Makhloket: Methods of Disagreement How Do We Live In a World Where We Are Both Right?

On the first on Nisan, the sons of Aaron died. On the tenth of it Miriam died and her well disappeared. On the twenty-sixth of it Joshua ben Nun died. On the twentieth of Iyyar, Eli the priest and two of his sons and the ark of God was captured. On the twenty sixth of it Samuel the prophet died. On the twenty-third of Sivan the offering of the first fruits in Jeruslem was cancelled during the days of Jereboam ben Nebat. On the twenty-fifth of it Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel and Rabbi Yishmael and Rabbi Hanina Deputy High Priest were killed. On the twenty-seventh of it Rabbi Hanina ben Teradion was burned to death and a Torah scroll with him. On the first of Av, Aaron the priest died. On the eighteenth of it, the eastern light was extinguished during the days of Ahaz. On the seventeenth of Elul those who slandered the land died. On the fifth of Tishri, twenty men of Israel were killed and Rabbi Akiba was imprisoned. On the seventh of it a decree was decreed against our ancestors that died by sword, hunger and plague because of the incident of the golden calf. On the seventh of Mar-Cheshvan, they blinded the eyes of Zedekiah and slaughtered his sons before his eyes. On the twenty-eighth of Kislev Jehoiakim burned the scroll that Baruch wrote dictated by Jeremiah. On the eighth of Tevet the Torah was written in Greek during the days of King Ptolemy and darkness was in the world for three days. On the ninth of it, it was not known who caused the trouble that happened on it. On the fifth of Shevat the elders who were in the days of Joshua died. On the twenty-third of it all of Israel gathered against the tribe of Benjamin on account of the concubine in Gibeah. On the seventh of Adar Moses, our Teacher, may peace be upon him, died. On the ninth of it Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai divided.

Rabbi Abba said that Shmuel said: For three years Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel disagreed. These said: The halakha is in accordance with our opinion, and these said: The halakha is in accordance with our opinion. Ultimately, a Divine Voice emerged and proclaimed: Both these and those are the words of the living God. However, the halakha is in accordance with the opinion of Beit Hillel. The Gemara asks: Since both these and those are the words of the living God, why were Beit Hillel privileged to have the halakha established in accordance with their opinion? The reason is that they were agreeable and forbearing, showing restraint when affronted, and when they taught the halakha they would teach both their own statements and the statements of Beit Shammai. Moreover, when they formulated their teachings and cited a dispute, they prioritized the statements of Beit Shammai to their own statements, in deference to Beit Shammai.

(4) Beth Shammai permits the rival wives to the surviving brothers, and Beth Hillel prohibits them. If they perform the halitzah, Beth Shammai disqualifies them from marrying a priest, and Beth Hillel makes the eligible. If they performed yibbum, Beth Shammai makes them eligible [to marry a priest], and Beth Hillel disqualifies them. Though these forbid and these permit, and these disqualify and these make eligible, Beth Shammai did not refrain from marrying women from [the families of] Beth Hillel, nor did Beth Hillel [refrain from marrying women] from [the families of] Beth Shammai. [With regard to] purity and impurity, which these declare pure and the others declare impure, neither of them refrained from using the utensils of the others for the preparation of food that was ritually clean.