Hillel's Rule Author(s): Raphael Jospe Source: The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, Vol. 81, No.

1/2 (Jul. - Oct., 1990), pp. 4557 Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1455253 Accessed: 28/09/2009 09:17
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=upenn. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

University of Pennsylvania Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Jewish Quarterly Review.

http://www.jstor.org

THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW, LXXXI, Nos. 1-2 (July-October, 1990) 45-57

HILLEL'S RULE*
RAPHAEL JOSPE, The

Open University of Israel

ABSTRACT The late Mordecai M. Kaplan suggested that the term ?1 mentioned in the story in BT (bShab 31a) of Hillel's conversion of a Gentile to 1 5) may be a bilingual rt Judaism "while I stand on one foot" (nnlK pun, if '1 is understood as the Latin regula, rather than literally as the Hebrew wordfor "foot." The term regula could have been known to first-century Jews through both Greek and Latin usage. Although a literal reading of S18 as 'foot" here is certainly justified, and gives the story much of its charm, there are also literary, if not historical or etymological, grounds for Kaplan's reading of the story. First, the Latin connotations of regula might make sense to a Gentile speaker. Second, Hillel is associated in several rabbinic passages with formulating seven hermeneutic "rules"(rn1l), and this association could underlie our story's portrayal of Hillel as interpreting the Torah in terms of one basic rule (regula) of behavior. Third, in addition to the metaphoric usage of 'foot" as a principle or foundation of the Torah in our story, "standing" may also be employed metaphorically. Other rabbinic statements refer to basic principles on which the world "stands,"i.e., the ethical foundations of the world. Fourth, our story clearly contrasts Shammai, who angrily rejects the challenge posed by the Gentile and pushes him away with his builder's cubit, whereas Hillel welcomed the challenge and employed his regula (= 'l = rule, ruler, or rod) to bring him to the Torah.

The statement attributed to Hillel the Elder in Avot 2.4, "Do not say, 'When I have leisure I will study,' for perhaps you will not have leisure" (;r,ln XK KXU K M;D ;,3 ,KOV 'ItXn '1) may involve a Greek double entendre, since the term aookfi means both leisure and study.l
* My thanks are due to Shraga Assif, Jonas Greenfield, Zev Harvey, and Daniel Sperber for their helpful suggestions and gracious assistance. Raanana Meridor, "A Greek Play on Words in the Mishna?,"in Scripta classica Israelica 1 (1974): 131. Cf. Liddell and Scott, Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford, 1968), where aXoXaotKo6gis also defined as "devoting one's leisure to learning." This view was also adduced several years earlier by Henry A. Fischel, who pointed out that the Greek oXoXaontKc6,like the Hebrew 1t31, alludes to leisure. (Cf. H. A. Fischel, "Greek and Latin Languages, Rabbinical Knowledge of," Encyclopaedia

46

THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW

Another statement attributed to Hillel the Elder may also involve a bilingual word play or double entendre, this time Latin.2 The late Mordecai M. Kaplan (1881-1983), founder of the Reconstructionist movement and for decades a teacher at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, is said to have suggested that
Judaica, 7:884-887). The idea that batlan, which usually means an idler, can also connote a scholar (in the sense of an otherwise unoccupied person who has the leisure for full-time study), is based on the talmudic references to "ten batlanim in the synagogue," which Rashi (bBQ 82a) explains as meaning "ten able men who are idle from their work in order to engage in community service, who come early to the synagogue to ensure a quorum at the time of prayer, and who support themselves from public funds" (cf. bMeg 21b and yMeg 1.6, 70b). Rashi's interpretation is adopted in Nathan ben Yehiel's (1035-1110) 'Arukh.Cf. Alexander Kohut's edition (Vienna, 1926), 2:41; Eliezer Ben Yehuda, Complete Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Hebrew, 1:517; Avraham Even-Shoshan, ut'n;l 11O1 (Jerusalem, 1967), 1:211; and Marcus Jastrow, A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (New York, 1903), 1:158. Zvi Kaplan similarly renders batlanim as "men of leisure," and describes the term as "originally an honorable title conferred on those who either wholly or partly abstained from work to free themselves for community service" ("Batlanim," Encyclopaedia Judaica, 4:325). We may also note that the term ooXokIhas also often been suggested as an explanation for the Hebrew nlhtuX, used in reference to the scholarly "pairs"(m1lT) mentioned in Avot 1, of whom Hillel and Shammai were the fifth and last "pair," succeeded by Yohanan ben Zakkai. Benjamin Mussafia (1606-1975) makes this suggestion in his commentary Musaf he-'Arukh to the 'Arukhof Nathan ben Yehiel of Rome (in 'Arukh ha-Shalem, 1:311-313; on Mussafia, cf. Encyclopaedia Judaica, 12:717). Mussafia's view is shared by such modern scholars as Solomon Schechter (Studies in Judaism, Third Series [Philadelphia, 1924], p. 198), but is questioned by others, including Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (Dictionary, 1:417), Alexander Kohut, and Immanuel Low. Cf. Alexander Kohut, in 'Arukh ha-Shalem, 1:311313. Kohut suggests that nl1VlDX should be understood as referring to scribes, since the scribes were responsible for developing the type of Jewish interpretation in which the halakhic meaning is derived and drawn from the text itself. Kohut's connection of textually derived interpretation with the scribal art or profession is interesting in light of the story of R. Akiva in BT (bMen 29b). According to the story, Moses ascended to heaven and saw God as a scribe, "sitting and attaching crowns to the letters" of the Torah. God explained to Moses that the crowns were necessary because "there will be a man after some generations, whose name will be Akiva ben Joseph, who will interpret (WT1) every stroke (ylp) and every curl (rln) of the letters." Cf. also Immanuel Low, Index to Samuel Krauss, Griechische und Lateinische Lehnworter im Talmud, Midrasch, und Targum(Berlin, 1898), p. 677b. Cf. the discussion in Daniel Sperber, Essays on Greek and Latin in the Mishna, Talmud, and Midrashic Literature(Jerusalem, 1981), p. 62, n. 43. A different possible explanation for the use of nl31lqK as a metaphorical term for people occupying high positions of religious leadership may be suggested by the

