Pt2 Hillel’s Three Converts: Lessons in Patience, the Oral Torah, and the Golden Rule (Shabbat 31a)
This is the second and final part of a two-part series. Part 1 is here, the outline of the series can be found there.
Hillel Convert Story #3: From Aspiration for High Priesthood to Embracing Being a Commoner
Part 1 (Exodus 28:4)
A non-Jew passing by a study hall overheard a scribe (סופר) reading the verse listing the High Priest’s clothing (Exodus 28:4) and decided to convert so he could become High Priest.
He approached Shammai with this request, but Shammai rejected him harshly.1
He then approached Hillel, who converted him. Hillel then said that since he was interested in a position of rulership, he first needed to learn about Judaism’s "royal protocols".2
שוב מעשה בגוי אחד
שהיה עובר אחורי בית המדרש,
ושמע קול סופר, שהיה אומר:
״ואלה הבגדים אשר יעשו:
חושן ואפוד״.
אמר: הללו למי?
אמרו לו: לכהן גדול.
אמר אותו גוי בעצמו: אלך ואתגייר, בשביל שישימוני כהן גדול.
בא לפני שמאי,
אמר לו: גיירני, על מנת שתשימני כהן גדול.
דחפו באמת הבנין שבידו.
בא לפני הלל, גייריה.
אמר לו:
כלום מעמידין מלך אלא מי שיודע טכסיסי מלכות?!
לך למוד טכסיסי מלכות.
There was another incident involving one gentile
who was passing behind the study hall
and heard the voice of a teacher who was teaching Torah to his students and saying the verse:
“And these are the garments which they shall make:
A breastplate, and an efod, and a robe, and a tunic of checkered work, a mitre, and a girdle” (Exodus 28:4).
The gentile said: These garments, for whom are they designated?
The students said to him: For the High Priest.
The gentile said to himself: I will go and convert so that they will install me as High Priest.
He came before Shammai
and said to him: Convert me on condition that you install me as High Priest.
Shammai pushed him with the builder’s cubit in his hand.
He came before Hillel; he converted him.
Hillel said to him, to the convert:
Is it not the way of the world that only one who knows the protocols [takhsisei] of royalty is appointed king?!
Go and learn the royal protocols by engaging in Torah study.
Part 2 (Numbers 1:51; Exodus 4:22)
While studying the Bible, the convert encountered the verse (Numbers 1:51) prohibiting non-priests3 from Temple duties, punishable by death.
Hillel explained that this prohibition from serving in the Temple applied even to King David (since he wasn’t a priest).
The convert then reasoned: If God calls the Jewish people His children (“Israel is My son, My firstborn,” Exodus 4:22), and even they (i.e. non-priests) are forbidden from drawing too near to the Temple, how much more so would this apply to a mere4 convert, who only recently arrived “with [just] his walking staff (מקלו) and traveling bag (תרמילו)” .
הלך וקרא.
כיון שהגיע ״והזר הקרב יומת״,
אמר ליה: מקרא זה על מי נאמר?
אמר לו: אפילו על דוד מלך ישראל.
נשא אותו גר קל וחומר בעצמו:
ומה ישראל,
שנקראו בנים למקום
ומתוך אהבה שאהבם,
קרא להם: ״בני בכורי ישראל״,
כתיב עליהם ״והזר הקרב יומת״
גר הקל
שבא במקלו ובתרמילו,
על אחת כמה וכמה!
He went and read the Bible.
When he reached the verse which says: “And the common man that draws near shall be put to death” (Numbers 1:51),
the convert said to Hillel: With regard to whom is the verse speaking?
Hillel said to him: Even with regard to David, king of Israel.
The convert reasoned an a fortiori inference himself:
If the Jewish people
are called God’s children,
and due to the love that God loved them
he called them: “Israel is My son, My firstborn” (Exodus 4:22),
and nevertheless it is written about them: And the common man that draws near shall be put to death;
a mere convert
who came without merit, with nothing more than his staff and traveling bag,
all the more so that this applies to him, as well.
Part 3
The convert approached Shammai, acknowledging his ineligibility to serve as High Priest due to the biblical verse previously mentioned that prohibits it.
He then came to Hillel, praising his patience and blessing him for guiding him to join the Divine Presence: “Hillel the patient (ענוותן)! May blessings rest upon your head! As you brought me ‘under the wings of the Shekhina’.”5
בא לפני שמאי,
אמר לו: כלום ראוי אני להיות כהן גדול?!
