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Hillel and Shammai

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Hillel and Shammai were two leading rabbis of the early first century who founded opposing schools of Jewish thought, known as the House of Hillel and House of Shammai. The debate between these schools on matters of ritual practice was critical for the shaping of the Oral Law and Judaism as it is today.

Houses of Shammai and Hillel

Despite the many disputes that later developed between their respective Houses, only five differences are recorded between Hillel and Shammai themselves. In the record of the Talmud alone, there are 316 issues on which they debated[1]; the large number of their disputations lead to the saying the one law has become two[2][3][4]. The matters they debated included:


In general, the House of Shammai's positions were stricter than those of the House of Hillel.[9]. On the few occasions when the opposite was true, the House of Hillel would sometimes later recant their position[10][11]; similarly, though there are no records of the House of Shammai as a whole changing its stance, a few individuals from it are recorded as deserting a small number of the more stringent opinions of their school, in favour of the viewpoint of the House of Hillel[12][13].

The principles of the House of Shammai in relation to foreign policy were similar to those of the Zealots, among whom they therefore found support[14]. As, over the course of the first century, public indignation against the Romans grew, the House of Shammai gradually gained the upper hand, and the gentle and conciliatory House of Hillel came to be ostracised from the House of Shammai's public acts of prayer[15].

As the Jewish conflict with the Romans grew[16], the nations surrounding Judea (then part of Roman Iudaea province) all sided with the Romans, causing the House of Shammai to propose that all commerce and communication between Jew and Gentile should be completely prohibited[17]. The House of Hillel disagreed, but when the Sanhedrin convened to discuss the matter, the Zealots sided with the House of Shammai[18].

Subsequently Eleazar ben Ananias, the leader of the militant Zealots, invited the students of both schools to meet at his house; Eleazar placed armed men at the door, and instructed them to let no-one leave the meeting. These circumstance lead to the deaths of many of the House of Hillel, meaning that those present from the House of Shammai were able to force all the remaining individuals to adopt a radically restrictive set of rules known as The Eighteen Articles; later Jewish history came to look back on the occasion as a day of misfortune[19][20][21][22]

However, the fortunes of the House of Hillel improved after the First Jewish–Roman War, which had resulted in destruction of the Jewish Temple; Jewish leaders no longer had an appetite for war. Under Gamaliel II, the Sanhedrin, which was reconstituted in Yavne (see also Council of Jamnia), reviewed all the points disputed by the House of Hillel, and this time it was their opinions which won the Sanhedrin's support, on most issues[23][24]; it was said that whenever the House of Shammai had disputed the opinion of the House of Hillel, the House of Shammai's opinion was now null and void[25][26][27].


  1. Jewish Encyclopedia, House of Hillel and House of Shammai
  2. Hagigah (Tosefta) 2:9
  3. Sanhedrin 88b
  4. Sotah 47b
  5. Avot of Rabbi Natan 2:9.
  6. (Talmud, Ketubot 16b-17a)
  8. Shabbat 21b.
  9. Jewish Encyclopedia, House of Hillel and House of Shammai
  10. 'Eduyot 1:12+
  11. Jewish Encyclopedia, House of Hillel and House of Shammai
  12. Betzah 20a
  13. Hagigah (Jerusalem Talmud) 2:78a
  14. Jewish Encyclopedia, House of Hillel and House of Shammai
  15. Jewish Encyclopedia, House of Hillel and House of Shammai
  17. Jewish Encyclopedia, House of Hillel and House of Shammai
  18. Jewish Encyclopedia, House of Hillel and House of Shammai
  19. Shabbat (Tosefta) 1:16+
  20. Shabbat 13a
  21. Shabbat 17a
  22. Shabbat (Jerusalem Talmud) 1:3c
  23. Yebamot (Tosefta) 1:13
  24. Berakot (Jerusalem Talmud) 1:3b
  25. Berakot 36b
  26. Betzah 11b
  27. Yebamot 9a

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