One day, according to legend, a man approached the Jewish sage Hillel the Elder with an offer: If he could explain the religion’s principles in a single sentence, the man would convert to Judaism.
Hillel responded: “What is hateful to thee, do not unto thy fellow man: this is the whole Law; the rest is mere commentary.”
The eloquent Golden Rule, one of the most famous utterances in Western religion, neatly summarized the humanistic impulse at the core of Hillel’s teachings. A pivotal figure in the history of Judaism, Hillel was the most respected religious authority of his time and codified many of the religion’s laws and traditions. His writings on ethics have provided inspiration to people of all faiths.
Although he lived most of his life in Jerusalem, Hillel was born in the city of Babylon, which had a large Jewish population, at some point in the first century BC. Little is known about his background, but he was supposedly a descendant of the biblical King David. As a young man, Hillel may have worked as a woodcutter.
He eventually moved to Jerusalem, where he impressed scholars with his mastery of Jewish law. After settling one particularly vexing question about an arcane ritual, according to legend, he was made the city’s chief religious authority.
At the time, Jerusalem and the surrounding territories had been absorbed into the Roman Empire, and the resulting political turmoil had opened divisions within the Jewish community. Hillel aligned with one sect, the Pharisees, that was in opposition to other Jewish religious groups, especially the Sadducees.
Politically, the Sadducees tended to represent the aristocrats, while Hillel’s Pharisees enjoyed more support from commoners. Theologically, the Sadducees favored a literalist approach to the ancient Jewish texts, leaving no room for interpretation. Hillel, however, believed that the texts were more of a starting point and could be interpreted by rabbis. (The position of rabbi, as understood today, did not exist in ancient Judaism.) In practice, Hillel’s writings emphasized the importance of community, social justice, and knowledge.
After his death, and especially after the destruction of the Second Temple in AD 70, Pharisaic Judaism emerged as the dominant force within the Jewish community, and eventually it evolved into contemporary rabbinic Judaism—the dominant force within world Judaism today.
ADDITIONAL FACTS
- When he arrived in Jerusalem, Hillel was so poor that he was unable to pay the fee for Torah studies. The fee was waived for him, and later it was abolished so that poverty would never prevent a gifted scholar from studying the Torah.
- Commentaries on the scriptures written by rabbis came to be known, collectively, as the Talmud.
- For five centuries after his death, Hillel’s descendants were leading religious figures in Jerusalem.
