Dear Readers,

I will not be able to post a segment the coming Sunday. I  have hurt my back this morning so staying at the computer for more than a few  minutes is impossible for me. Since it’s a big holiday weekend, I assume not  too many people in the U.S. would have bothered to be on the computer anyway,  and I am sure those who write to me from other parts of the world will forgive  me! 

Ilil

This kind of biography is partially a detective book, and I must constantly hunt for clues. A good comment by Lord David made me realize that I should have explained who I suspected as being the person who pushed Hillel to both his doubts and his rewarding stay at the Essenes. I did not discuss it because I am planning to devote much time to it in both the “History” part and the “Narrative” part, but really, there was no reason not to mention it now; after all, this is not a who-done-it exactly…

The person involved, in my opinion, was Hillel’s dear friend, Menachem, whom you might have met if you read the “narrative” part of the book. Menachem became Hillel’s partner in teaching, but later was replaced by Shamai. The reason for Menachem’s departure has never been established, to my knowledge (though much more research is on the horizon) and while there are some revealing comments about Menachem himself by Josephus, some scholars are not even sure it was the same Menachem. I tend to think it was the same man and working from this assumption, I can see how he could have influenced Hillel in more than one way, positive or negative. Stay tuned!

Hillel is thought of and remembered as a Jewish sage. His  knowledge, creative approach, and intelligent application of the Law are  legendary, and his Academy taught the Torah and the Law. It is clear that this  was what mattered to him most, because as we have seen, he left his comfortable  life in Babylonia so that he could study the Torah with the great teachers,  Shemaya and Avtalion. His devotion to his studies is expressed in many of his  sayings, but was it all so clear cut? Was he merely the predecessor of a rabbi?  I think there is more to the story than that.

An amusing passage in Tractate Soferim, XVI. 9., which is  part of the Minor Tractates, says:
 
"It was said of Hillel that he had not neglected any of  the words of the Wise but had learned them all; he had studied all manners of  speech, even the utterance of mountains, hills and valleys, the utterance of  trees and plants, the utterance of beasts and animals, tales of spirits,  popular stories and parables, everything he had learned."

This is a Roman fashion doll, given to young girls to dress as they pleased, much like a Barbie doll these days. Such dolls were also used as mannequins  by seamstresses. The doll is made of ivory, and  is wearing a gold necklace. Please note the bracelets, anklets, and elaborate hairdo.

(This picture was taken from a site that stated it was all royalty free and  available for downloading. Since sometimes this is not entirely true, if anyone  objects to my use of the picture, please let me know and it will be removed  immediately.)
 

Judea, occupied by the  sophisticated Romans and a center of lively trade that involved many foreigners  visiting the country, was the stage for very interesting fashions. The elegant  Greek ladies, the Roman officials’ wives and daughters, women from Syria,  Babylonia, Moab, and Edom – all influenced the eclectic fashion scene. However,  the purely Judean clothes had a distinctive style. It’s important to note,  though, that many wealthy Judean women did not wear the Judean style, preferring  the Greco-Roman style. 

Judean women’s clothes were  similar to the men’s in both fabric cut. The tunic was longer than the man’s,  and somewhat more fitted to the body, but never tight enough to show the woman’s  exact shape. It was tied around the waist with a fabric belt, sometimes in a  contrasting color or striped. The women often embroidered even the plainest  garments around the neck, then continued the pattern down the front. The poor  and the middle class used wool or heavy linen, just like the men, and sometimes  finer linen. The wealthy women, at least those who stuck to traditional Judean  style and scorned the Roman stola and palla, used thin linen, silk, or cotton  for the basic tunic, and on top of it wore a second tunic made of highly  decorated linen, somewhat heavier than the inner one. The belt, tied around  both tunics, was made from very expensive materials and embroidered with metal  and precious stones tied around both tunics.

Since we have looked at houses in the last segment, I  thought it would be interesting to look at the “fashions” of the day in Judea.  The word “fashions” is in quotation marks, because style did not change much in  Judea for a very long time, perhaps centuries. People were conservative,  following the old traditions, their activities were very much the same for many  years, and most of them were poor anyway. Many of the wealthy adopted the  Greco-Roman fashions, but most of the population wore the same functional,  rather simple and unassuming attire that we meet in the Bible. In this segment,  I am looking at men’s clothing and accessories.
             
The wealthy could afford silk, fine thread linen and cotton. The silk was  gorgeous, and came in many bright colors, particularly in deep reds and oranges,  purples, and blues. It was often further enhanced by a precious metal thread  that was woven into the material. Silk was so expensive, that it could be sold  for its weight in gold. Cotton was liked, but it was not available in large  quantities. The common people used mostly wool and coarse thread linen.  Sackcloth, made from dark and heavy goat’s hair, was used mostly for tents, and  for clothes one wore during mourning. The sackcloth mourning tunic was girdled  with a leather belt, and the wearer d removed any foot or head covering as part  of the mourning attire. The inexpensive yarns were rarely dyed, so usually the  fabric retained the natural color of the yarns from which it was woven. 

This segment might  interest not only those who wish to read about Hillel, but also people who want  to know more about what life was really like in Judea around the time of Jesus  Christ.  Jesus was born during the  lifetime of Hillel, and as I mentioned before, very likely was his student for  a while. Life in those days did not change as quickly as it does now; it was  very much the same during Hillel’s young adulthood as it was during Jesus’ youth.

In  the past I had described life in Babylonia in detail (and I will have much more  on that subject in the future) but since in our narrative Hillel and his family  are now living in Judea, I would like to tell what life was like there in those  days. As you can see, today’s segment is marked “History.”  On  the April 15 segment I introduced the structure of the book in its completed form, when it will emerge from being a blog and become a hard copy and an e-book. To make the entries clearer to the readers at this stage, I decided to  mark the entries according to the part they will be included in. If the title  mentions “Primary Sources” then it comes from the Talmud or other formal Judaic sources. If it is marked“History,” it comes from various sources, such as Josephus,  the ancient historian, Jewish and Israeli materials, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and  modern archaeological research. If it is marked “Narrative,” it is what I call  my "connect the dots," where I superimpose the primary sources and the  historical sources on each other, and create a narrative about Hillel's exciting  life and times, including my own analysis and some speculation.