. Modern-day Rabbinic
tradition descends from this the law that Hillel
recorded.
He was known as the saint and the sage who in his
private life and in his dealings with people practised
the high virtues of morality and resignation; just as
he taught them in his maxims with unexcelled brevity
and earnestness. The traditions concerning Hillel's
life harmonize completely with the sayings which are
handed down in his name, and bear in themselves the
proof of their genuineness. No wonder that the
Babylonian Talmud is richer in traditions concerning
Hillel than the Jerusalem Talmud, since the
Babylonians were especially careful to preserve the
recollection of their great countryman; and in the
Babylonian schools of the third century was proudly
quoted the saying of the Judean sage Simeon ben Lakish,
in which he placed the activity of Hillel on a level
with that of Ezra, who also went up from Babylon to
Jerusalem.
The Golden Rule
The saying of Hillel which
introduces the collection of his maxims in the
Mishnaic treatise Pirkei Avoth mentions Aaron HaKohen
(the high priest) as the great model to be imitated in
his love of peace, in his love of man, and in his
leading mankind to a knowledge of the Law (Pirkei
Avoth 1:12).
In mentioning these characteristics, which the
Haggadah then already ascribed to Moses' brother,
Hillel mentions his own most prominent virtues. Love
of man was considered by Hillel as the kernel of the
entire Jewish teaching. When a Gentile, who had just
been harshly dismissed by Shammai, wished to become a
Jew asked him for a summary of the Jewish religion in
the most concise terms ("while standing on one foot"),
Hillel said: "What is hateful to you, do not do to
your fellow: this is the whole Law; the rest is the
explanation; go and learn" (Shab. 31a). With these
words Hillel recognized as the fundamental principle
of the Jewish moral law the Biblical precept of
brotherly love (Lev. xix. 18).
From the doctrine of man's likeness to God, Hillel
deduced man's duty to care for his own body. According
to Midrash Leviticus rabbah he said "As in a theater
and circus the statues of the king must be kept clean
by him to whom they have been entrusted, so the
bathing of the body is a duty of man, who was created
in the image of the almighty King of the world." In
this work Hillel calls his soul a guest upon earth,
toward which he must fulfill the duties of charity.
In Avot, Hillel stated "If I am not for myself, who
will be? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if
not now, when?" The third part contains the admonition
to postpone no duty, the same admonition which he gave
with reference to study (Avot 2:4): "Say not, 'When I
have free time I shall study'; for you may perhaps
never have any free time."
The precept that one should not separate oneself from
the community, Hillel paraphrases, with reference to
Eccl. iii. 4, in the following saying (Tosef., Ber.
ii.): "Appear neither naked nor clothed, neither
sitting nor standing, neither laughing nor weeping."
Man should not appear different from others in his
outward deportment; he should always regard himself as
a part of the whole, thereby showing that love of man
which Hillel taught. The feeling of love for one's
neighbor shows itself also in his exhortation (Avot
ii. 4).
In the following maxim is expressed also his
consciousness of his own insufficiency: "Trust not
thyself till the day of thy death." How far his love
of man went may be seen from an example which shows
that benevolence must act with regard to the needs of
him who is to be helped. Thus a man of good family who
had become poor Hillel provided with a riding horse,
in order that he might not be deprived of his
customary physical exercise, and with a slave, in
order that he might be served (Tosef., Peah, iv. 10;
Ket. 67b).
Love of peace
The exhortation to love peace
emanated from Hillel's most characteristic traits —
from that meekness and mildness which had become
proverbial, as is seen from the saying: "Let a man be
always humble and patient like Hillel, and not
passionate like Shammai" (Shab. 31a; Ab. R. N. xv.).
Hillel's gentleness and patience are illustrated in an
anecdote which relates how two men made a wager on the
question whether Hillel could be made angry. Though
they questioned him and made insulting allusions to
his Babylonian origin, they were unsuccessful in their
attempt (ib.).
The study of Torah
The many anecdotes according to
which Hillel made proselytes, correspond to the third
part of his maxim: "Bring men to the Law." A later
source (Ab. R. N.) gives the following explanation of
the sentence: Hillel stood in the gate of Jerusalem
one day and saw the people on their way to work. "How
much," he asked, "will you earn to-day?" One said: "A
denarius"; the second: "Two denarii." "What will you
do with the money?" he inquired. "We will provide for
the necessities of life." Then said he to them: "Would
you not rather come and make the Torah your
possession, that you may possess both this and the
future world?"
This narrative has the same points as the epigrammatic
group of Hillel's sayings (Avot. 2:7) commencing: "The
more flesh, the more worms," and closing with the
words: "Whoever has acquired the words of the Law has
acquired the life of the world to come." In an Aramaic
saying Hillel sounds a warning against neglect of
study or its abuse for selfish purposes: "Whoever
would make a name (i.e. glory) loses the name; he who
increases not [his knowledge] decreases; whoever
learns not [in Ab. R. N. xii.: "who does not serve the
wise and learn"] is worthy of death; whoever makes use
of the crown perishes" (Avot. 1:13).
Hillel's influence: "House of Hillel" vs. "House of
Shammai"
Hillel's disciples are generally
called the "House of Hillel", in contrast to Shammai's
disciples, the "House of Shammai". Their controversies
concern all branches of the Jewish law. Only a few
decisions have been handed down under Hillel's name;
but there can be no doubt that much of the oldest
anonymous traditional literature was due directly to
him or to the teachings of his masters. The fixation
of the norms of the Midrash and of halakhic Scripture
exposition was first made by Hillel, in the "seven
rules of Hillel," which, as is told in one source, he
applied on the day on which he overcame the Benei
Betheira (Tosef., Sanh. vii., toward the end; Sifra,
Introduction, end; Ab. R. N. xxxvii.). On these seven
rules rest the thirteen of R. Ishmael; they were
epoch-making for the systematic development of the
ancient Scripture exposition.
Sandwich
Hillel the Elder is often credited
as having been the inventor of the "sandwich" in the
1st century B.C.E. well over a thousand and a half
years before John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich.
This is based on a part of the Passover Seder (the
annual commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt), in the
section of Korech, where the Haggadah, the ancient
liturgy, instructs participants to take the matzo and
wrap it around the bitter herbs and eat them together
whilst saying in Hebrew: This is a remembrance of
Hillel in Temple times — This is what Hillel did when
the Temple existed: he used to enwrap the Paschal
lamb, the matzo and the bitter herbs and eat them as
one. In the Ashkenazi tradition, the usual practice is
to do this by making a matzo and horseradish sandwich.
However, it is more likely that matzo in Hillel's day
was not hard and crisp but soft like that of many
Polish Jews before the Holocaust. Thus, Hillel would
have been eating something more like a lamb, lettuce
and lavash (or tortilla-like) "wrap", similar to a
burrito, than a traditional English closed sandwich.
Additionally, the Hittite Empire has records of troop
provisions in the form of meat stuck between two
slices of bread more than a millennium before Hillel. |