HILLEL'SRULE-JOSPE

47

the term 1nmentionedin connectionwith Hillel'sconversionof a non-Jew to Judaism can be understoodas the Latin regula, ratherthan the Hebrewwordfor "foot."3 The story in bShab 31a clearlyintendsto differentiate the perof Hillel and reads sonalities as follows: Shammai,and
K11I in the Targum and Talmud, which, like the Aramaic 5 D0, Syriac term D10, and like the Hebrew 51DWt, means a bunch or cluster of grapes (cf. Jastrow, Dictionary, 2:953b; and F. Brown, S. R. Driver, and C. A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament [Oxford, 1968], p. 688b). The Thesaurus Syriacus of R. Payne Smith (Oxford, 1901), p. 2524 lists, in addition to the obvious meanings of bunches or clusters of grapes, the metaphorical usage of ?1,D relating to Jesus, who was held in the arms of Simeon ("de Simeone Christum in ulnas recipiente"), as well as the metaphorical term by which Christian martyrs were later called ("vocantur martyres"). The entry lists two sources for these definitions. The reference to Jesus being held by Simeon is from Dawkins, Codices Dawkinsiani in Bibl. Bodl., xliii, 69, which is not accessible to me. The reference to the martyrs is from a hymn by Rabbula, Bishop of Edessa, in J. Joseph Overbeck, S. Ephraemi Syri, Rabulae Episcopi Edesseni, Balaei aliorumque, Opera selecta (Oxford, 1865), p. 246. The shorter companion volume of J. Payne-Smith Margoliouth, A Compendious Syriac Dictionary (Oxford, 1903), p. 360b, accordingly lists the metaphorical meaning of "the life-giving cluster, said of our Lord and of the holy martyrs." The sources and precise meaning of these metaphorical usages are not immediately evident, and they seem to reflect later Greek metaphor rather than New Testament usage. The reference to Simeon is presumably based on Luke 2:25-32, where the righteous Simeon took the eight-day old Jesus in his arms and blessed God for showing him the Savior. However, the Syriac Peshitta has no mention of in this passage, nor does the Greek text in any way suggest such a reading. 1D10 (I consulted the following Syriac editions: (1) The New Testament in Syriac, published by the British and Foreign Bible Society [London, 1955, based on earlier editions]; (2) the New Testament in the Syriac Bible of the Syrian Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East [Damascus], published by the United Bible Societies [1979]; (3) the "New Covenant"-Peshitta, Aramaic Text with Hebrew Translation," published in Hebrew letters by the Bible Society of Israel [Jerusalem, 1986]). The reference to the martyrs as 5710 is based on the title of a hymn by Rabbula (d. 435 CE), who succeeded Diogenes as Bishop of Edessa, ca. 411 CE. The hymn is included in a section called "Supplicatory hymns of every kind, arranged according to the eight tones." The hymn is entitled K55n i11tx D I7;D01,and praises these "blessed martyrs," for "the community is sweetened (or: improved, pleased, dey x:a),' nl0)." Cf. 1 xK1n 1i7rn'nx nl n'15 lighted)by yourwine(nn=lon William Wright, Catalogue of the Syriac Manuscripts in the British Museum, 439 (thirteenth century, Melchite), folio 71b, pp. 353-354. The hymn is found in MS and was published by J. Joseph Overbeck in S. Ephraemi Syri, pp. 245ff. Our passage is found on p. 246, 1. 4. I am grateful to Shraga Assif for his assistance in interpreting this passage. This metaphorical usage of 51,0 in Syriac texts presumably reflects Patristic-era Greek usage of 36TpuI (a cluster of grapes) for Christ

