Mishnah Avot Shaping Rabbinic Judaism - The Second Temple Period

(10) Shemayah and Avtalyon received from them. Shemayah says, "Love work, hate lordship and do not become familiar with the government."

(11) Avtalyon says, "Sages, be careful with your words, lest you become obligated in an obligation of exile and are exiled to the place of evil waters, and the students who follow after you will drink, and thus the name of Heaven is profaned."

Our rabbis taught: When the kings of the Hasmonean house fought one another, Hyrcanus was outside and Aristobulus inside. Each day they would let down dinarim in a basket, and haul up [animals] for the daily offerings. An old man there, who was learned in Greek wisdom, spoke with them in Greek, saying: 'As long as they carry on the Temple service, they will never surrender to you.' On the next day they sent down dinarim in a basket, and hauled up a pig. When it reached halfway up the wall, it stuck its claws [in the wall], and the land of Israel was shaken over a distance of 400 parasangs. At that time they declared: "Cursed be the man who rears pigs, and cursed by the man who teaches his son Greek wisdom!"

It was reported about Hillel the Elder that every day he used to work and earn one tropaik, half of which he would give to the guard at the House of Learning, the other half being spent for his food and for that of his family. One day he found nothing to earn and the guard at the House of Learning would not permit him to enter. He climbed up and sat upon the window, to hear the words of the living God from the mouth of Shemaya and Avtalyon — They say, that day was the eve of Sabbath in the winter solstice and snow fell down upon him from heaven. When the dawn rose, Shemaya said to Avtalyon: Brother Avtalyon, on every day this house is light and to-day it is dark, is it perhaps a cloudy day. They looked up and saw the figure of a man in the window. They went up and found him covered by three cubits of snow. They removed him, bathed and anointed him and placed him opposite the fire and they said: This man deserves that the Sabbath be profaned on his behalf.

(12) Hillel and Shammai received from them. Hillel says, "Be of the disciples of Aharon, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving the creatures and bringing them closer to Torah."

(13) He would say, "Spread a name, lose his name. And one who does not increase [knowledge] ceases. And one who does not study is liable to die. And one who makes use of the crown [of learning] passes away."

(14) He [Rabbi Hillel] used to say: If I am not for me, who will be for me? And when I am for myself alone, what am I? And if not now, then when?

(15) Shammai says, "Make your Torah fixed, say little and do much, and receive every person with a pleasant countenance."

(3) The school of Shammai says: In the evening all people should recline and recite [Shema], and in the morning they should stand, since it says [in the verse (Deut. 6:7)], “And when you lie down and when you arise.” But the school of Hillel says: Each person may recite it in his usual way (posture), since it says (ibid.), “And when you walk on the road.” If so, why does it say “and when you lie down and when you arise”? —[It means:] at the time when people are lying down, and at the time when people are arising. Said Rabbi Tarfon: “I was once traveling on the road, and I reclined to recite [Shema] in accordance with the view of the school of Shammai, and [by doing so] I put myself in danger of [attack by] bandits.” They [the other Sages] said to him: “You would have deserved to be guilty for your own fate, since you went against the view of the school of Hillel.”

(16) Rabban Gamliel says, "Make for yourself a mentor, remove yourself from doubt and do not frequently tithe by estimation."

(6) It happened that Rabbi Shimon of Mitzpah sowed [and came] before Rabban Gamliel, and they went up to the Chamber of Hewn Stone [meeting place of the Great Sanhedrin] and they asked. Nachum the clerk said: I have received it from Rabbi Meyasha, who received it from [his] father, who received it from the Zugot [pairs of leading Sages from the earliest years of the Tannaitic period], who received it from the Prophets, [as a] Law of Moshe from Sinai: in [a case of] one who sows his field with two kinds of wheat - if he makes them into one granary, he gives one Peah; if two granaries, two Peot.

(12) Yoezer, a man of Birah, was one of the disciples of the House of Shammai, and he said, I asked Rabban Gamliel the Elder, as he was standing at the Eastern Gate, and he said, regardless of whether the forbidden fell in first, or last, never does the dough become prohibited, unless there is a sufficient amount to cause fermentation on its own.

It was taught: It once happened that Rabban Gamliel was sitting on a step on the Temple Mount, and Yohanan, the known scribe, was standing before him with three pieces of paper.

(2) At first, a man [who had already sent his wife a bill of divorce by means of a messenger] would set up a religious court in a different place [from where the wife lived] and cancel [the bill of divorce]. Rabban Gamliel the Elder enacted that they not be able to do this, due to [the need for] repairing the world [Tikkun HaOlam]. At first, a man could change his name and her name, the name of his city, or the name of her city. Rabban Gamliel the Elder enacted that one would write: "The man, So-and-so, and any other name that he has, and the woman, So-and-so, and any other name that she has," due to Tikkun HaOlam.

(3) They provided for him elders from the elders of the [high] court who would read before him the order of the service [for Yom Kippur]. They would say to him: My master the High Priest, memorize the order of the service; perhaps you forgot or never learned. On the day before Yom Kippur in the morning they stood him in the eastern gate of the Temple and passed before him all the bulls, rams and lambs [that would be used the next day in the service] so that he would recognize and be familiar with the service [of offering each of them].

Our Rabbis taught: It once happened that two priests were equal as they ran to mount the ramp and when one of them came first within four cubits of the altar, the other took a knife and thrust it into his heart. Rabbi Tzadok stood on the steps of the Hall and said: Our brethren of the house of Israel, hear ye! Behold it says: If one be found slain in the land... then thy elders and judges shall come forth and measure" [Deut. 21:1-2] On whose behalf shall we offer the heifer whose neck is to be broken, on behalf of the city or on behalf of the Temple Courts? All the people burst out weeping. The father of the young man came and found him still in convulsions. He said: ‘May he be an atonement for you. My son is still in convulsions and the knife has not become unclean.’ [His remark] comes to teach you that the cleanness of their vessels was of greater concern to them even than the shedding of blood.