Hillel the Elder

Hillel
Hillel
	Hillel the Elder teaching a man the meaning of the whole Torah while the man stands on one foot (detail from the Knesset Menorah, Jerusalem)
Personal
Born	Babylon, Parthian Empire
Died	c. 10 CE; Jerusalem, Roman Judea
Religion	Judaism
Children	Simeon ben Hillel
Buried	Meron, Israel

Hillel (Hebrew: הִלֵּל Hīllēl; variously called Hillel the Elder, Hillel the Great, or Hillel the Babylonian;^[1]^[2] 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.^[3]

He is popularly known as the author of three sayings:^[4]

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And being 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;^[a] go and learn."
"Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving mankind and drawing them close to the Torah."

^ Shulamis Frieman, Who's Who in the Talmud, Jason Aronson, Inc., 2000, p. 163.
^ Pirḳe Avot, CUP Archive, 1939, p. 20.
^ Jewish Encyclopedia: Hillel: "His activity of forty years is perhaps historical; and since it began, according to a trustworthy tradition (Shab. 15a), one hundred years before the destruction of Jerusalem, it must have covered the period 30 BCE - 10 CE"
^ Falcon, Ted; Blatner, David (2019). Judaism for Dummies (2nd ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. pp. 42, 364, 405. ISBN 978-1-119-64307-4. OCLC 1120116712.

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[1] Shulamis Frieman, Who's Who in the Talmud, Jason Aronson, Inc., 2000, p. 163.

[2] Pirḳe Avot, CUP Archive, 1939, p. 20.

[3] Jewish Encyclopedia: Hillel: "His activity of forty years is perhaps historical; and since it began, according to a trustworthy tradition (Shab. 15a), one hundred years before the destruction of Jerusalem, it must have covered the period 30 BCE - 10 CE"

[:0-4] Falcon, Ted; Blatner, David (2019). Judaism for Dummies (2nd ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. pp. 42, 364, 405. ISBN 978-1-119-64307-4. OCLC 1120116712.

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