Three Questions for the Morning: The Wisdom of Hillel

David Ben-Ami

Good morning, and welcome. Wherever you are, whatever the light looks like outside your window, I'm glad you're here. Let's take a slow breath together before the day starts asking things of us. This morning we're sitting with one of the most quoted sentences in all of Jewish wisdom. It's short. You can say it in a single breath. And it has a way of following a person around all day.

David Ben-Ami

It comes from a book called Pirkei Avot. That means Chapters of the Fathers, and it's often called Ethics of the Fathers. It's a tractate of the Mishnah, the early collection of Jewish teaching, and it's made almost entirely of short sayings from the sages. No long arguments, just sentences meant to be carried in your pocket. Here is the one for today, from chapter one, teaching fourteen. In Hebrew: Im ein ani li, mi li? U'kheshe'ani le'atzmi, mah ani? V'im lo achshav, eimatai? In English: If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And when I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?

David Ben-Ami

The sage who said it is Hillel, sometimes called Hillel the Elder. He lived in the last decades before the common era, in the late Second Temple period. He was born in Babylonia, and as a young man he made the long journey to Jerusalem to study Torah with the sages there, Shemaiah and Abtalion. Tradition remembers him as very poor in those years, a laborer who studied while he worked. Yet he became the Nasi, the president of the Sanhedrin, the great court and council of the sages. And what the tradition remembers most is his character. Just two teachings earlier, in Pirkei Avot 1:12, he says: be a disciple of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving people and drawing them close to the Torah. Patience was his signature.

David Ben-Ami

And there's a famous story that shows it. It's in the Talmud, tractate Shabbat, page 31a. A man comes to Shammai, who was Hillel's great colleague and often his counterpart in debate. Shammai was a builder by trade, an exacting man. The visitor says: convert me, on condition that you teach me the entire Torah while I stand on one foot. In other words, give me the whole thing, quickly. Shammai pushes him away with the builder's measuring rod he's holding. So the man goes to Hillel with the very same condition. And Hillel converts him, and says: That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah. The rest is its interpretation. Now go and study.

David Ben-Ami

Notice what Hillel doesn't do. He doesn't lecture the man about how impossible his request is. He meets him where he is, gives him something true, and then sends him toward a lifetime of learning. Later in that same passage, the Talmud says that people Hillel welcomed in this way remembered it with gratitude. Shammai's impatience, they said, sought to drive us from the world, while Hillel's patience brought us under the wings of the Divine Presence. That's the voice behind our three questions. Not a stern voice. A patient one.

David Ben-Ami

So let's walk through the three questions, slowly. First: If I am not for myself, who will be for me? The classic commentator Rabbi Ovadiah of Bartenura reads it this way: if I don't earn merit for myself, who will earn it for me? Nobody else can do your inner work. No one can become patient on your behalf, or honest, or kind. And in a gentler, modern reading, it's permission to take yourself seriously. Your rest, your health, your dignity, your learning. You can't pour from an empty cup, as the saying goes. Standing up for yourself is where the day begins.

David Ben-Ami

But Hillel doesn't stop there, and that's what makes him wise. Second question: And when I am only for myself, what am I? Bartenura says that even if I've done well for myself, what is that worth, measured against everything I'm actually obligated to do? A person who is only for himself is a kind of closed room. A well made one, perhaps, but closed. The Hebrew word for what opens the door is chesed, lovingkindness, acts of care for another person. Strength that is never given away turns into something small. Strength that is given away becomes the very thing that makes us who we are.

David Ben-Ami

And then the third question, the one most people remember: V'im lo achshav, eimatai? If not now, when? Achshav means now, and eimatai means when. Now, there are at least two ways to hear it. One is a warning against waiting. We tell ourselves, I'll call that friend when things calm down, I'll apologize when the time is right, I'll begin studying when life is less full. And later never quite arrives. The other way to hear it is softer. Now is the only moment that actually belongs to you. This morning, this breath, is the one you can do something with.

David Ben-Ami

So here is a small practice for the day ahead. Three quiet checks, before you pick up your phone. First, ground yourself. Ask, what do I need today to be steady? A meal, some quiet, a few minutes outside. Honor it. Second, look outward. Who in my life could use a little strength from me today? A neighbor, a parent, a colleague who's been having a hard time. And third, choose one good thing, a small one, and do it before noon. Send the message. Say the apology. Take five minutes with a page of text. Not someday. Now. You don't need to fix the world by tonight. Just answer all three questions once.

David Ben-Ami

Let me close with a blessing. May you wake each day with light, and may it find you steady. May you have the strength to care for yourself, and the generosity to lift someone else. May you not wait for a better moment, but find the goodness in this one. And may your home, your work, and your heart be filled with shalom, which means peace, but also wholeness, the feeling of things being complete. Go gently. Be well. And I'll meet you here again tomorrow.