48
n:3a

THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW

inx 5x 7,I=y KW3 Unmnnn b w3 bSnWi mn-r.rnK pnni n?K3 rn K n3inr .irn .T`3 nTMan= xK m .3 SnY ,;n? -ni .nrpT ,55n .x1nnorps) IXKI n*: ;rnn o NX;?n IT .Tnw5?T A Gentilecame to Shammaiand said to him, "Convert me [to Judaism],providedthat you teach me the whole TorahwhileI stand on one foot." Shammai pushed him away with the builder'scubit that he held in his hand. The [Gentile then] camebeforeHillel,who converted him. He said to him, "Whatever is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. This is the whole Torahin its entirety,and the rest is its commentary. Go and study.4
and the prophets. Cf. Geoffrey W. H. Lampe, A Patristic Greek Lexicon (Oxford, 1961), p. 301, where these and other metaphorical usages of botrus are listed. However h1D came to be a metaphorical appellation for Jesus and the martyrs, the parallel is striking: outstanding religious figures in Judaism (Hebrew n*fS:lN) are called "grape clusters"!Neverand Greek Po36pu;) and Christianity (Syriac 110O theless, how both cultures came to use the same metaphor, and whether the one influenced the other, cannot yet be determined. 2 For another possible bilingual pun, cf. note 7 below. 3 I have not been able to locate this interpretation in any of Mordecai Kaplan's published books. I have the information orally from Kaplan's disciple Jack J. Cohen of Jerusalem, and it is confirmed by Kaplan's son-in-law and successor, Ira Eisenstein. 4 A parallel story is attributed to R. Akiva in Avot de-Rabbi Nathan (ed. S. Schechter [New York, 1967], version B, chap. 26, p. 53): "Once someone came to R. Akiva and said to him, 'Rabbi, teach me the Torah all at once [nnK:].' [R. Akiva] said to him, 'My son, Moses, our teacher, spent forty days and forty nights on the mountain (of Sinai) before learning it, and you say, Teach me the Torah all at once! Instead, my son, this is the general principle (573) of the Torah: Whatever you hate to have done to you, do not do it to your fellow. If you want no person to harm you or what is yours, do not harm him. If you want no person to take what is yours, do not take what is your fellow's.'" Cf. the English translation by Anthony J. Saldarini, The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan, version B (Leiden, 1975), p. 155. Saldarini also understands nnri: in the temporal sense of"at once." In this story Akiva, unlike Hillel, explicitly formulates a general principle (55f ) epitomizing the Torah's ethics and adds further illustrative examples, but he fails to add Hillel's all-important proviso, "The rest is commentary; go and study." Akiva's formulation of the general principle ('75) of the Torah is also found in yNed 9.4, 42c, where Akiva says that "Love your fellow as yourself" (Lev 19:18)"is a great principle of the Torah (;mr1n:511 5)," in contrast with Ben 'Azzai who regarded Gen 5:1 as the Torah's great principle. In fact, Akiva's two general principles may well be positive and negative formulations of the same idea, with the "Golden Rule" constituting his interpretation of the commandment to love one's fellow. The positive formulation is also, of course, attributed earlier to Jesus (Matt 7:12 and Luke 6:31). For a discussion of various Jewish, Near Eastern, and Greek

