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‘Ediyyéth viii. 4}) and the subject of the ordinances and decrees (Levitical purity) being both signs of antiquity. Shim‘on b. Shetah of the third ‘ Pair’ is credited with having introduced several important reforms in various religious departments, whilst Shemaya and ’Abtalyon were called the ‘Great Ones of the Generation’ and the ‘Great Inter- preters’ (win ow). The most important ‘ Pair,’ however, are Hillel (the Elder) and Shammai (the Elder), in whose names more Halakhéth are re- corded than of any other ‘Pair’; they were also the founders of two great schools (Beth Shammai, Beth Hillel, sv m2, S$ mz, ‘the House or School of Shammai’ and ‘the House of Hillel’) which con- tinued the work of their masters for some genera- tions. Hillel, a native of Babylon and (according to tradition) a descendant of the house of David, was particularly famous for his meekness and humble-mindedness. Among other things he is reported to have said, ‘ Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving thy fellow- creatures, and drawing them near to the Torah’ (M. "Abéth i. 12) ; whilst he also taught to a heathen, seeking admission into Judaism, ‘ What is hateful to thyself do not to thy fellow-man ; this is the whole Torah, the rest is only commentary ’ (Shadb- bath 306). Shammai’s saying was, ‘Make thy Torah a fixed thing, say little and do much, and receive every man with a cheerful countenance’ (M. ’Abéth i. 15); but he was not particularly famous for his gentle temper. The most marked feature about these two leaders is their activity as interpreters of the Law and their application of the results of this interpretation to practice. Thus Shammai presses the words may 1y (‘ until it be subdued,’ Dt 207°) to mean that the act of sub- duing a hostile place must not be interrupted even on account of any religious consideration, and thus he permits the contimuing of a battle even on Sabbath (Shabbath 19a). Hillel, by subjecting the term j7yipa (‘in its season,’ Nu 9°) to the interpre- tatory ‘rule of analogy,’ inferred from it the Hilakha that the duty of sacrificing the Paschal lamb overrules all consideration of Sabbath, when the 14th of Nisan falls on the 7th day of the week (Pésahim 66a).* Indeed it was Hillel who first framed the Rules of Interpretation, seven in number (Introduction to the Térath Kohdnim), and which developed later into thirteen and more. iii. The Tannaim (xin), ‘Teachers,’ the name given to the authorities living during the first two centuries of the Christian era (c. 10-200), com- mencing with the schools of Shammai and Hillel and terminating with R. Jehuda the Patriarch, a great-grandson of Hillel. The period of the Tan- naim, most of whom bear the title Rabbi (32 ‘my Master,’ but losing later its pronominal signifi- cation) or (more rarely) Rabban (j71 ‘ Master’), may conveniently be divided into four successive generations, the principal men of which are— First Generation (10-80).—The ‘schools of Sham- mai and Hillel,’ comprising many teachers whose names have not come down to us. ‘The underlying principle dividing these schools on many import- ant points is not known; but on the whole the school of Shammai may perhaps be characterized as staunch conservatives in their adherence to Tradition, who allowed little room for the play of interpretation, and were as a rule very rigorous in their decisions; whilst the school of Hillel, already described by the old Rabbis as ‘ pleasing and meek,’ were more inclined to compromise in their teaching, greatly given to the developing of the Midrash, and in general less severe in their Halakhie dicta. The most important of those * For the historical and theological significance of this method
of interpretation, see Chwolson, Das letzte Passamahi Christi und der Tag seines Todes (St. Petersburg, 1892), p. 20 ff.
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known by name are Rabban Gamaliel the Elder, and Rabban Johanan b. Zakkai, both of the school of Hillel. Gamaliel, a son (some say a grandson) of Hillel, is known for various reforms introduced by him, as well as for the part he took in the trial of the Apostle Paul (Ac 5*4*°) ; whilst Johanan was equally famous as one of the leaders of the peace party in the war against the Romans (66-70), and as the founder of the Academy of Jamnia, which became the centre of Jewish life and thought after the destruction of the temple.
Second Generation (90-130).—Rabban Gamaliel II., President of the Academy of Jamnia after the death of R. Johanan [having been rather auto- cratic in the treatment of his colleagues he was removed from his office for a time, but soon after restored to it]; R. Eliezer b. Jakob 1., who was considered a great authority in traditions regarding the structure and the arrangement of the service in the temple; R. ’Eliezer b. Hyrkanos, a brother-in- law of R. Gamaliel, and the head of a school in Lydda [though a disciple of R. Johanan b. Zakkai, of the school of Hillel, he cherished Shammaitic principles, which fact brought him into collision with the majority of his colleagues, and subse- quently led to his excommunication]; R. Jehoshua b. Hananya, likewise a disciple of R. Johanan b. Zakkai, but unlike his colleague, R. ’Eliezer, with whom he had many controversies, of a humble and submissive disposition ; R. ’Eliezer b. ‘Azarya, who derived his pedigree from Ezra the Scribe, and who obtained the office of President of the Academy of Jamnia when R. Gamaliel was deposed. To the younger teachers of this generation belong R. Tarphon, of the school of Shammai (?), who had attended the service in the temple; R. Jose of Galilee, who had controversies with R. Tarphon and other Zannaim; R. Ishmael b. ’Elisha, best known for his thirteen Rules of Interpretation (see above). Together with other members of the Sanhedrin he emigrated from Jamnia to Usha, where he founded a school called after his name, to which various Midrashim are attributed. R. ‘Akiba b. Joseph, a disciple of several older teachers of this generation, was master of most of the distinguished Rabbis of the next generation, and not less famous for his skill in systematizing the content of tradition than for his ingenious methods of interpretation, which enabled him to find a basis for all the enactments of the Oral Law in the Scriptures. This fact, together with the circumstance of his patriotic zeal and his martyr death in the Hadrianic persecutions (c. 130), made him the most famous of the Zannaim. To this generation belong also the older disciples of R. ‘Akiba—Shim‘on b. ‘Azai and Shim‘on b. Zoma— best known for their moralizing sayings and mystical tendencies (in the direction of a Jewish gnosis) which they shared with their master, but from which, unlike the latter, they did not escape without injury. ‘The one gazed (into the cham- bers of heaven) and died, and the other gazed and was not in his mind.’ Their contemporary Elisha b. ’Abuyah, also called ’Aher (the Other One), was less happy than these, for he ‘gazed’ and ‘cut the branches,’ that is, became an apostate.