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Hillel II, (Hebrew: ??? ?????, Hillel the Nasi
Nasi

Nasi? is a Hebrew language title meaning prince, in Biblical Hebrew, or president, in Hebrew_language#Modern_Israeli_Hebrew....
) also known simply as Hillel held the office of Nasi
Nasi

Nasi? is a Hebrew language title meaning prince, in Biblical Hebrew, or president, in Hebrew_language#Modern_Israeli_Hebrew....
 of the ancient Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
ish Sanhedrin
Sanhedrin

The Sanhedrin was an assembly of twenty-three judges appointed in every city in the Land of Israel.The Great Sanhedrin was the supreme court of ancient Israel....
 between 320 and 385 CE. He was the son and successor of Judah III
Judah III

Judah III held the office of Nasi of the ancient Jewish Sanhedrin between 290 and 320 CE. He is a famous Jewish sage mentioned in the classical works of Judaism's oral law, who lived during the third and beginning of the fourth century CE....
. He was a Jewish communal and religious authority, circa 330 - 365 CE. He is sometimes confused with Hillel the Elder
Hillel the Elder

Hillel was a famous Jewish religious leader, one of the most important figures in Jewish history. He is associated with the development of the Mishnah and the Talmud....
, as the Talmud
Talmud

The Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Halakha, Jewish ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
 sometimes simply uses the name "Hillel".

In two instances his name is quoted in connection with important decisions in Jewish law
Halakha

Halakha ? also Hebrew transliteration Halocho and Halacha ? is the collective body of Judaism religious law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions....
: in one, Jose ben Abin
Jose ben Abin

Jose ben Abin was a Jewish Talmudist, known as an amora of the fifth generation who lived in the Galilee in the Land of Israel. He was the son of Rabban Abin I and the teacher of Abin II....
 expounds to him a law; in the other, Hillel cites a mishnah
Mishnah

The Mishnah or Mishna is a major work of Rabbinic literature, and the first major redaction into written form of Jewish oral traditions, called the Oral Torah....
 to establish a law (Yer.






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Hillel II, (Hebrew: ??? ?????, Hillel the Nasi
Nasi

Nasi? is a Hebrew language title meaning prince, in Biblical Hebrew, or president, in Hebrew_language#Modern_Israeli_Hebrew....
) also known simply as Hillel held the office of Nasi
Nasi

Nasi? is a Hebrew language title meaning prince, in Biblical Hebrew, or president, in Hebrew_language#Modern_Israeli_Hebrew....
 of the ancient Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
ish Sanhedrin
Sanhedrin

The Sanhedrin was an assembly of twenty-three judges appointed in every city in the Land of Israel.The Great Sanhedrin was the supreme court of ancient Israel....
 between 320 and 385 CE. He was the son and successor of Judah III
Judah III

Judah III held the office of Nasi of the ancient Jewish Sanhedrin between 290 and 320 CE. He is a famous Jewish sage mentioned in the classical works of Judaism's oral law, who lived during the third and beginning of the fourth century CE....
. He was a Jewish communal and religious authority, circa 330 - 365 CE. He is sometimes confused with Hillel the Elder
Hillel the Elder

Hillel was a famous Jewish religious leader, one of the most important figures in Jewish history. He is associated with the development of the Mishnah and the Talmud....
, as the Talmud
Talmud

The Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Halakha, Jewish ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
 sometimes simply uses the name "Hillel".

In two instances his name is quoted in connection with important decisions in Jewish law
Halakha

Halakha ? also Hebrew transliteration Halocho and Halacha ? is the collective body of Judaism religious law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions....
: in one, Jose ben Abin
Jose ben Abin

Jose ben Abin was a Jewish Talmudist, known as an amora of the fifth generation who lived in the Galilee in the Land of Israel. He was the son of Rabban Abin I and the teacher of Abin II....
 expounds to him a law; in the other, Hillel cites a mishnah
Mishnah

The Mishnah or Mishna is a major work of Rabbinic literature, and the first major redaction into written form of Jewish oral traditions, called the Oral Torah....
 to establish a law (Yer. Ber.
Berakhot (Talmud)

Berakhot is the first masekhet of Zeraim of the Mishnah, the first major text of Jewish law. It primarily addresses the rules regarding the Shema Yisrael, the Amidah, Birkat Hamazon , Kiddush , Havdalah and other blessings and prayers....
 ii. 5a; Yer. Ter. i. 41a).

He is traditionally regarded as the creator of the modern fixed Hebrew calendar
Hebrew calendar

The Hebrew calendar or Jewish calendar is a lunisolar calendar used by Jews, now predominantly for religious purposes. It is used to reckon the Jewish New Year and dates for Jewish holidays, and also to determine appropriate Torah reading of Torah portions, Yahrzeits , and daily Psalm reading, among many ceremonial uses....
. However this attribution is tenuous. It first appears in a responsum of R. Hai Gaon
Hai Gaon

Hai ben Sherira, better known as Hai Gaon, was a medieval Jewish theologian, rabbi and scholar who served as Gaon of the Talmudic Academies in Babylonia Pumbedita during the early 11th century....
 (early eleventh century) cited by R. Avraham b. Hiyya in his Sefer Ha'ibbur, written in 1123. The topic of that responsum is the 19-year cycle for leap-year intercalations, so the most that can be inferred from that attribution is that Hillel was responsible for the adoption of that cycle for the regulation of the distribution of leap-years. Scholars who have studied the history of the Hebrew calendar are in general agreement (and there is much evidence for this in the Talmud
Talmud

The Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Halakha, Jewish ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
 itself and in other rabbinic sources) that in practice, the evolution of the calendar into its present form was a gradual process spanning several centuries from the first to about the eighth or ninth century CE.

