Hillel

Life

Hillel was a Jewish teacher of the Law, called "Hillel the Elder" in later rabbinic literature. His life is known through the Mishnah (a collection of Jewish oral law) and the Talmud, both compiled centuries after his time. Because these records contain legendary elements, precise dates cannot be determined. According to tradition, he was born in Babylonia and came to Jerusalem to study the Law. One story relates that, too poor to attend, he lay on the roof of the house of study and listened to the lectures through a skylight. The Talmud reports that around the time of Herod the Great he became the nasi, the head of the Sanhedrin (the supreme Jewish council). Some scholars, however, hold that this title was applied to him retroactively by later generations.

Work and Contributions

• School of Hillel: His disciples formed the "School of Hillel," which debated numerous legal questions with the contemporaneous School of Shammai. In general, the School of Hillel is known for lenient interpretations and the School of Shammai for strict ones. Later Jewish law largely followed the views of the School of Hillel.
• Prosbul: Deuteronomy 15:1-2 requires the release of debts every seventh year. As the sabbatical year approached, however, people became unwilling to lend money. According to the Mishnah, Hillel devised the prosbul, a document that assigned a debt to the court, so that it could still be collected after the sabbatical year. For this reason he is frequently mentioned in discussions of the debt-release provisions of the sabbatical year (Old Testament).
• Principles of interpretation: He is traditionally credited with formulating seven hermeneutical rules for deriving law from the biblical text.
• Teaching: The Talmud relates that a Gentile asked Hillel to teach him the entire Law while he stood on one foot. Hillel is said to have replied, "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Law; the rest is commentary. Go and learn it."

Influence on the Korean Church

In the Korean church, Hillel appears less as a subject of study in his own right than as part of the background to the New Testament era. In sermons and Bible studies, the story above is often compared with the Golden Rule of Matthew 7:12. The comparison notes that Hillel stated the principle in a negative form ("do not do"), whereas Jesus stated it in a positive form ("do ye even so to them"). Matthew 19:3-9, in which the Pharisees ask about the grounds for putting away a wife, is likewise explained against the background of the debate between the Schools of Hillel and Shammai. The School of Hillel interpreted the grounds for divorce broadly, while the School of Shammai limited them to sexual immorality. For this reason his name also comes up in discussions of divorce and remarriage. In addition, Gamaliel (Acts 22:3), the teacher of Paul, is described in Jewish tradition as a descendant of Hillel, so Hillel is also mentioned in accounts of Paul's educational background.

Assessment

In Judaism, Hillel is revered as a model sage: humble, gentle, and peace-loving. Most of the records about him, however, come from later literature, and scholars have therefore stressed the need to distinguish the historical Hillel from the Hillel of tradition. Christian scholars also follow two tendencies: one emphasizes the similarities between the teachings of Jesus and those of Hillel, while the other emphasizes that Jesus' teaching differs fundamentally from the Pharisaic tradition. Assessments of the prosbul are likewise divided. Some regard it as a practical measure that opened a way for the poor to borrow money, while others criticize it for effectively nullifying the original intent of the law of debt release.