memory of posterity chiefly as the great teacher who enjoined and practised the virtues of charity, humility and true piety. His proverbial sayings, in particular, a great number of which were written down partly in Aramaic, partly in Hebrew, strongly affected the spirit both of his contemporaries and of the succeeding generations. In his Maxims (Aboth, i. 12) he recommends the love of peace and the love of mankind beyond all else, and his own love of peace sprang from the tenderness and deep humility which were essential features in his character, as has been illustrated by many anecdotes. Hillel’s patience has become proverbial. One of his sayings commends humility in the following paradox: “My abasement is my exaltation.” His charity towards men is given its finest expression in the answer which he made to a proselyte who asked to be taught the commandments of the Torah in the shortest possible form: “What is unpleasant to thyself that do not to thy neighbour; this is the whole Law, all else is but its exposition.” This allusion to the scriptural injunction to love one’s neighbour (Lev. xix. 18) as the fundamental law of religious morals, became in a certain sense a commonplace of Pharisaic scholasticism. For the Pharisee who accepts the answer of Jesus regarding that fundamental doctrine which ranks the love of one’s neighbour as the highest duty after the love of God (Mark xii. 33), does so because as a disciple of Hillel the idea is familiar to him. St Paul also (Gal. v. 14) doubtless learned this in the school of Gamaliel. Hillel emphasized the connexion between duty towards one’s neighbour and duty towards oneself in the epigrammatic saying: “If I am not for myself, who is for me? And if I am for myself alone, what then am I? And if not now, then when?” (Aboth, i. 14). The duty of working both with and for men he teaches in the sentence: “Separate not thyself from the congregation” (ib. ii. 4). The duty of considering oneself part of common humanity, of not differing from others by any peculiarity of behaviour, he sums up in the words: “Appear neither naked nor clothed, neither sitting nor standing, neither laughing nor weeping” (Tosef. Ber. c. ii.). The command to love one’s neighbour inspired also Hillel’s injunction (Aboth, ii. 4): “Judge not thy neighbour until thou art in his place” (cf. Matt. vii. 1). The disinterested pursuit of learning, study for study’s sake, is commended in many of Hillel’s sayings as being what is best in life: “He who wishes to make a name for himself loses his name; he who does not increase [his knowledge] decreases it; he who does not learn is worthy of death; he who works for the sake of a crown is lost” (Aboth, i. 13). “He who occupies himself much with learning makes his life” (ib. ii. 7). “He who has acquired the words of doctrine has acquired the life of the world to come” (ib.). “Say not: When I am free from other occupations I shall study; for may be thou shalt never at all be free” (ib. 4). One of his strings of proverbs runs as follows: “The uncultivated man is not innocent; the ignorant man is not devout; the bashful man learns not; the wrathful man teaches not; he who is much absorbed in trade cannot become wise; where no men are, there strive thyself to be a man” (ib. 5). The almost mystical profundity of Hillel’s consciousness of God is shown in the words spoken by him on the occasion of a feast in the Temple—words alluding to the throng of people gathered there which he puts into the mouth of God Himself: “If I am here every one is here; if I am not here no one is here” (Sukkah 53a). In like manner Hillel makes God say to Israel, referring to Exodus xx. 24: “Whither I please, thither will I go; if thou come into my house I come into thy house; if thou come not into my house, I come not into thine” (ib.).
It is noteworthy that no miraculous legends are connected with Hillel’s life. A scholastic tradition, however, tells of a voice from heaven which made itself heard when the wise men had assembled in Jericho, saying: “Among those here present is one who would have deserved the Holy Spirit to rest upon him, if his time had been worthy of it.” And all eyes turned towards Hillel (Tos. Soṭah, xiii. 3). When he died lamentation was made for him as follows: “Woe for the humble, woe for the pious, woe for the disciple of Ezra!” (ib.)
Hillel II., one of the patriarchs belonging to the family of Hillel I., lived in Tiberias about the middle of the 4th century, and introduced the arrangement of the calendar through which the Jews of the Diaspora became independent of Palestine in the uniform fixation of the new moons and feasts.