5y

WJl> ,;7n

17:X ,KXtDU ""^

X3W

IlnK

$333

IWSD 3tW

HILLEL'S RULE-JOSPE

49

The term 1a1 here is usually understoodin its literal meaning of "foot," and the story makes sense and derives much of its charmfrom that literalunderstanding of "standing on one foot"; it is thus cited,for example,in EliezerBen-Yehuda's Dictionary.5 A literal readingof "standingon one foot" is furtherjustified by the fact that knowledgeof Latinwas far less extensiveamong Jews than was their knowledgeof Greek.6 On the otherhand,the existenceof many Latin as well as Greekloanwordsin rabbinic Hebrew has been widely documentedin modern research, although "'Latin'loanwordsin Hebrew... were often loanwords In alreadyin the Greekfrom which they had been borrowed."7 no Latin influence is for to us understand event, any necessary
parallels or antecedents of the Golden Rule, cf. Albrecht Dihle, Die Goldene Regel: Eine Einfiihrung in die Geschichte der antiken undfrtihchristlichen Vulgarethik (G6ttingen, 1962). According to Dihle, the Golden Rule originated in Greek Sophist literature of the second half of the fifth century BCE,and came into Judaism in the second pre-Christian century (p. 84). Ahad ha-CAm(Asher Ginzberg) argues against equating the positive formulation of Jesus with the negative formulation of Hillel, and thus against the tendency of some liberal Jews to equate Christian ethics, which he saw as based on altruism that ultimately is reverse egoism, with Jewish ethics, which he saw as based on absolute justice. Cf. his essay "'Al Shete ha-Se'ipim" (Kol Kitve Ahad ha-'Am [Jerusalem, 1965], pp. 370-377) which was originally published in 1910 in response to the publication in 1909 of Glaude G. Montefiore's commentary on the Synoptic Gospels. The title, which can be translated as "Between the Two Branches" or "Between the Two Opinions," means something like the English expression "straddling the fence," and is a reference to Elijah's challenge to the people on Mount Carmel, "How long will you skip between the two opinions" (1 Kings 18:21). The essay was translated into English by Leon Simon under the title "Judaism and the Gospels" (in Ten Essays on Zionism and Judaism, 1922), and was subsequently partially reissued by him under the title "Jewish and Christian Ethics" (in his Essays, Letters, Memoirs, 1946). 5 13:6424. 6 Cf. Henry A. Fischel in Encyclopaedia Judaica, s.v., 7:884-887, and the extensive discussions in Saul Lieberman, Greek in Jewish Palestine (New York, 1942), and "How Much Greek in Jewish Palestine," in Alexander Altmann, ed., Biblical and Other Studies (Cambridge, MA, 1963). 7 Cf. Henry A. Fischel, in EJ 7:885. Cf. the arguments for Latin influences in Howard Jacobson, "Greco-Roman Light on Rabbinic Texts," Illinois Classical Studies 5 (1980): 57-62. Jacobson suggests that the interpretation of Exod 34:29 (Moses' face "shone" [p'7]) in Midrash Tanhuma (ed. S. Buber, p. 51) in terms of Moses' receipt of God's crown may be a bilingual pun of 1'p1 and the Latin corona; cf. also his "More Roman Light on Rabbinic Texts" in Illinois Classical Studies 8 (1983): 165-167. For Latin and Greek legal terminology cf. Daniel Sperber, A Dictionary of Greek and Latin Legal Terms in Rabbinic Literature (Ramat Gan, 1984).

50

THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW

the story. Moreover, Latin influence, if it exists here at all, could also support a literal reading of the story, since there is a striking parallel to our phrase in the Latin expression "stans pede in uno.',8 Without denying the primary literal sense of the story, therefore, can we also understand the term ?n1 nonliterally, or as a Latin term? There is one clear instance in which some scholars have taken 51r in a nonliteral sense, and in relation to a Latin term, but in an entirely different context, namely the talmudic expression T'Irr1n1n, which they tend to equate with the Latin regale repudium (royal divorce), which in turn they posit as a possible corruption from legale repudium (legal divorce). This interpretation is developed at length by N. Tur-Sinai,9 and is also discussed by R. Kimelman?' and D. Sperber,11 who suggests,
8 As has been called to my attention, the phrase "standing on one foot" may be found, for example, in the Satires of Horace, which include a criticism of Lucilius, whose copiousness Horace resolved to avoid: "In hora saepe ducentos ut magnum versus dictabat stans pede in uno" ("Often in an hour, as though a great exploit, he would dictate two hundred lines while standing on one foot"). Cf. Horace, Satires, Epistles, and Ars Poetica, edited and translated into English by H. Rushton Fairclough (Cambridge, MA, 1942), Book I, Satire 4:9-10, pp. 48-49, dated ca. 35 BCE. Fairclough notes that "standing on one foot" is proverbial for "doing without effort." The parallel of the phrase is striking, and yet it need not surprise us that people of different cultural backgrounds find similar expressions, common themes, or other parallels. The question is whether in a given instance a historical influence of one on the other can be documented, or in the absence of historical evidence, whether an understanding of the one clarifies and helps us to understand the other better. The issue is thus not merely to find parallels in Latin or other non-Jewish literature to the phrase "standing on one foot." In the case of Hillel's statement in Avot 2.4, the Greek aoXokrand oXokaoaatKo6 may give us an insight into a possible word-play in the Hebrew, and all the more so regarding the ambiguous passages about the ten batlanim: are the batlanim idlers who in any event have nothing better to do (as implied by the ordinary usage of the term), or do the passages refer with approbation to ten men who out of their concern for the community's welfare avoid other remunerative occupations? Similarly, in the case of regel-regula, the Latin opens up a range of literary and perhaps even historical perspectives, which the literal Hebrew understanding of regel would never suggest. 9 N. Tur-Sinai, "Amar R. Yohanan: Be-Regel Redufin Shanu," in Sefer Yohanan Lewy (Jerusalem, 1949), pp. 59-64; and idem, "Regel Redufin u-ven 'ESrim Lirdof," in Ha-Lashon we-ha-Sefer (Jerusalem, 1956), pp. 279-285. o0Reuven Kimelman, "Rabbi Yohanan and Origen on the Song of Songs: A Third-Century Jewish-Christian Disputation," HTR 73 (1980): 590-591. " Daniel Sperber, A Dictionary of Greek and Latin Legal Terms in Rabbinic Literature, p. 197.

