User:Lisa/Golden Rule (Judaism)

Judaism

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The Golden Rule in its positive, proactive form, does not exist in Jewish tradition. The Talmudic sage Hillel the Elder espoused a negative form of the rule in the Babylonian Talmud (Tractate Shabbat 31a) when he was challenged by a non-Jew to teach him the whole Torah on one foot:

That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. This is the whole of the Torah, and the rest is the explanation. Go and learn.

Some have termed this the Silver Rule, while others have simply seen it as Judaism's rendition of the Golden Rule.

While various sources have attempted to find a biblical antecedent for this rule, or for the more well known Golden Rule, none of these interpretations have roots in Jewish tradition, and are purely homiletical.