The Rabbi Hillel, who in the 4th century made the remarkable declaration that Israel need not expect a Messiah, because the promise of a Messiah had already been fulfilled in the days of King Hezekiah (Babli, Sanhedrin, 99a), is probably Hillel, the son of Samuel ben Naḥman, a well-known expounder of the scriptures. (W. Ba.)
HILLER, FERDINAND (1811–1885), German composer, was
born at Frankfort-on-Main, on the 24th of October 1811. His
first master was Aloys Schmitt, and when he was ten years of
age his compositions and talent led his father, a well-to-do man,
to send him to Hummel in Weimar. There he devoted himself
to composition, among his work being the entr’actes to Maria
Stuart, through which he made Goethe’s acquaintance. Under
Hummel, Hiller made great strides as a pianist, so much so that
early in 1827 he went on a tour to Vienna, where he met Beethoven
and produced his first quartet. After a brief visit home Hiller
went to Paris in 1829, where he lived till 1836. His father’s
death necessitated his return to Frankfort for a time, but on the
8th of January 1839 he produced at Milan his opera La Romilda,
and began to write his oratorio Die Zerstörung Jerusalems, one of
his best works. Then he went to Leipzig, to his friend Mendelssohn,
where in 1843–1844 he conducted a number of the Gewandhaus
concerts and produced his oratorio. After a further visit
to Italy to study sacred music, Hiller produced two operas, Ein
Traum and Conradin, at Dresden in 1845 and 1847 respectively;
he went as conductor to Düsseldorf in 1847 and Cologne in 1850,
and conducted at the Opéra Italien in Paris in 1851 and 1852.
At Cologne he became a power as conductor of the Gürzenich
concerts and head of the Conservatorium. In 1884 he retired,
and died on the 12th of May in the following year. Hiller
frequently visited England. He composed a work for the
opening of the Royal Albert Hall, his Nala and Damayanti was
performed at Birmingham, and he gave a series of pianoforte
recitals of his own compositions at the Hanover Square Rooms
in 1871. He had a perfect mastery over technique and form in
musical composition, but his works are generally dry. He was a
sound pianist and teacher, and occasionally a brilliant writer on
musical matters. His compositions, numbering about two
hundred, include six operas, two oratorios, six or seven cantatas,
much chamber music and a once-popular pianoforte concerto.
HILLER, JOHANN ADAM (1728–1804), German musical
composer, was born at Wendisch-Ossig near Görlitz in Silesia on
the 25th of December 1728. By the death of his father in 1734
he was left dependent to a large extent on the charity of friends.
Entering in 1747 the Kreuzschule in Dresden, the school attended
many years afterwards by Richard Wagner, he subsequently
went to the university of Leipzig, where he studied jurisprudence,
supporting himself by giving music lessons, and also by performing
at concerts both on the flute and as a vocalist. Gradually
he adopted music as his sole profession, and devoted himself more
especially to the permanent establishment of a concert institute
at Leipzig. It was he who in 1781 originated the celebrated
Gewandhaus concerts which still flourish at Leipzig. In 1789
he became “cantor” of the Thomas school there, a position
previously held by John Sebastian Bach. He died in Leipzig on
the 16th of June 1804. Two of his pupils placed a monument to
his memory in front of the Thomas school. Hiller’s compositions
comprise almost every kind of church music, from the cantata to
the simple chorale. But much more important are his operettas,
14 in number, which for a long time retained their place on the
boards, and had considerable influence on the development of
light dramatic music in Germany. The Jolly Cobbler, Love in the
Country and the Village Barber were amongst the most popular
of his works. Hiller also excelled in sentimental songs and ballads.
With great simplicity of structure his music combines a considerable
amount of genuine melodic invention. Although an admirer
and imitator of the Italian school, Hiller fully appreciated the
greatness of Handel, and did much for the appreciation of his
music in Germany. It was under his direction that the Messiah