והלא כתיב בתורה: ״והזר הקרב יומת״!
בא לפני הלל,
אמר לו:
ענוותן הלל!
ינוחו לך ברכות על ראשך,
שקרבתני תחת כנפי השכינה.
The convert came before Shammai
and told him that he retracts his demand to appoint him High Priest, saying: Am I at all worthy to be High Priest?!
Is it not written in the Torah: And the common man that draws near shall be put to death?
He came before Hillel and said to him:
Hillel the patient!
may blessings rest upon your head
as you brought me under the wings of the Divine Presence.
The Three Converts Meet
At some later point (לימים), the three converts (from the preceding three stories, who had all converted through Hillel’s gentleness, as described), were together (נזדווגו) in one place.
They reflected that while Shammai’s short-temperdness (קפדנותו) sought to drive them away (“from the world"), Hillel’s patience brought them to Judaism (“under the wings of the Shekhina”).
לימים, נזדווגו שלשתן למקום אחד,
אמרו:
קפדנותו של שמאי בקשה לטורדנו מן העולם,
ענוותנותו של הלל קרבתנו תחת כנפי השכינה.
The Gemara relates:
Eventually, the three converts gathered together in one place,
and they said: Shammai’s impatience sought to drive us from the world;
Hillel’s patience brought us beneath the wings of the Divine Presence.
Appendix: The Six Orders of the Mishnah and the Six Questions Asked in Divine Judgment
Reish Lakish Links Isaiah 33:6 to the Six Orders of the Mishnah
Reish Lakish homiletically interprets the verse in Isaiah 33:6 as referring to the six orders of the Mishnah, with each word in the verse corresponding to a Mishnah order, in sequence.6
The homily concludes that even with mastery of all six orders of Mishnah, being God-fearing remains essential.
אמר ריש לקיש:
מאי דכתיב ״והיה אמונת עתיך חוסן ישועות חכמת ודעת וגו׳״.
״אמונת״ — זה סדר זרעים.
״עתיך״ — זה סדר מועד.
״חוסן״ — זה סדר נשים.
״ישועות״ — זה סדר נזיקין.
״חכמת״ — זה סדר קדשים.
״ודעת״ — זה סדר טהרות.
ואפילו הכי, ״יראת ה׳ היא אוצרו״.
The Gemara continues discussing the conduct of the Sages, citing that Reish Lakish said:
What is the meaning of that which is written: “And the faith of your times shall be a strength of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge, the fear of the Lord is his treasure” (Isaiah 33:6)?
Faith; that is the order of Zera’im, Seeds, in the Mishna, because a person has faith in God and plants his seeds (Jerusalem Talmud).
Your times; that is the order of Moed, Festival, which deals with the various occasions and Festivals that occur throughout the year.
Strength; that is the order of Nashim, Women.
Salvations; that is the order of Nezikin, Damages, as one who is being pursued is rescued from the hands of his pursuer.
Wisdom; that is the order of Kodashim, Consecrated Items.
And knowledge; that is the order of Teharot, Purity, which is particularly difficult to master.
And even if a person studies and masters all of these, “the fear of the Lord is his treasure,” it is preeminent.
The Six Questions Asked in Divine Judgment: Honesty, Torah Study, Procreation, Anticipation of Salvation, Wisdom, and Understanding
Part 1
Rava teaches (based on the six words in the verse cited in the previous section) that in divine judgment, a person is asked six questions: about their honesty in business, Torah study, procreation (פריה ורביה), anticipation of “salvation” (ישועה - i.e. the messianic era), and efforts in wisdom and understanding.7
Yet, without fear of God, none of these accomplishments hold value.
אמר רבא:
בשעה שמכניסין אדם לדין,
אומרים לו:
נשאת ונתת באמונה?
קבעת עתים לתורה?
עסקת בפריה ורביה?
צפית לישועה?
פלפלת בחכמה?
הבנת דבר מתוך דבר?
ואפילו הכי,
אי “יראת ה׳ היא אוצרו” — אין,
אי לא — לא.
With regard to the same verse, Rava said:
After departing from this world, when a person is brought to judgment for the life he lived in this world,
they say to him in the order of that verse:
Did you conduct business faithfully?
Did you designate times for Torah study?
Did you engage in procreation?
Did you await salvation?
Did you engage in the dialectics of wisdom
or understand one matter from another?
