SHABBAT: YESHIVAT HAVERIM – BABYLONIAN TALMUD p50

YESHIVAT HAVERIM: BABYLONIAN TALMUD p50

He then came to Hillel with the same plea, and Hillel accepted him. He began teaching him the
alphabet in regular sequence. The next day he taught him the letters backward. “You did not
teach me so yesterday,” the man objected. “Aye, aye, my son; must thou not repose confidence
in me? Thou must likewise repose confidence in the oral law (which appears at first sight
different from the written law).”

Another Gentile came to Shamai saying: “Convert me on the condition that thou teach me the
whole Torah while I stand on one foot.” Shamai pushed him away with the builders’ measure he
held in his hand. He thereupon came to Hillel, and the latter accepted him. He told him: “What
is hateful to thee, do not unto thy fellow; this is the whole law. All the rest is a commentary to
this law; go and learn it.”

Another Gentile once heard a Jewish teacher instructing his class about the vestments of the
high priest. He took a fancy to that, and thought he would accept Judaism in order to be made a
high priest. Thus he appeared before Shamai and said: “Convert me on the condition that I be
made a high priest.” Shamai pushed him away with the builders’ measure he held in his hand. He
came to Hillel (with the same request), and the latter accepted him. Said Hillel to him: “Do
people select a king unless he knows the laws of their government? Thou must study the laws of
our government (if thou wilt become a high priest).” The convert began studying Torah. When
he came to the passage: “A stranger who comes near (to the vessels of the sanctuary) shall
die” [Numb. i. 51], he asked: “To whom does this passage refer?” Hillel answered: “To any one
(who is not a descendant of Aaron the high priest), even if he would be David, the king of
Israel.” Then the proselyte made the following deduction: If the people of Israel, who are called
the children of the Lord, so that out of love to them the Omnipotent said: “My first-born son is
Israel” [Ex. iv. 22]–if of them it is written, “a stranger that comes nigh shall die,” the more so
must it be with an insignificant stranger, who is come (within the pale of Judaism) merely with
his staff and his bag. He went before Shamai and said: “Am I qualified to become a high priest?
Is it not written [Numb. iii. 10]: ‘A stranger that comes nigh shall die’?” He then appeared before Hillel and said: “For thy equanimity of temper, O Hillel! may blessings be upon thy head, for
thou hast gathered me in under the wings of the Shekhina.” The three converts met some time
later, and said: “The impulsiveness of Shamai came near sending us adrift in the world (outside
of the pale of religion); Hillel’s equanimity of temper gathered us in under the wings of the
Shekhina.