Rabbinic
Rabbinic

Rabbinic may refer to:* Rabbinic literature, Rabbinic texts, writings, and works* Rabbinics or rabbinic traditions - see Oral Torah* Rabbinic Judaism, Rabbinics , Rabbinic Jews, or Rabbinic beliefs...
 tradition ascribes to him an enactment which proved of incalculable benefit to his coreligionists of his own and of subsequent generations. The Jewish calendar is lunisolar. 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. The purpose of the latter is to ensure that the festivals, all of which occur on fixed dates of the lunar month
Lunar month

In lunar calendars, a lunar month is the time between two identical syzygy . There are many variations. In Middle-Eastern and European traditions, the month starts when the new moon becomes first visible at evening after Astronomical conjunction with the Sun 1 or 2 days before that evening ....
s, are also observed each year in the seasons designated for them in the Bible
Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
. To ensure the former, occasional intercalations of a day in a month were required; to ensure the latter, occasional intercalations of an extra month in a year were required.

These intercalations were determined at meetings of a special committee of the Sanhedrin
Sanhedrin

The Sanhedrin was an assembly of twenty-three judges appointed in every city in the Land of Israel.The Great Sanhedrin was the supreme court of ancient Israel....
. But Constantius II
Constantius II

Flavius Iulius Constantius, known in English as Constantius II was a Roman Emperor of the Constantinian dynasty....
, following the precedents of Hadrian
Hadrian

Publius Aelius Hadrianus , as emperor Imperator Caesar Divi Traiani filius Traianus Hadrianus Augustus, and Divus Hadrianus after his apotheosis, known as Hadrian in English language, was Roman Emperor of Roman Empire from AD 117 to 138, as well as a Stoicism and Epicureanism philosopher....
, prohibited the holding of such meetings as well as the vending of articles for distinctly Jewish purposes.

The entire Jewish community outside the land of Israel depended on the calendar sanctioned by the Judea
Judea

Judea or Jud?a is the name given to the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel , an area now divided between Israel and the West Bank ....
n Sanhedrin
Sanhedrin

The Sanhedrin was an assembly of twenty-three judges appointed in every city in the Land of Israel.The Great Sanhedrin was the supreme court of ancient Israel....
; this was necessary for the unified observance of the Jewish holidays. 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 once advised Rava
Rava (amora)

Rava was a Jewish Talmudist who lived in Babylonia, known as an amora, born in 270, and one of the most often-cited Rabbis in the Talmud. He studied at the yeshiva of Pumbedita: see Talmudic Academies in Babylonia....
 not to wait for the official intercalation: When you are convinced that the winter quarter will extend beyond the sixteenth day of Nisan
Nisan

Nisan is the seventh month of the civil year and the first month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. The name of the month is Babylonian; in the Torah it is called the month of the Aviv, referring to a stage in the ripening of barley which occurs during the month....
 declare the year a leap year
Leap year

A leap year is a year containing one or more extra days in order to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical year or seasonal year....
, and do not hesitate (R. H. 21a). 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
Jewish diaspora

The Jewish diaspora , the presence of Jews outside of the Land of Israel, is a result of the expulsion or emigration of Jews from Israel and religious conversion to Judaism....
 to their mother country
Palestine

Palestine is a name which has been widely used since Roman times to refer to the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. It is derived from a name used already much earlier for a narrower geographical region, mainly along the coastal region....
 and to the patriarchate
Patriarchate

A patriarchate is the office or Jurisdiction#Executive jurisdiction of a patriarch. A patriarch, as the term is used here, is either* one of the highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, the original five of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, but now nine, including patriarchs of Serbia, Russia, Georgia , Bulgaria...
.

The emperor Julian the Apostate
Julian the Apostate

Flavius Claudius Julianus, known also as Julian or Julian the Apostate , was Roman Emperor of the Constantinian dynasty. He was the last non-Christian Roman Emperor, and expended much energy during his reign attempting to supplant the growing power of Christianity within the empire with officially revived Religion in ancient Rom...
 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
Julos

Julos is a village and Communes of the Hautes-Pyr?n?es department in the Hautes-Pyr?n?es departments of France of south-western France....
, to abolish what was called the 'send-tax'".

See also

  • Hillel the Elder
    Hillel the Elder

    Hillel was a famous Jewish religious leader, one of the most important figures in Jewish history. He is associated with the development of the Mishnah and the Talmud....
  • Hebrew calendar
    Hebrew calendar

    The Hebrew calendar or Jewish calendar is a lunisolar calendar used by Jews, now predominantly for religious purposes. It is used to reckon the Jewish New Year and dates for Jewish holidays, and also to determine appropriate Torah reading of Torah portions, Yahrzeits , and daily Psalm reading, among many ceremonial uses....