I came across this cartoon this morning.
Which reminded me of a story I had read about Rabbi Hillel…
The Talmud is the second most important book of the Jewish faith. As described at the website Sefaria.org:
“The Talmud is the textual record of generations of rabbinic debate about law, philosophy, and biblical interpretation, compiled between the 3rd and 8th centuries and structured as commentary on the Mishnah with stories interwoven. The Talmud exists in two versions: the more commonly studied Babylonian Talmud was compiled in present-day Iraq, while the Jerusalem Talmud was compiled in Israel.”
There is a story attributed to two second century rabbinic scholars of this book , Hillel and Shammai. As recounted at the website Forward:
“[They were]…contemporaries paired together by Jewish tradition as archetypical opposites: Hillel the tolerant and liberal ‘loose constructionist’ of the Law, Shammai the exacting and inflexible ‘strict constructionist.’
In one story about them, a gentile comes to both and asks, with the obvious intention of provoking them, to be taught the whole Torah while standing on one leg. Shammai is indeed provoked and gives the man an angry whack with a measuring rod. Hillel replies, ‘That which is hateful to you, do not unto another: This is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary — [and now] go study.’“
How hard can this be people? Apparently too damn hard.
To see the Golden Rule as expressed by many other religions follow this link: The Universality of the Golden Rule in the World Religions