Hillel

Hillel (flourished 1st century bc–c. first quarter of the 1st century ad) was a Jewish sage, foremost master of biblical commentary and interpreter of Jewish tradition in his time. He was the revered head of the school known by his name, the House of Hillel, and his carefully applied exegetical discipline came to be called the Seven Rules of Hillel.

Hillel was born in Babylonia, where he received both his early and secondary education. As a young man he went to Palestine in order to continue advanced studies under the leading teachers of Scripture and the Oral Law who belonged to the group or party called Pharisees. Although a strictly biographical account of Hillel’s life cannot be set forth, for virtually every narrative about him is encrusted with legend, the literary sources do combine coherently to summon up what may be called the first distinct personality of Talmudic Judaism, the branch of Jewish thought and tradition that created the Talmud, a commentative work on the Oral Law. Put another way, it can be said that the life of Hillel is more than a vague recollection of anecdotes or a name with a saying or two attached.

More than one story underscores Hillel’s whole-hearted devotion to study. As with most of the Talmudic sages, no miracles or supernatural performances are ascribed to Hillel, but he is represented as a person of exemplary, even superlative virtues. He is, in the traditional accounts, the model of patience, and, even when repeated attempts are made by some to insult him, his equanimity and civility remain unaffected. He appears as a fervent advocate of peaceful conduct, a lover of all men, a diligent student, a persuasive and ready teacher, and a man of thorough and cheerful trust in God. In short, he appears as the model of the ideal Jewish sage.

This idealization is not entirely storyteller’s praises. Critical analysis of Hillel’s sayings, of his two legal enactments to relieve economic hardships in society, and even of the motifs the legends seek to emphasize leave little doubt that Hillel did indeed affect the texture of Jewish life profoundly.

While he is nowhere described as the originator of rules to guide the student in the legitimate interpretation of Holy Scriptures, Hillel is unquestionably one of the most influential Talmudic sponsors and practitioners of a conscious, carefully applied exegetical discipline necessary for the proper explanation of the contents of the Bible. The “Seven Rules” he employed—some of which are reminiscent of rules prevailing in Hellenistic schools where Homer was studied and interpreted—were to serve as the basis for more elaborate rules in the 2nd century. Homilies or parables ascribed to Hillel reveal him as a superb pedagogue.

Along with his other gifts, Hillel had an epigrammatic felicity that is apparent in his sayings and which inevitably contributed to their being long remembered. Significantly, in the unique treatise of the Mishna (the authoritative collection of Oral Law), Pirqe Avot (“Chapters of the Fathers”), Hillel is quoted more than any other Talmudic sage. As head of a school known as the House of Hillel, he succeeded in winning wide acceptance for his approach, which liberated texts and law from slavishly literal and strict interpretation; indeed, without him an uncompromising rigidity and severity might have developed in the inherited traditions.

Hillel’s appreciation of the socioeconomic needs of his age and of the large possibilities that are inherent in biblical statements and values, plus his preference for persuasiveness to get across his point of view, led to the adoption, with few exceptions, of the Hillelite view of Talmudic teaching and to its establishment as the legal norm.

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Talmudic sources speak of Hillel’s promotion to patriarchal leadership after he had proved his intellectual superiority to the incumbents then in office. In any event, the Jewish patriarchs—the Roman term for the official leaders of the Palestinian Jews—down to about the 5th century, when the patriarchate came to an end, were descendants of Hillel.

Many of the stories about Hillel, especially those in which he is contrasted with Shammai, are among the most popular Talmudic tales in Jewish literature and folklore.