Soul Searching

Soul Searching

The kabbalists teach that the soul of Shlomo Hamelech was rooted in Moshe Rabbeinu. That was his source. Hillel Hazakein was rooted in Moshe's soul as well. The Chida5 tells us an allusion in the name Moshe, as it serves as an acronym for משה, שלמה, הלל.

R' Dovid Hanagid,6 grandson of the Rambam, shares an allusion where we see the connection of Hillel and Moshe. It says ויהי ביום הששי לקטו לחם משנה שני העמר לאחד it happened on the sixth day that they gathered a double portion of food, two omers for each. The first letters of these words spell הלל-משה.

We see a connection between Moshe and Hillel as both were highly distinguished in the trait of humility as Moshe was exceedingly humble10 and Hillel similarly had this trait as demonstrated in the episode, among others, where on Erev Shabbos Hillel humbly answered inconsequential questions from an obnoxious person.11

R' Tzvi Hirsch of Liska12 adds that the reason Hillel was very careful in the trait of anger was because Moshe got angry a few times like the Midrash13 says that Moshe got angry three times and the halacha was hidden from him. Hillel who was reincarnated as Moshe was exceedingly careful not to get angry and with that he rectified it.