If you look up the name Hillel in any Jewish Encyclopedia, you will learn that he was a Sage who moved from Babylonia to Palestine in the first century. You will learn who his teachers were, that he founded a school of thought and that his disciples were known as "Beit Hillel" (literally, "House of Hillel"). Sound familiar?

You will, however, never get to know Hillel by looking up his name in an encyclopedia. In order to begin a relationship with someone, you have to begin by talking to him. The following is what Hillel had to say in Pirkei Avot (The Ethics of the Fathers), a Mishnaic tractate which contains wisdom to live by from Hillel and many other sages.

Let's enter into a conversation with Hillel Hazaken (the old and venerable one) and learn why it is that we call our enterprise "Hillel."

Values of Our Fathers, Chapter One

Mishnah 12. ...Hillel used to say: "Be like the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace." [Be like] one who loves one's fellow creatures and brings them close to the Torah.

Mishnah 13. He [also] used to say: "a name that is widespread loses its essence; one who does not add [to his knowledge] causes [it] to cease..."

Mishnah 14. He [also] used to say: "If I am not for myself, who is for me, but if I am for my own self [only], what am I? And if not now, when?"
The Hebrew in Mishnah 14 is ambiguous it could also be translated: "If I am not for myself who is for me, and being for myself what am I? And If not now when?"

How does this translation change the way we originally understood this? Are the two readings compatible with each other? Given what Hillel said in the previous Mishnahs, which reading makes more sense to you?

This is just a sampling of Hillel's wisdom. His moral and legal decisions are the cornerstone for Jewish tradition and his message to us could never be more poignant than it is now. In all of our Jewish endeavors let us "love and pursue peace, and by loving our fellow creatures, may we bring them to Torah."