Hillel: If Not Now, When?

"Joseph Telushkin's portrait of the ancient Jewish leader Hillel jumps off the page with its contemporary resonances. Hillel's lessons and sayings as a Talmud scholar have universal application for anyone interested in bringing dignity and pease to the world. In Hillel we find a master educator and a person of profound learning, spiritual depth, humility, and tolerance."---David Gregory, moderator, Meet the Press

"Here's a book to start quite a little intra-Jewish conversation, and I, for one, will be eavesdropping with interest."---Jack Miles, author of God: A Biography

"The venerable and much-quoted Rabbi Hillel has a lot to teach us tewnty-first-century Jews. Thanks to Joseph Telushkin's book, we experience Hillel at his most optimistic, succinct, and radical, insisting on the primacy of rightous behavior, an arms-wide welcome for convertsa, the challenge and blessing of lifelong Jewish learning, and the importance of Jewish educators who love their students and studies in equal measure."---Anita Diamant, author of Choosing a Jewish Life: A Handbook for People Converting to Judaism and for Their Family and Friends and president of Mayyim Hayyim: Living Waters Community Mikveh.

"What is hateful unto you, do not do unto your neighbor. That is the whole Torah, all the rest is commentary. Now, go and study."

This is the most famous teaching of Hillel, one of the greatest rabbis of the Talmudic era. What makes it so extraordinary is that it was offered to a gentile seeking conversion. Joseph Telushkin feels that this Talmudic story has great relevance for us today. At a time when religiosity is equated with ritual observance alone, when few Jews seem concerned with bringing Jewish teachings into the world, and when more than 40 percent of Jews intermarry, Judaism is in need of more of the openness that Hillel possessed two thousand years ago.

Hillel's teachings, stories, and legal rulings can be found througout the Talmud: many of them share his emphasis on ethical and moral living as an essential element in Jewish religious practice, including his citing the concept of tikkun olam (repairing the world) as a basis for modifying Jewish law. Perhaps the most prominent rabbi and teacher in the Land of Isral during the region of Herod, Hillel may well have influenced Jesus, his junior by several decades. In a provocative analysis of both Judaism and Christianity, Telushkin reveals why Hillel's teaching about ethics as God's central demand and his willingness to encourage the process of conversion began to be ignored in favor of the stricter and less inclusive teachings of his rabbinic adversary, Shammai.

Here is bold new look at an iconic religious leader.

Joseph Telushkin is the author of sixteen books, including Jewish Literacy, The Book of Jewish Values, and A Code of Jewish Ethics, the first volume of which received a National Jewish Book Award in 2006. He is a Senior Associate of CLAL, servers on the board of the Jewish Book Council, is the rabbi of the Synagogue for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles, and lectures throughout the United States. He lives in New Youk City.