But staying with the early parts of the page: the famous
story of Hillel – “standing on one foot.” You remember – the person who comes
to both Shammai and Hillel with the proposition that he will convert to Judaism
if the rabbi will teach him all of Torah while he performs the short-lived childish
feat. Shammai beats him with a stick, Hillel teaches him the “Golden Rule” and
tells him that the rest of commentary – “go and learn it.”
But, this is just one of – count ‘em – four “mocking proselytes
vs. Hillel and Shammai.” In the first a heathens make a bet that they can make
Hillel angry. He asks a series of absurd and even offensive (what we would call
racist) questions. Hillel maintains his cool and the questioner loses the bet.
But we gain a picture of equanimity.
In the second story the heathen in given a lesson in trust.
Refusing to believe in the concept of the “Oral Torah” Hillel teaches him the “aleph-bet”
in order. The next day he teaches him the “aleph-bet” in reverse order. “But
yesterday you taught it to me the other way!” he complained. “Does this mean
you have to rely on me?” Hillel answered “then you have to rely on me about the
Oral Torah as well.”
Lessons learned!
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