In secular circles Shammai’s name has become synonymous with zealotry narrow-mindedness and spiritual closure. But Shammai said “Receive every man with a pleasant countenance” — so how does that fit?
Israeli president Mr. Reuven Rivlin is a very pleasant likable man. And although he hails from the famed Yerushalmi Rivlin family who were students of the Vilna Gaon he is a product of secular Israeli culture and education — a system self-servingly injected with distorted Jewish concepts.
So it’s no wonder that when the president spoke at a rally last week he invoked an old cliché that depicts the great Tanna Shammai as hard-hearted and unbending whereas his colleague Hillel is seen as the epitome of sympathy and understanding. And so often when this false and hackneyed comparison is brought up by secular Israelis it’s the Torah leaders of the chareidi world who are accused of taking the harsh unrelenting path of Shammai.
Some years back I had an interaction with a Reform clergyman who praised himself as “a follower of Beis Hillel.” To large segments of the Jewish People in Israel and around the world Shammai’s name is synonymous with zealotry narrow-mindedness spiritual closure and dogged conservatism. He’s pictured as cranky irritable and unapproachable. Shammai has not had the benefit of a good public relations campaign.
