The Jerusalem Talmud presents an alternative version of this same story, the rise of Hillel to Pharisaic-Rabbinic leadership. Here also, no amount of logic was acceptable. Hillel won the argument only by appealing to the authority of his teachers. The message is clear: tradition, not original logical deduction, is the true authority of the oral law.

This law was lost from the Elders of Bathyra.¹⁶ One time the fourteenth [of Nisan] turned out to coincide with the Sabbath, and they did not know whether the Pesah [Passover offering] overrides the Sabbath or not. They said, “There is here a certain Babylonian, and Hillel is his name, who studied with Shemaiah and Abtalion. [He] knows whether the Pesah overrides the Sabbath or not. Perhaps there will be profit from him.”¹⁷

They sent and called him.

They said to him, “Have you ever heard, when the fourteenth [of Nisan] coincides with the Sabbath, whether it overrides the Sabbath or not?”

He said to them, “And do we have only one Pesah alone that overrides the Sabbath in the whole year? And do not many Pesahs override the Sabbath in the whole year?”¹⁸ (Some Tannaim teach ten a hundred, and some Tannaim teach two hundred, and some Tannaim teach three hundred.)

He who said “one hundred” [refers to] continual offerings. He who said “two hundred” [refers to] continual offerings and Sabbath additional-offerings.

He who said “three hundred” [refers to] continual offerings, Sabbath additional-offerings, and [those] of festivals, and of New Moons, and of the First Days.¹⁹

They said to him, “We have already said that there is profit with you.”

He began expounding for them by means of arguments based on heqqesh, qal wa-homer, and gezerah shavah:

Heqqesh:²⁰ Since the continual offering is a community sacrifice and the Pesah is a community sacrifice, just as the continual offering, a community sacrifice, overrides [the] Sabbath, so the Pesah, a community sacrifice, overrides the Sabbath.

Qal wa-homer:²¹ If doing the continual offering [improperly], which does not produce the penalty of cutting off, overrides the Sabbath, doing the Pesah sacrifice [improperly], which does produce the liability of cutting off, all the more so should override the Sabbath.

Gezerah shavah:²² Concerning the continual offering, “In its season” is said (Num. 28:2), and concerning the Pesah, “In its season” is said (Num. 9:3). Just as the continual offering, concerning which “In its season” overrides the Sabbath, so the Pesah, concerning which “In its season” is said, overrides the Sabbath.

They said to him, “We have already said, ‘There is no profit [benefit] from the Babylonian.’”²³
As to the heqqesh which you said, there is a rebuttal: for if you (use the status of) the continual offering (in your argument), then you must acknowledge that there is a limit to the continual offering,²⁴ but (then you cannot compare the status of) the Pesah which has no limit.²⁵ [Since the two are different, the same rule therefore cannot apply.]

“The qal va-homer which you stated has a rebuttal: What you say concerning the continual offering, which is the most sacred, can you apply it to the Pesah, which is of lesser sanctity? (So the argument collapses.)

“As to the gezerah shavah that you stated: A man may not reason a gezerah shavah on his own [but must cite it from tradition].”

Even though he sat and expounded for them all day, they did not accept [it] from him, until he said to them, “May [evil] come upon me,26 Thus have I heard from Shemaiah and Abtalion!” When they heard this from him, they arose and appointed him nasi (patriarch) over them.

When they had appointed him nasi over them, he began to criticize them, saying, “Who caused you to need this Babylonian? Is it not because you did not serve the two great men of the world, Shemaiah and Abtalion, who were sitting with you?” Since he criticized them, the law was forgotten by him.27

They said to him, “What shall we do for the people who did not bring their knives?”

He said to them, “This law I have heard, but I have forgotten [it]. But leave Israel [alone]. If they are not prophets, they are disciples of prophets.”
Forthwith, whoever had a lamb as his Pesah sacrifice would hide it [the knife] in its wool; [if] it was a kid, he would tie the knife between its horns. So their Pesah sacrificial animals turned out to be bringing their own knives with them. When he saw the deed, he remembered the law. He said, “Thus have I heard from Shemaiah and Abtalion.”

15. Trans. Neusner, From Politics to Piety, pp. 27–8.

16. “Bathyrians were Babylonian Jewish immigrants who came at the time of Herod and were settled in frontier regions, northeast of the Sea of Galilee, to protect the border. They founded the town of Bathyra, whence the name. Herod put some of them into the Temple hierarchy” (Neusner, p. 27).

17. Perhaps he can provide a solution to the problem.

18. Therefore it is permissible to sacrifice the Passover offering on the Sabbath.

19. The intermediate days of Passover and Sukkot.

20. This method of exegesis makes an analogy from one set of circumstances to another.

21. An a fortiori argument from a stricter to a more lenient case.

22. The use of a common expression in the Bible referring to two matters links the two so that it follows that the same law must apply to both.

23. After listening to his argument from logic, they deny the value of his teachings.

24. Only two are offered.

25. Since innumerable offerings must be made by the entire Jewish people.

26. An oath formula indicating the truth of what follows.

27. As a punishment for his arrogant behavior.