Many of us are familiar with the story from the Talmud in which a Roman approaches Rabbi Shammai asking, “Convert me but teach me the entire Torah as I stand on one foot.” Shammai, feeling he was not serious, sends him away. The Roman then approaches Rabbi Hillel with the same request. “Teach me the entire Torah as I stand on one foot.” Hillel agrees and says, “That which you find hateful, do not do to others, the rest is commentary. Go and learn it.” In this teaching, Rabbi Hillel is paraphrasing the command from the Torah to love your neighbor, a foundational teaching of Jewish tradition.
The essential and seminal nature of this teaching is not unique to Jewish text. Similar teachings can be found in several other major religious commands:
- Islam: “Not one of you truly believes until you wish for others what you wish for yourself.” – The Prophet Muhammad, Hadith.
- Hinduism: “This is the sum of duty; do not do to others what would cause pain if done to you.” – Mahabharata 5:1517.
- Buddhism: “Treat not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.” – Udana-Varga 5.18.
- Christianity: “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law of the prophets.” – Jesus, Matthew 7:12.
- Judaism – “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole Torah, all the rest is commentary.” – Hillel, Talmud, Shabbat 31a.
This essential, profound, critical and fundamental teaching will be the theme of the 2025 JCRC Social Justice Seder on Thursday, April 3 at the Gordon Jewish Community Center. Special Guest will be Sloan Luckie. Sloan has an interesting combination of background, experience and philosophy. He is a community organizer in his native Chicago. Sloan is a lay Christian leader and educator, with a strong appreciation for the connection between Christian text and Jewish text. His serious intentions led him to want to learn Hebrew in order to study Jewish text in the original language and through this desire, he connected with someone in Israel with family in Nashville. Such a small world!
Event Chair, Danny Goldberg, is the brother of Sloan’s Hebrew tutor, and it was through that connection that Sloan visited Nashville for the first time, attending services at Sherith Israel Congregation. Co-Chair Sarah Roth is Kehillah High Head of School, and she and Danny look forward to hosting everyone at the event the year as we go back to basics, to love our neighbors, study and celebrate together.
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