HILLEL'S RULE-JOSPE

51

however, understanding 5a' in its Hebrew sense as meaning 'a 51l to mean the period,' and therefore understands the term 1'5T17 'period of divorce.' Whereas Sperber thus restores 5'l to normal Hebrew usage, Tur-Sinai, who may have been the first to make the connection between 1D1'1n 51l and regale repudium and to suggest the possible corruption from legale repudium, goes further in the direction of Latin by suggesting that the second term in the phrase should also be taken as Latin, and not as the Hebrew root ?71, and that 'sT1M may thus be a hebraizing corruption of 7"~s' = repudium, so that what we have here is a completely Latin phrase, 1"T'D1 :n1(=regale repudium).12 Whatever the merits of understanding 5?1 in the legal context of 7'1'77r 'l as the Latin regale, we now come back to Kaplan's suggestion that ?11 in the story of Hillel and the non-Jew be understood in terms of the Latin regula, 'a rule.' In the absence of any historical information, what literary arguments can be adduced for such a Latin play on words, whether intentional or unintentional? Since to the best of my knowledge Kaplan did not discuss this interpretation in any of his voluminous writings but merely presented it orally to his classes, we do not have the benefit of his reasoning, nor his sources (if any). It seems to me, however, that there are four literary, if not etymological, grounds for Kaplan's unusual reading of our passage. First, the person who spoke the words nnr 51n 5S was not Hillel or Shammai but the non-Jew. A Latin connotation, however unlikely in the mouth of a Jew, might be more likely in the mouth of a non-Jew. Second, Hillel the Elder is credited in at least three separate rabbinic passages with having formulated the rnl'tn uV, seven rules of biblical hermeneutics.13Hillel's seven hermeneutic rules had a major influence on subsequent rabbinic thought and the later hermeneutic formulations of R. Ishmael's famous thirteen rules (which came to be included in the daily morning service)14
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, Dictionary, 13:6447, n. 3. This note is evidently the view of Tur-Sinai and not of Ben-Yehuda, although the parenthesis indicating TurSinai's authorship is missing. 13 Hillel's seven rules are found with slight variations in tSanh 7 (ed. Zuckermandel, p. 427); Sifra, 1.7 (Venice, 1545), p. 2b; ARN(ed. Schechter), version A, 37, p. 110. 14 Ishmael's thirteen rules are found in the Introduction to the Sifra.
12

52

THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW

and the thirty-two rules attributed to R. Eliezer ben Yose haGelili.'5 Accordingly, the association of Hillel with hermeneutic rules (IlT'n) is natural, and this association could underlie our story's portrayal of Hillel as interpreting the Torah in terms of one basic rule (regula) of behavior, in the Latin sense of a basic principle, rule, pattern, model, or example.16 Third, not only may the "foot" in our story be understood metaphorically as a principle or foundation of the Torah, but so may the word "standing." Other rabbis also attempted to epitomize reality by basic principles upon which the world "stands." For example:
'Y ,IMlY U'?1Z1 W'=1i IVrV

'Y :VM1K M, ... ?PnTM7Y?1V . 779 IW .M-)570 'rY7l n*)M Yl -,732Y;l

Simeon the Just. . . used to say: The world stands on three things: on the Torah, on service, and on kind deeds.'7 And similarly: 17 nnxn 5Y ,-I Y M 'IXn D13-1 Vln 5Y IMMK . 7 1p 1 py1V 7-

Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel says: The world stands on three things: on truth, on justice, and on peace.18 This metaphorical usage of "standing" is explicitly connected to the term 'nl as a moral principle or foundation of the world in an alternate version of R. Simeon ben Gamaliel's statement:

Tin 13z1 nn nrvan 7nmK1;xvi

13 nV ,5KX

1 711yn '1 n8X

1

01=1 ;7t1t7I 7Y930b-nn 11IWw .77 tY ,79IMY M'IY;71 -lb

MnV.IM- In . n rw ,1m7; nx n'tn DKv

15

M'I KIn-IV .r1'Vbt 1nK n5Y nX yTYIT

n p7,'n V ni nnKn m

-5Xl

On the various versions of the hermeneutic rules and their development cf. Herman L. Strack, Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash (Philadelphia, 1945), p. 93-98; Encyclopaedia Judaica, s.v. "Hermeneutics,"8:366-372. 16 Cf. "Regula" in C. T. Lewis and S. Short, A Latin Dictionary (Oxford, 1969), p. 1553, and in P. G. W. Glare, Oxford Latin Dictionary (Oxford, 1976), p. 1602, and the root "Rego," p. 1601. 17 Avot 1.2. Cf. yTaCan4, 68a and yMeg 3, 74b. 18 Avot 1.17 (18). In some versions the alternate D3"jis used instead of r1MY. Cf. yTacan 4, 68a, and yMeg 3, 74b. The PT passages also have R. Jacob bar Aha saying that the world "stands"on the principle of sacrifices.

HILLEL'S RULE-JOSPE

53

R. Simeon ben Gamaliel said: Do not ridicule justice ('r7), for it is one of the three foundations of the world (1i;yn '5:). This is why our sages have taught that the world stands on three things: on justice, on truth, and on peace. Consider: if you pervert justice, you shock the world, since it is one of [the world's] foundations.19 "Standing," accordingly, has the metaphorical connotation of an ethical or other foundation of a system, and thus complements the metaphorical usage of 571 as a fundamental principle (regula). The phrase lnnf 5:1 5 may thus be doubly metaphorical, and may indicate an ethical principle ("foot") upon which the Torah is founded ("stands").20 Fourth, we come back to the obvious contrast drawn between Hillel and Shammai, which seems to be the main point of the story. Shammai angrily rejected the challenge and physically pushed away the challenger with his builder's cubit. Hillel, in sharp contrast, welcomed the challenge and the challenger with his regula, which can also mean 'measuringrod' or 'ruler'as well as 'rule' or 'example.' This juxtaposition was clearly recognized by Samuel Edels (1555-1631) in his commentary Hiddushe 'Aggadot to our passage.21According to him, Hillel's intent was to teach us that all the Torah should have one basis and foundation ('101' 5V). It says that Shammai pushed him [the Gentile] away with the builder's cubit... He thus hinted to him that just as a building cannot stand on one foundation, so the Torah extends to all its commandments, and cannot be given only one foundation... But it says [also] that Hillel taught him, "Whatever is hateful to you," etc., since it is written in the Torah, "Love your fellow as yourself" (Lev 19:18).
DeutR on Deut 16:18. The concept of the world standing on three foundations was not limited to rabbinic literary sources. Saul Lieberman, Yewanit wi- Yewanut be-'Eres Yisra*el (Jerusalem, 1962), pp. 81-82 discusses a North African love amulet from the third century (although the material is certainly much older), invoking the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel who established the earth on three foundations. 21 Maharsha, Hiddushe Halakhot and Hiddushe 'Aggadot, in standard editions of BT. On Edels, cf. Encyclopaedia Judaica 6:363-364.
20

19

54

THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW

In this context we should note that regula has also been suggested by some scholars as the root of the Hebrew and Aramaic b1D, 'ruler.'22Moreover, regula could conceivably have been known to first-century Jews through Greek as well as Latin, since as noted above, Jewish knowledge of Greek was more extensive than was Jewish knowledge of Latin, and we may have at least one instance of regula as a Latin loanword in a later Greek-Roman text. The Greek Edict of Diocletian (301 CE) refers to regla (part of a wagon)23 and reglion (a bar of gold).24 T'PyXawas also the name of the strickle, a tool used for striking grain.25(The fifth-century Lexicon of Hesychius of Alexandria, which is based on earlier lexica, also lists peyXat as iron bars or rods.)26In all these cases, the common element seems to be a straight object in the shape of
22

