>I recently saw a discussion of this subject by representatives of several faiths.
>The consensus was that the one value that they all agreed on was the Golden Rule- treat other people the way you want to be treated - or - don't treat someone else in a way that you would not want to be treated.
I remember learning at some point in Hebrew School that the Jewish version is the negative one you expressed second. There's a story they teach about two of our sages, Hillel and Shammai, who were supposedly contemporaneous and disagreed with each other about almost everything. The story is that a non-Jew came to Shammai and said he'd convert to Judaism if Shammai could tell him the whole of the Torah while the man was standing on one foot; Shammai sent him away. Then, he went to Hillel and ask the same thing. Supposedly, Hilled said "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary. Go and study it."
Seems to me we were also taught that there was a big different between the positive and negative formations of the idea. The positive is reward-seeking, while the negative is not.
I imagine they teach it a little differently in church Sunday schools and CCD. :-)
Tamar
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