I shall teach you the Torah while you stand on one foot

Rabbi Hillel was famous for his tolerant approach, his grandson was Gamaliel the Pharisee who's advice about whether to persecute the early church is recorded in

Acts 5 ³⁸"So in the present case, I say to you, stay away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or action is of men, it will be overthrown; ³⁹but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them; or else you may even be found fighting against God."

There is a story about the Rabbi's Hilliel and Shammai who were the two major teachers of theology in Jerusalem. A gentile came to Shammai, and cried:

"Your Torah, your wonderful Torah--I can learn it while I stand on one foot. Rabbi Shammai, you teach it to me while I stand on one foot."

Rabbi Shammai took a stick and shouted angrily:"Get out of here, you scoffer I Do you think I havetime to waste on people who mock our holy Torah?" The heathen ran away. He thought he would go to Hillel and see what Hillel would do.

All out of breath, he came to Hillel's home. Hillel thought the man had come for something very important. So Hillel said:"What is the matter, my good man?" And the heathen answered: "Teach me the Torah while I stand on one foot."

Hillel, calmly and patiently said: "You want to learn a great deal quickly, don't you? Very well, I shall teach you the Torah while you stand on one foot. This is our Holy Torah: 'What is hateful to you, do not do unto others.'"

The heathen forgot that he had come only to jeer. "Does it mean that the heathens and the Jews and all of us are brothers? Does it mean that we must be kind to one another like brothers?" asked the heathen, wonderingly.

"That's it, my son. That's the meaning of the whole Torah. All the rest is only an explanation of that. Go, go, my son. Go and study it," said Hillel kindly.

Very often we can make things a real chore when people come seeking after God. They may ask us questions that we would just brush off.Hillel understood what Jesus later explained when he said that the most important commandment was

^37-40 'Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.' This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' These two commands are pegs; everything in God's Law and the Prophets hangs from them."

People are looking to be loved, the church need to love them as much as we love our theology our church and ourselves - this is why a key to our mission statement is to impact our community with the love of God