Hillel II (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

: הלל נשיאה, Hillel the

Nasi Nasi may refer to: Food Dishes Nasi Goreng is an Indonesian and Malay word for ''cooked rice'', featured in many Southeast Asian dishes *Nasi goreng, a popular rice dish often simply called ''nasi'' *Other Southeast Asian ''nasi'' dishes: **Nasi ...

), also known simply as Hillel, was an '' amora'' of the fifth generation in the

Land of Israel The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine (see also Isra ...

. He held the office of ''

'' of the

Sanhedrin The Sanhedrin (Hebrew and Aramaic: סַנְהֶדְרִין; Greek: , ''synedrion'', 'sitting together,' hence 'assembly' or 'council') was an assembly of either 23 or 71 elders (known as "rabbis" after the destruction of the Second Temple), ap ...

between 320 and 385 CE. He was the son and successor of

Judah III Judah III (or Nesi'ah II; Hebrew: יהודה נשיאה; יודן נשיאה), Yudan Nesiah, was a prominent Jewish sage, who held the office of '' Nasi'' of the ancient Jewish Sanhedrin between about 290 and 320 CE (fourth generation of amoraim). ...

. He is sometimes confused with

Hillel the Elder Hillel ( he, הִלֵּל ''Hīllēl''; variously called ''Hillel HaGadol'', ''Hillel HaZaken'', ''Hillel HaBavli'' or ''HaBavli'', was born according to tradition in Babylon c. 110 BCE, died 10 CE in Jerusalem) was a Jewish religious leader, sag ...

, as the

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...

sometimes simply uses the name "Hillel".

Biography

In two instances his name is quoted in connection with important decisions in Jewish law: in one, Jose ben Abin expounds to him a law; in the other, Hillel cites a

mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Torah ...

to establish a law. The emperor Julian the Apostate was gracious to Hillel, whom he honored on a number of occasions. In an autograph letter to him, Julian assured him of his friendship and promised to ameliorate further the condition of the Jews. Before setting out for the war with Persia, Julian addressed to the Jewish congregations a circular letter in which he informed them that he had "committed the Jewish tax-rolls to the flames," and that, "desiring to show them still greater favors, he has advised his brother, the venerable patriarch "Julos", to abolish what was called the ' send-tax'".

Fixing of the calendar

He is traditionally regarded as the creator of the modern fixed

Jewish calendar The Hebrew calendar ( he, הַלּוּחַ הָעִבְרִי, translit=HaLuah HaIvri), also called the Jewish calendar, is a lunisolar calendar used today for Jewish religious observance, and as an official calendar of the state of Israel. ...

. This tradition first appears in a responsum of R.

Hai Gaon Hai ben Sherira (Hebrew: האי/י בר שרירא) better known as Hai Gaon (Hebrew: האי/י גאון, חאיי גאון), was a medieval Jewish theologian, rabbi and scholar who served as Gaon (Hebrew), Gaon of the Talmudic Academies in Babylo ...

(written in 992) cited by R.

Abraham bar Hiyya Abraham bar Ḥiyya ha-Nasi (; – 1136 or 1145), also known as Abraham Savasorda, Abraham Albargeloni, and Abraham Judaeus, was a Catalan Jewish mathematician, astronomer and philosopher who resided in Barcelona. Bar Ḥiyya was active in tra ...

in his ''Sefer Ha'ibbur'' (written in 1123). The citation explicitly refers to the year that this event happened, 670 of the

Seleucid era The Seleucid era ("SE") or (literally "year of the Greeks" or "Greek year"), sometimes denoted "AG," was a system of numbering years in use by the Seleucid Empire and other countries among the ancient Hellenistic civilizations. It is sometimes r ...

, which corresponds to 358/9 CE. However, a number of documents have been found that indicate the calendar was not fully fixed in Hillel's time; most famously a letter found in

Cairo Geniza The Cairo Geniza, alternatively spelled Genizah, is a collection of some 400,000 Jewish manuscript fragments and Fatimid administrative documents that were kept in the ''genizah'' or storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat or Old Cairo, ...

(from the year 835/6) indicates that the holidays were observed on different dates from those predicted by the current calendar.Bernard Dickman
The Beginning of the Jewish Calendar
/ref> The calendar did not reach its exact modern form until at least the years 922-924.J. Jean Ajdler
A Short History of the Jewish Fixed Calendar: The Origin of the Molad
/ref> According to modern scholar Sacha Stern, Hai Gaon only attributed the establishment of a 19-year cycle, and not other details of the calendar, to Hillel. The fixed calendar was of great benefit to Jews of his and subsequent generations. The

lunisolar A lunisolar calendar is a calendar in many cultures, combining lunar calendars and solar calendars. The date of Lunisolar calendars therefore indicates both the Moon phase and the time of the solar year, that is the position of the Sun in the E ...

