How to Have a Conversation Intern Training Hillel at the University of Wisconsin

R. Abba stated in the name of Samuel: For three years there was a dispute between Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel, the former asserting, ‘The halachah is in agreement with our views’ and the latter contending, ‘The halachah is in agreement with our views’. Then a heavenly voice (bat kol) went forth and declared, ‘These and these are the words of the living God, but the halachah in practice follows Beit Hillel’. Since, however, both are the words of the living God’ what was it that entitled Beth Hillel to have the halachah fixed in agreement with their rulings? Because they were kindly and modest, they studied their own rulings and those of Beit Shammai, and were even so [humble] as to mention the actions of Beth Shammai before theirs...

This teaches you that him who humbles himself, the Holy One, blessed be God, raises up, and him who exalts himself, the Holy One, blessed be God, humbles; from him who seeks greatness, greatness flees, but him who flees from greatness, greatness follows; he who forces time is forced back by time but he who yields to time finds time standing at his side. Our Rabbis taught: For two and a half years Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel debated the following question, the former asserting that it was better for humans not to have been created than to have been created, and the latter maintaining that it is better for humans to have been created than not to have been created. They finally took a vote and decided that it was better for human beings not to have been created than to have been created, but now that human beings have been created, let us investigate our past deeds or, as others say, let us examine our future actions.