Rabbinic literature preserves several versions of the narrative of Hillel’s rise to power as leader of the Pharisaic-Rabbinic sages ca. 30 B.C.E. According to this account, Hillel’s attempt to prove his views regarding the Passover sacrifice was of no avail until he cited a tradition from his teachers. Only the force of tradition was able to sway the argument. He explained the proper way to present a Passover-offering on the Sabbath, in view of the prohibition of carrying the sacrificial knife on that day from outside the sanctuary.

One time the fourteenth [of Nisan, the eve of Passover] fell on the Sabbath. They asked Hillel the Elder, “Does the Pesah [Passover-offering] override the Sabbath? [That is, is the Passover-sacrifice offered on the Sabbath?]”

He said to them, “And do we have only one Pesah in the year which overrides the Sabbath? We have many more than three hundred Pesahs in the year, and they override the Sabbath.”10

The whole courtyard collected against him. He said to them, “The continual offering11 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 is a community sacrifice and overrides the Sabbath.

“Another matter: It is said concerning the continual offering: ‘In its season’ (Num. 28:2), and it is said with reference to the Pesah: ‘In its season’ (Num. 9:2). Just as the continual offering, concerning which ‘In its season’ is said, overrides the Sabbath, so the Pesah concerning which ‘In its season’ is said, overrides the Sabbath.

“And further [it is a] qal va-homer [argument a fortiori]: Although the continual offering, which does not produce the [severe] liability of cutting off, overrides the Sabbath, the Pesah, which does produce the liability of cutting off— is it not logical that it should override the Sabbath?

“And further, I have received from my masters [the tradition] that the Pesah overrides the Sabbath, and not [merely] the first Pesah13 but the second14 and not [merely] the commmunity Pesah but the individual Pesah [as well].

They said to him, “What will be the rule for the people who one the Sabbath did not bring knives and Pesah offerings to the sanctuary?”

He said to them, “Leave them alone. The holy spirit is upon them. If they are not prophets, they are the disciples of the prophets.” What did Israel [the Jews] do in that hour? He whose Pesah was a lamb hid it in its wool; if it was a kid, he tied it between its horns; so they brought knives and Pesahs to the sanctuary and slew their Pesah-sacrifices.

On that very day they appointed Hillel as a nasi, and he would teach to them concerning the laws of the Pesah.

9. Trans. Neusner, From Politics to Piety, pp. 23–4.

10. Numerous sacrifices are offered on the Sabbath each week, so why should we consider the Pesah offering to be any different?

11. The burnt offering sacrificed twice daily.

12. Excision, understood by the Rabbis as either dying young or childless.

13. On the fourteenth of Nisan.

14. The observance of a second Passover a month later on the fourteenth of Iyyar to allow those impure or not able to reach the Temple to offer their Passover offering (Num. 9:9-14)