Hillel, a Founder of Rabbinic Judaism
By Daniel C. Peterson and William J. Hamblin

Hillel was one of the most famous and important of the early Jewish Pharisees.  Born in Babylon, he studied with the leading scholars of the Exile, moving to Jerusalem in the late first century B.C.  An accomplished lawyer and judge with a keen mind, Hillel became the Patriarch of the Sanhedrin (the Jewish High Court) during the reign of Herod the Great.  But his true fame came from teaching; he founded a school of biblical studies where, in the coming centuries, many of the greatest Jewish scholars would study. 

As a poor young student, Hillel had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.  Once, when he could not afford the small admittance fee to a lecture, he climbed on the roof in a snowstorm to listen through a window.  As a teacher he was an advocate of constant learning, proclaiming, “Whoever does not increase his knowledge, decreases it,” and “Do not say that when I shall have time, I shall study; perhaps you will never have time.” 

At his school Hillel laid the foundation for the rabbinic method of biblical and legal interpretation by formalizing his famous “seven rules of interpretation.”  His teachings have endured for more than two thousand years; nearly all subsequent generations of rabbis have been schooled in Hillel’s methods and teachings. 

Hillel’s great philosophical and legal adversary was Shammai, who headed a rival rabbinic school; their debates became legendary among the rabbis.  Shammai was known as a strict legalist, insisting on stringent obedience to the outward forms of the commandments, while Hillel was more moderate, attempting to find and follow the inner purpose and spirit of the law. 

One story reports: “A pagan appeared before Shammai and said, ‘I will convert to Judaism provided that you teach me the entire Torah while I stand on one foot.’  Shammai pushed him out with a builder’s cubit-measure that was in his hand.  He went to Hillel who converted him, saying, ‘What is hateful to you, do not to your neighbor: that is the whole law; the rest is commentary.  Go, study.’”  This idea is the negative formulation of the Golden Rule, which Jesus also understood to an essential commandment:

“Whatsoever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them, for this is the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12; cf. 22:34-40 and Mark 12:28-34). 

Hillel also taught, “He who wishes to raise his name lowers it,” and “My humiliation is my exaltation; my exaltation is my humiliation.”  This again corresponds with Jesus’ teaching that, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted” (Mt. 23:12).  In light of the parallels between some of Hillel’s teachings and those of Jesus, it is interesting to speculate that when the young Jesus studied at the temple (Luke 2:41-52) he might have talked with Hillel’s son Simeon, who became head of Hillel’s rabbinical school after his father’s death.

But other links between Hillel’s teachings and Christianity are less speculative.  Hillel’s grandson Gamaliel succeeded his grandfather as head of Hillel’s rabbinical school, also serving as head of the Sanhedrin in the decade following the death of Christ.  When Peter and the apostles were on trial before the Sanhedrin for blasphemy, Gamaliel’s plea for tolerance — undoubtedly based in part on the teachings of his grandfather — saved their lives, perhaps preserving the early Christian movement as a whole (Acts 5:27-40).  Ironically, at roughly the same time Gamaliel was teaching Paul, a young rabbinical student, who later became a leading Christian apostle and missionary (Acts 22:3).

Hillel was known as “a man of peace” and “the peacemaker.”  In one of his most famous teachings he declared, “love peace and pursue it; love all men and draw them close to the Torah.”  He is still remembered as one of the great Jewish scholars and teachers, whose school laid the foundation for Rabbinic Judaism, and whose ethical influence is still important in Judaism today.

Yitzhak Buxbaum, The Life and Teachings of Hillel, (1994)