And, nevertheless, beyond all these,
if the fear of the Lord is his treasure: yes, he is worthy,
and if not: no, none of these accomplishments have any value.
Part 2: Parable Illustrating
A parable (משל - mashal) is presented to emphasize the concluding point about the necessity of being God-fearing, likening it to preservatives8 for wheat: without preservatives, stored wheat becomes useless.
משל ל --
אדם שאמר לשלוחו: העלה לי כור חיטין לעלייה.
הלך והעלה לו.
אמר לו: עירבת לי בהן קב חומטון?
אמר לו: לאו.
אמר לו: מוטב אם לא העליתה.
There is a parable that illustrates this.
A person who said to his emissary: Bring a kor of wheat up to the attic for me to store there.
The messenger went and brought it up for him.
He said to the emissary: Did you mix a kav of ḥomton, a preservative to keep away worms, into it for me?
He said to him: No.
He said to him: If so, it would have been preferable had you not brought it up. Of what use is worm-infested wheat?
Likewise, Torah and mitzvot without the fear of God are of no value.
In the same way as in the previous section: by pushing him away with a measuring stick.
טכסיסי - from Greek taxis: “arrangement, ordering”.Cognate with Modern English tactic and taxi. Compare also Taxis - Wikipedia.
קל - literally: “light”.
תחת כנפי השכינה - “entering under the wings of the Shekhina”. This is a common talmudic idiom to mean “to convert to Judasim”; it's used also in the next section.
See Wikipedia, “Mishnah“, section “Six orders“:
The Mishnah consists of six orders (sedarim, singular seder סדר), each containing 7–12 tractates (masechtot, singular masechet מסכת; lit. "web"), 63 in total.
Each masechet is divided into chapters (peraqim, singular pereq) and then paragraphs (mishnayot, singular mishnah).
In this last context, the word mishnah means a single paragraph of the work, i.e. the smallest unit of structure, leading to the use of the plural, "Mishnayot", for the whole work […]
The six orders are:
Zeraim ("Seeds"), dealing with prayer and blessings, tithes and agricultural laws (11 tractates)
Moed ("Festival"), about the laws of the Sabbath and the Festivals (12 tractates)
Nashim ("Women"), concerning marriage and divorce, some forms of oaths and the laws of the nazirite (7 tractates)
Nezikin ("Damages"), dealing with civil and criminal law, the functioning of the courts and oaths (10 tractates)
Kodashim ("Holy things"), regarding sacrificial rites, the Temple, and the dietary laws (11 tractates) and
Tohorot ("Purities"), pertaining to the laws of purity and impurity, including the impurity of the dead, food purity, and bodily purity (12 tractates).
Table summarizing our Talmudic passage (Reish Lakish’s homily):
Broader analysis:
Rava’s statement is structured as a list of questions, forming a sequential framework of evaluation for the afterlife.
The questions reflect a spectrum of activities, ranging from practical (business ethics) to intellectual (Torah study and wisdom) to eschatological (awaiting salvation).
By combining economic, familial, religious, and intellectual obligations, Rava acknowledges the diverse roles a person must fulfill.
Study as a Core Value: The question about setting fixed times for Torah study (קבעת עתים לתורה) highlights the centrality of Torah in Babylonian Jewish culture. By this time, study had become a defining characteristic of rabbinic Judaism, marking a shift from Temple-centered worship to intellectual engagement as the locus of religious life. The emphasis on dialectics (פלפלת בחכמה) and understanding one matter from another (הבנת דבר מתוך דבר) evokes ideals of wisdom.
On the talmudic concept of the afterlife in general, see my extended discussion in the introduction to my piece “Barred from the Afterlife: Heretics, Biblical Sinners, and Groups Denied a Share in the World-to-Come (Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:1-4)“.
חומטון. Jastrow: “ḥumton, a sandy soil containing salty substances and used for the preservation of wheat.“
This might have been an agricultural or practical reference in Talmudic times to describe a specific kind of soil with preservative qualities, possibly due to its salt content. Salty or sandy environments can prevent certain kinds of spoilage, such as fungal growth or insect infestations, making them useful for storage.
It’s comparable to modern practices of using materials like diatomaceous earth for grain preservation, where natural substances are used to create unfavorable conditions for pests or decay.
See Wikipedia, “Diatomaceous earth“, section “Pest control“.
Diatomaceous earth is widely applied for insect control in grain storage [….]
Natural freshwater diatomaceous earth is used in agriculture for grain storage as an anticaking agent, as well as an insecticide.