Hillel the Elder
Jewish religious leader of the 1st century
Hillel (Hebrew: הִלֵּל Hīllēl; variously called Hillel the Elder or Hillel the Babylonian; died c. 10 CE) was a Jewish religious leader, sage and scholar associated with the development of the Mishnah and the Talmud and the founder of the House of Hillel school of tannaim. He was active during the end of the first century BCE and the beginning of the first century CE.
Hillel is popularly known as the author of three maxims:
"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?"
"That which is hateful to you, do not do unto your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn."
"Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving mankind and drawing them close to the Torah."
Biography
He came from Babylon to Israel, although he was descended from David. His descendent Judah haNasi traced his lineage through both the female lineage of the Tribe of Benjamin and the family of David.
When Josephus speaks of Hillel's great-grandson, Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel I, as belonging to a very celebrated family, he probably refers to the glory the family owed to the activity of Hillel and Rabban Gamaliel Hazaken. Only Hillel's brother Shebna is mentioned; he was a merchant, whereas Hillel devoted himself to studying the Torah whilst also working as a woodcutter.
Hillel lived in Jerusalem during the time of King Herod and the Roman emperor Augustus.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hillel the Elder” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.