The identification of ~'10 with regula appears first in Nathan ben Yehiel's 'Arukh, ed. Kohut, 6:131-132). Avraham Even-Shoshan's vnrlnr l5n (Jerusalem, 1967), 4:1843 lists regula as the probable derivation of :'10,but posits the Aramaic is root 71Das another possibility. Jastrow (Dictionary 2:1023) suggests that 51X10 the saf'el form of the root 5:1 (and thus means to lead the writer in ruling or drawing lines); this view is shared by M. Z. Segal in his note in Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, Dictionary, 8:4203-4204, n. 1, who adds "some derive it from the Latin regula." Samuel Krauss (Griechische und Lateinische Lehnwdrter im Talmud, Midrash, und Targum, 2:412b-413a) also derives 110Ofrom regula, but Immanuel Low rejects this view in his note and in the index (p. 683a), and posits instead a Syriac origin for the term. I have been unable to substantiate Lbw's view in the Syriac dictionaries which I consulted. Payne-Smith (Thesaurus Syriacus, pp. 2728-2729) offers "regula"as the meaning of XXVn1D,but has nothing relating to 5nID. 23 Cf. Edictum Diocletiani et collegarum, ed. Marta Giacchero, (Genoa, 1974), 1:166-167. Section 15 concerns the wooden post (or pole, or peg, t6kov) on a wagon. 15:13 then has pI'Ykaeipyaoclvri in Greek, and regulafabricata in Latin. Cf. H. G. Liddell and R. Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, Supplement, p. 130b. E. A. Sophocles (Greek Lexicon of the Roman and Byzantine Periods [Cambridge, 1914], p. 969a) suggests that peyka may mean the peg at the end of the pole of a vehicle. My thanks to Daniel Sperber for calling these sources to my attention. 24 Cf. Edictum Diocletiani, pp. 206-207. Section 28 deals with gold, and 28:1a refers to pcyXiov as a bar of standard gold (Greek, Xpuooi p3p6nC; Ev pcyXt6tS; Latin, aurum obryzae in regulis). Cf. Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, Supplement, p. 130b, 5eykiov. 25 Cf. E. A. Sophocles, Greek Lexicon of the Roman and Byzantine Periods, to strike grain to a level with from which is also derived pEyXtdCco, p. 969a, eyXCa, the measure. 26 Hesychii Lexicon, ed. Joannes Alberti (1746), 2:1109. Cf. notes 16 and 17 to p7yXat.

HILLEL'S RULE-JOSPE

55

a bar or pole, which would be consistent with the shape of the Latin regula.27 Greek culture might thus have served as a conduit for the Latin influence which Kaplan posited. One scholar, Albrecht Dihle, has ventured far beyond our interest in possible Latin connotations of the Hebrew phrase "standing on one foot," going so far as to suggest that we must look to Greek culture for the sources of the "Golden Rule" itself. According to Dihle, this popular ethical rule did not arise in the Jewish sphere at all, but originated first among the Sophists in the second half of the fifth century BCE, and must have come into Judaism in the second century BCE, whereupon it rapidly became a "solidly naturalized innovation."28 Whatever the merits of Dihle's thesis, our aim is more modest and limited. As long as Mordecai Kaplan's interpretation of 511 as regula is at least historically plausible, what does it add to our understanding of our story? For even if Kaplan's interpretation cannot be conclusively demonstrated on historical or etymological grounds, it enhances our literary appreciation of the story by making us more sensitive, through the Latin, of possibilities not immediately evident in a literal reading of the expression "standing on one foot." We need not, therefore, attempt to prove conclusively or disprove Kaplan's theory on historical or linguistic grounds alone, however interesting they may well be. When we
27

"Regula" has also been suggested as an equivalent of the term 1'7:,. In his discussion of this term the late Professor Saul Lieberman refers to the 15;i tax in Ezra 4:13 as a land tax, similar to the Babylonian ilku tax in the laws of Hammurabi. In Lieberman's words, "It is possible that the term ,;5;i, regula, fixed rule (;,5;1 has its origin in the name of the fixed land tax" (Lieberman, "The Publicaa:IXjp) tion of the Mishnah," in Hellenism in Jewish Palestine [New York, 1950], p. 83, n. 3). The precise type of tax referred to as 15; in Ezra 4:13 is not clear; the taxes referred to in this verse are also found in Ezra 7:24. The NJPS translation (Philadelphia, 1982) also translates 15; here as "land-tax." Jacob M. Myers translates it as "duty," and notes that the three terms in our verse occur in Akkadian: mndh= mandattu (tribute); blw-biltu (tax); hlk=ilku (income from labor) (cf. Ezra, in The Anchor Bible [New York, 1965], p. 34). Jastrow (Dictionary, 1:353) suggests that 1t'[ means the sustenance of marching troops. Such traditional Jewish commentators as Rashi understood the term as the toll paid by travelers on the king's highway. Cf. also the references to these terms for taxes in bBB 8a and especially bNed 62b, where according to R. Judah, ;'ltO means "the king's portion," 1*: is "the poll tax," and 1M;is the K3131X (=Latin annona), the tax on the year's crop. 28 Cf. Albrecht Dihle, Die Goldene Regel, pp. 84, 95-96.

