Hillel, Not Jesus, Was the First to Say: “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself Is the Whole Torah

A Forgotten Midrash, a Rashi Comment, and a Discovery That Rewrites a Core Assumption in Western Thought

In the Merits of My Holy Parents

In the merit of my parents, Mordechai and Henya Schwartz, while learning in the Ner Mordechai Kollel of Zichron Yaakov, under the leadership of Rabbi Baruch Barnes, I encountered a passage that I believe demands the attention of Torah scholars, educators, and historians alike.

A short line in the Me’am Loez, a Sephardic Torah anthology often overlooked by the academic world, quietly preserves a truth that the historical record seems to have buried. If accepted seriously, it challenges long-standing assumptions about the origins of one of the most influential moral principles in world civilization.

The Standard Narrative: Jesus and the Primacy of Love

Christian tradition, reinforced by centuries of commentary and theological polemic, presents Jesus of Nazareth as the first to elevate the biblical verse:

“וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ” – “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18)

as the central commandment of the Torah. In the Gospels, Jesus is depicted as declaring this verse the greatest of all commandments, signaling, in the Christian worldview, a departure from a Judaism centered on law and ritual toward one centered on compassion and interpersonal ethics.

Even within some streams of Jewish thought, this view has gone largely unchallenged — not because of agreement, but due to lack of textual counterproof. But that silence is now ready to be broken.

The Talmudic Account — and Its Missing Pasuk

The famous story in Talmud Bavli, Shabbat 31a records a Gentile who approached Hillel and asked to be converted on the condition that he be taught the entire Torah while standing on one foot.

Hillel responded:

“That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. This is the entire Torah; the rest is commentary — go and learn it.”

It is a brilliant, universal moral expression. But the verse itself — “Love your neighbor as yourself” — is never quoted.

So scholars and laypeople alike have read Hillel’s response as moral wisdom, but not as a direct exegetical statement rooted in Leviticus 19:18.

Until now.

The Midrash Me’am Loez: A Forgotten Testimony

In the Me’am Loez — a richly annotated Torah commentary first compiled in 18th-century Constantinople and based on a vast array of earlier Midrashim — we find the following:

“בא גוי אחד לפני הלל וביקש להתגייר. אמר לו הלל: כל התורה כולה כלולה בפסוק ואהבת לרעך כמוך.”
“A Gentile came before Hillel and asked to convert. Hillel said to him: The entire Torah is contained in the verse ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

This direct quotation — absent from the Talmudic version — reframes the narrative.
It reveals that Hillel did use the verse “ואהבת לרעך כמוך”, and that the Talmud preserves a simplified or paraphrased version suitable for broader understanding, especially given that Hillel was speaking to a non-Jew unfamiliar with Torah structure.

Rashi’s Comment — A Subtle Clue

To support this reading, we turn to Rashi’s commentary on that Talmudic passage.
On the word “לחברך” — “your fellow” — Rashi writes:

“לחברך ממש. ואפשר לומר גם המקום.”
“Your fellow — literally [another person]. And it is also possible [that it refers to] the Omnipresent [God].”

This is more than a linguistic aside. The word “רֵעֲךָ” appears only a handful of times in Tanach, but its most iconic usage is in Leviticus 19:18. Rashi’s phrasing suggests that he saw Hillel’s statement as derived directly from that verse — one which applies not only to human relations, but also to divine relationship.

Thus, Rashi quietly bridges the gap between the Gemara’s paraphrase and the biblical foundation Hillel may have intended.

Rewriting the Timeline: Who Said It First?

The timeline is clear.

If the Me’am Loez preserves an authentic early tradition — as many authorities argue it does — then Hillel was the first recorded figure to elevate “ואהבת לרעך כמוך” as the essence of the Torah.

Was Jesus Taught by Beit Hillel?

The implications run deeper. Jesus lived during Hillel’s final years and came of age during the rise of Beit Hillel, whose teachings were widespread throughout Galilee — the region where Jesus lived and taught.

Many of Jesus’ most famous ethical teachings — including non-retaliation, humility, and compassion — bear striking resemblance to known teachings of Hillel and his disciples.

It is historically grounded — to say:

Jesus may not have innovated the primacy of love in Torah; he may have inherited it.

Whether from the school of Hillel or his disciples, the values Jesus expressed were already present in the Beit Midrash — and Hillel had already framed them as Torah’s core.

Why This Matters

This is not a matter of polemic or pride.
It is a matter of historical integrity and Jewish dignity.

The claim that Judaism was a religion of law while Christianity introduced love is a historical distortion — one that has contributed to misunderstanding, estrangement, and even persecution.

Reclaiming Hillel’s authorship of this principle does not detract from others — it merely restores truth.

Judaism has always taught that love is the heart of Torah.
And Hillel — not Jesus — was the first to say so publicly and definitively.

Final Thought

I discovered this not in a university archive, but in a Beit Midrash, surrounded by living Torah and the memory of my parents, who taught me that truth and love are inseparable.

If we are to build a world of understanding and peace, we must build it on truth.

And the truth is:

ואהבת לרעך כמוך — Love your neighbor as yourself — is not a Christian ideal borrowed from Judaism.
It is a Jewish ideal, taught by one of our greatest sages, and grounded in the Torah given at Sinai.

Let the record be corrected.
Let the light of Hillel shine.