. That is, its months are synchronized with the phases of the moon, but its average year length approximates the mean length of a

solar year A tropical year or solar year (or tropical period) is the time that the Sun takes to return to the same position in the sky of a celestial body of the Solar System such as the Earth, completing a full cycle of seasons; for example, the time fro ...

. The

declared new months based on observations of the new moon, and added a 13th lunar month to certain years to ensure that holidays would continue to fall in the same seasons of the solar year. But

Constantius II Constantius II (Latin: ''Flavius Julius Constantius''; grc-gre, Κωνστάντιος; 7 August 317 – 3 November 361) was Roman emperor from 337 to 361. His reign saw constant warfare on the borders against the Sasanian Empire and Germani ...

, following the precedents of

Hadrian Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania B ...

, prohibited the holding of such meetings as well as the vending of articles for distinctly Jewish purposes. The worldwide Jewish community depended on the calendar sanctioned by the

Judea Judea or Judaea ( or ; from he, יהודה, Hebrew language#Modern Hebrew, Standard ''Yəhūda'', Tiberian vocalization, Tiberian ''Yehūḏā''; el, Ἰουδαία, ; la, Iūdaea) is an ancient, historic, Biblical Hebrew, contemporaneous L ...

to observe

Jewish holidays Jewish holidays, also known as Jewish festivals or ''Yamim Tovim'' ( he, ימים טובים, , Good Days, or singular , in transliterated Hebrew []), are holidays observed in Judaism and by JewsThis article focuses on practices of mainstre ...

on the correct dates. However, danger threatened the participants in that sanction and the messengers who communicated their decisions to distant congregations. Temporarily, to relieve the foreign congregations,

Huna ben Abin Huna may refer to: Anthropological * Hara Huna Kingdom, ancient Chinese tribe * Huna people, invaders of northern India 5th–9th century ** Huna Kingdom Places * Huna, Caithness, Scotland * Man Huna, a village in Sagaing Township, Burma ...

once advised Rava not to wait for the official intercalation: ''When you are convinced that the winter quarter will extend beyond the sixteenth day of

Nisan Nisan (or Nissan; he, נִיסָן, Standard ''Nīsan'', Tiberian ''Nīsān''; from akk, 𒊬𒊒𒄀 ''Nisanu'') in the Babylonian and Hebrew calendars is the month of the barley ripening and first month of spring. The name of the month is ...

declare the year a

leap year A leap year (also known as an intercalary year or bissextile year) is a calendar year that contains an additional day (or, in the case of a lunisolar calendar, a month) added to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical year or s ...

, and do not hesitate''. But as the religious persecutions continued, Hillel decided to provide an authorized calendar for all time to come, though by doing so he severed the ties which united the Jews of the

diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...

to their

mother country A homeland is a place where a cultural, national, or racial identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethn ...

and to the

patriarchate Patriarchate ( grc, πατριαρχεῖον, ''patriarcheîon'') is an ecclesiological term in Christianity, designating the office and jurisdiction of an ecclesiastical patriarch. According to Christian tradition three patriarchates were esta ...

In Christian tradition

According to

Epiphanius of Salamis Epiphanius of Salamis ( grc-gre, Ἐπιφάνιος; c. 310–320 – 403) was the bishop of Salamis, Cyprus, at the end of the 4th century. He is considered a saint and a Church Father by both the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches. He g ...

Panarion In early Christian heresiology, the ''Panarion'' ( grc-koi, Πανάριον, derived from Latin ''panarium'', meaning "bread basket"), to which 16th-century Latin translations gave the name ''Adversus Haereses'' (Latin: "Against Heresies"), is t ...

'', chapter 30 Hillel II was secretly baptized on his deathbed. The Christian convert

Joseph of Tiberias Joseph of Tiberias (c. 285 – c. 356) was a Christian convert from Judaism. He is also known as Count Joseph and is venerated as Saint Joseph of Palestine. His memorial day is 22 July. The main source about his life is a book by Epiphanius, the ...

was one of his disciples.

References

{{Authority control Talmud rabbis of the Land of Israel 4th-century rabbis Sanhedrin

Biography

Fixing of the calendar

In Christian tradition

See also

References