Shammai (50 BCE–30 CE) was a Jewish
scholar of the 1st century, and an important figure in
Judaism's core work of rabbinic literature, the
Mishnah.
Shammai was the most eminent contemporary and the
halachic opponent of Hillel, and is almost invariably
mentioned along with him.
Shammai's school of thought became known as the House
of Shammai (Hebrew: Beit Shammai), and Hillel's was
known as the House of Hillel (Beit Hillel). After
Menahem the Essene had resigned the office of Av Beit
Din (or vice-president) of the Sanhedrin, Shammai was
elected to it, Hillel being at the time president.
After Hillel died, circa 20 CE, Shammai took his place
as president but no vice-president from the minority
was elected so that the school of Shammai attained
complete ascendancy, during which Shammai passed "18
ordinances" in conformity with his ideas. The Talmud
states that when he passed one of the ordinances,
contrary to the opinion of Hillel, the day "was as
grievous to Israel as the day when the [golden] calf
was made" (Shabbat, 17a). The exact content of the
ordinances is not known, but they seem to have been
designed to strengthen Jewish identity by insisting on
stringent separation between Jews and gentiles, an
approach that was regarded as divisive and
misanthropic by Shammai's opponents.
Hillel's grandson Gamaliel succeeded the position of
president after Shammai in the year 30, but the
Sanhedrin would remain dominated by the house of
Shammai until around 70 (see Council of Jamnia). A
"voice from heaven" is said to have nullified the
legality of the rulings of the house of Shammai (Yerushalmi
Berakhot, 1:7), which is why Rabbinical Judaism
follows Hillel.
Shammai, took an active part in the political and
religious complications of his native land. Of an
irascible temperament, he seemed to lack some of the
tireless patience which is said to have distinguished
Hillel. Once, when a gentile came to him and asked to
be converted to Judaism upon conditions which Shammai
held to be impossible, he drove the applicant away;
whereas Hillel succeeded in converting him (Shabbat,
31a).
Nevertheless Shammai was in no way a misanthrope. He
himself appears to have realized the disadvantages of
his temper; hence he recommended a friendly attitude
toward all. His motto was: "Make the study of the
Torah your chief occupation; speak little, but
accomplish much; and receive every man with a friendly
countenance" (Avoth, i. 15). He was modest even toward
his pupils.
In his religious views Shammai was known to be strict.
He wished to make his son, while still a child,
conform to the law regarding fasting on Yom Kippur
(the Day of Atonement); he was dissuaded from his
purpose only through the insistence of his friends (Yoma,
77b). Once, when his daughter-in-law gave birth to a
boy on Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles) he broke
through the roof of the chamber in which she lay in
order to make a sukkah of it, so that his new-born
grandchild might fulfil the religious obligation of
the festival (Sukkah, 28a).
In the Midrash Sifre, Deuteronomy, § 203 it is said
that Shammai commented exegetically upon three
passages of Scripture. These three examples of his
exegesis are: (1) the interpretation of Deuteronomy,
xx. 20 (Tosefefta, Eruvin, iii. 7); (2) that of II
Sam. xii. 9 (Kiddushin, 43a); and (3) either the
interpretation of Leviticus, xi. 34, which is given
anonymously in Sifra on the passage, but which is the
basis for Shammai's halakah transmitted in 'Orlah ii.
5, or else the interpretation of Exodus, xx. 8
("Remember the Sabbath"), which is given in the
Mekilta, Yitro, 7 (ed. Weiss, p. 76b) in the name of
Eleazar ben Hananiah, but which must have originated
with Shammai, with whose custom of preparing for the
Sabbath it accords.
Shammai founded a school of his own, known as the
House of Shammai, which differed fundamentally from
that of Hillel; and many of Shammai's sayings are
probably embodied in those handed down in the name of
his school. |
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