56

THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW

read a poem or look at a picture, we may find some meaning that the poet or artist did in fact intend, or could have intended, which however we have no evidence to prove. Peshat is always of paramount importance, and derash is always accountable to the peshat. Nevertheless, the dividing line between them is not always clear, and so long as we keep within the limits imposed by the peshat may we not explore rabbinic texts as the rabbis explored the biblical text-as literature capable of multifaceted meaning? The contrast in our story is thus complete. Whether or not the challenger literally stood on one foot, and whether or not Hillel had a regula (measuring rod) in his hand as Shammai did, Shammai's regula was used to reject the challenger, whereas Hillel's regula (= r'rn = rule) was used to bring him to the Torah.29
29 Zev Warren Harvey arrives independently at very similar conclusions in his forthcoming article, "Rabbinic Attitudes toward Philosophy," in Studies in Memory of Rabbi William Braude, ed. Ben Braude et al. Cf. especially Section 7 and notes 48-51 for a discussion of our story. Cf. also his "Love: The Beginning and the End of Torah," Tradition 15 (Spring, 1976): 5-22, especially p. 17, n. 1. On possible parallels between rabbinic and philosophic ethics, cf. Shlomo Pines and Zev Warren Harvey, "To Behold the Stars and the Heavenly Bodies," Immanuel (1985): 33-37 (which first appeared in Hebrew in Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought 3 [1984]: 507-511). In his "Rabbinic Attitudes toward Philosophy," Harvey challenges the prevailing scholarly consensus that the rabbis knew Greek (to a greater extent) and Latin (to a lesser extent) and employed loanwords from Greek and Latin legal terminology and material culture, but that they had no direct knowledge of Greek philosophy and did not read Greek philosophical works. As Saul Lieberman summarized that consensus in his "How Much Greek in Jewish Palestine?," in Alexander Altmann, ed., Biblical and Other Studies (Cambridge, 1963), pp. 123-141:

None of the sources... indicates direct Greek philosophical influence. There is ... no evidence that the rabbis knew about the teachings of Epicurus more than the current general phrases .. .Professor Harry A. Wolfson declared (Philo I, 92) that he was not able to discover any Greek philosophic term in rabbinic literature. I want to state more positively: Greek philosophic terms are absent from the entire ancient Rabbinic literature. (Cf. his Greek in Jewish Palestine, pp. 1-2.) Lieberman then continues: "Certain elements of most of the Greek sciences of that time were known to the rabbis in Palestine, and the formulations and the definitions in natural sciences are very similar to those of the Greek scholars. But here again there is no evidence for rabbinic quotations from first-hand sources; all their information may have been derived from secondary sources." In the case of the rabbis and Gnosticism, according to Lieberman, the situation is similar: "Certain basic teachings of the Gnostics were not entirely foreign to the rabbis ... However, even in this domain the early

HILLEL'SRULE-JOSPE

57

nevermentionsa single Greek'philosophic' term used by the rabbinicliterature coverall aspects Gnostics" (pp. 132,141).Cf. Fischelin EJ, p. 886:"Theloanwords of life, but areespecially in certainareasof material civilization ... and prominent however,do not give any information public life... All of these observations, the rabbinic of writtenGreeksources." regarding knowledge Harvey'sthesis is that this absenceof Greekphilosophictermsfrom rabbinic literature is all the morepeculiar, not only becausethe rabbis(as documented so and others)often had extensive,if indirect,knowledge impressively by Lieberman of Greeksources, but alsobecause the rabbis wereinterested in issuesof philosophic concern(cosmology,ethics,etc.). The absenceof philosophic termswouldmake sense if the rabbisknew nothingof Greeklanguageand culture,or if the rabbis' interests hadnothingin commonwiththoseof the philosophers. Underthecircumthe rabbinic silencein theseareasis puzzling,andmayin stances,Harveysuggests, fact not be accidental. Whatever the answerto the questionposedby Harvey,his thesisis all the more intriguingpreciselybecauseof the difficultyof arguingfrom silence (a lack of evidence). thussees ourstoryas an attemptto providea Jewishalternative to Stoic Harvey and Epicurean summationof their systemsin one basic principle(GreekKiavOv, Latinregula),andhe concludes: "Thean,cdote,rootedin the triplepunon regula, is thusa satirical to the practice of the philosophers" Attitudes response ("Rabbinic towardPhilosophy").