What Hillels Can Learn from Hillel

Last night, I went to the MJCCA Book Festival, where Joseph Telushkin was discussing his new book Hillel: If Not Now, When? The book is a fascinating examination of the teachings of the ancient sage Hillel.

Telushkin argues that although Hillel is among the most famous rabbinic personalities, rarely do we actually live-up to his philosophies. There’s a well-known and oft-quoted story where a gentile asks Hillel to convert him, but on condition that Hillel teach him the whole of Torah while the gentile is standing on one foot. Hillel famously replies: “That which is hateful unto you, do not do unto your neighbor. The rest is just commentary. Now go and study.” From this response, we can conclude that for Hillel, the essence of Judaism is ethical behavior. Telushkin points out, however, that when we think of Jewish religiosity, we primarily think of ritual, not ethical, observance. We’re likely to say:

“‘He keeps kosher, he keeps Shabbat; yes, he is religious,’ or ‘She doesn’t keep kosher, she doesn’t keep Shabbat; no, she’s not religious.’ It is virtually inconceivable that you would overhear the following conversation:

‘Is so-and-so religious?’ 

‘Oh, definitely.’

‘How do you know?’

‘Because he’s very careful never to embarrass anyone, particularly in public. And he always judges other people fairly.’”

Clearly, we’ve lost sight of Hillel’s ethical essence of Judaism. Hillel, the foundation for Jewish campus life, can learn from the ancient sage’s wisdom. We should be careful not just to nourish our students’ religious and cultural growth, but also their social and ethical growth. This could take the form of emotional intelligence workshops, values clarification exercises, or sexual assault prevention seminars. I could also imagine conversations on Jewish perspectives on contemporary ethical questions--gay rights, end-of-life issues, abortion, and others.

For more on how the organization Hillel got its name, visit the Hillel at Emory blog.