Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel

Hillel is remembered for many innovations. During the Sabbatical Year, he made it possible for lenders to still collect outstanding debts so that people would be able to borrow money during the Sabbatical Year. It is widely believed that Hillel invented the famous ‘Hillel Sandwich” during the Passover Seder (this is not true, Semites have been making sandwiches for thousands of years!). Many people also think he invented the “Golden Rule.”

According to Jewish tradition, the best known version of the Golden Rule derives from the teachings of Hillel. Here’s the origin of the tradition. When a non-Jew came to Hillel, seeking to make fun of the old teacher, he asked Hillel to teach him the entire Torah while he stood on one foot.

Unlike Shammai, who chased the practical joker away, Hillel knew exactly how to make his point poignantly clear to his wily guest. Hillel exclaimed, “What is hateful to you, do not to your neighbor: that is the whole Torah, while the rest is the commentary thereof; now go and study it.”[1]

Although Hillel is credited with inventing the Golden Rule, he was not the first Jew to formulate it.

Here are at least four sources that most people are unfamiliar with that antedate Hillel’s Golden Rule by at least three centuries:

The king received the answer with great delight and looking at another said to the Sage: ‘What is the teaching of wisdom?’ And the other replied, ‘As you wish that no evil should befall you, but to be a partaker of all good things, so you should act on the same principle towards your subjects and offenders, and you should mildly admonish the noble and good. For God draws all men to Himself by his benignity.’[2]

The first century Jewish philosopher, Philo of Alexandria observes, “Moreover, it is ordained in the laws themselves that no one shall do to his neighbor what he would be unwilling to have done to himself.”[3]

And in the book of Tobit, we also find: “Do to no one what you yourself dislike.”[4]

According to the wisdom of Ben Sira, one of my favorite Jewish philosophers of antiquity, the Golden Rule pertains to many important areas of human relations—especially with respect to forgiveness.

The vengeful will face the Lord’s vengeance,

for he keeps a strict account of^a their sins.

Forgive your neighbor the wrong he has done,

and then your sins will be pardoned when you pray.

Does anyone harbor anger against another,

and expect healing from the Lord?

If one has no mercy toward another like himself,

can he then seek pardon for his own sins?

If a mere mortal harbors wrath,

who will make an atoning sacrifice for his sins?

Remember the end of your life, and set enmity aside;

remember corruption and death, and be true to the commandments.

Remember the commandments, and do not be angry with your neighbor;

remember the covenant of the Most High, and overlook faults. [5]

Rather than teaching the gentile the various positive precepts that are associated with compassion and empathy, Hillel begins with the simplest principle of ethics: act considerately toward others. Human beings are not objects to merely entertain us (as the gentile thought), rather human beings are sentient beings we must respect.

With the holiday of Tisha’ B’Av around the corner, it behooves us to remember that the only way to bring back God’s Presence to the world is through gratuitous acts of loving-kindness and treating others as we would want to be treated.

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Notes:

[1] BT Shabbat 30a.

[2] The Letter of Aristeas 2:113.

[3] Philo, Hypothetica 7.6.

[4] Tobit 4:14:15.

[5] Ben Sira 28:1-7.