What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow: the source
By the My Daily Torah team · Updated
In short
It comes from the Talmud, Shabbat 31a, in a story set about 2,000 years ago. A non-Jew asks to learn the whole Torah while standing on one foot. A famous teacher answers in Aramaic: what is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That's the whole Torah, he says, the rest is commentary, now go learn it. In plain terms, if you'd hate it done to you, don't do it to someone else.
Where does the saying come from?
״דעלך סני לחברך לא תעביד״
“Whatever you'd hate done to you, don't do to someone else.”
It's from the Talmud, the huge ancient record of Jewish debates and stories, in the section called Shabbat, page 31a. The Talmud was put together about 1,500 years ago. This story is set roughly 2,000 years ago.
A non-Jew goes to a well-known teacher with a deal: convert me, but only if you teach me the entire Torah while I stand on one foot. The teacher shoves him away with the builder's measuring stick he happens to be holding.
So the man tries a second teacher, one famous for his patience. This one converts him first and only then gives him the answer, in one sentence. It's in Aramaic, the everyday language Jews spoke back then, not Hebrew.
It's one of three stories in a row on that page. Each one has a non-Jew showing up with a strange demand, getting pushed away by the first teacher and welcomed by the second. Years later the three converts meet and agree: the first teacher's impatience nearly drove them out of the world, and the second one's patience brought them close to God.
What does each part actually mean?
״זו היא כל התורה כולה, ואידך פירושה הוא, זיל גמור״
“That's the entire Torah. Everything else is explanation. Now go learn it.”
"What is hateful to you" (de'alakh sani). It starts with you. You already know what it feels like to be ignored, lied to or talked about behind your back. That's your guide.
"Do not do to your fellow" (l'chavrakh la ta'aved). The word here, chaver, is the normal word for a friend or companion. It's about the actual people around you, not humanity in the abstract.
"That's the whole Torah." The Torah is the Five Books of Moses, packed with laws, stories and rituals. The claim is that all of it connects back to how you treat people.
"The rest is commentary, go and learn it." This is the part people skip. The one-foot answer isn't a shortcut that lets him off the hook. It's the summary, and the summary comes with homework.
Is it the same as the Golden Rule?
Close, but not quite. The version most Americans grew up with is a do: treat others the way you want to be treated. This one is a don't.
That difference matters more than it looks. "Do what you'd want" can turn into pushing your taste on everyone (you love surprise parties, so everyone gets one). "Don't do what you'd hate" is a floor you can actually stand on every day, with no guessing.
The line also gets cut short. Posters and speeches usually stop at "that's the whole Torah." The teacher's last three words, go and learn, get dropped, even though they're what turns a nice slogan into a starting point.
The teacher said the rest is commentary, so go learn it. One short page on WhatsApp each morning is an easy place to start. Try it for $1
How does it connect to "love your neighbor as yourself"?
״ואהבת לרעך כמוך״
“Love the person next to you the way you love yourself.”
The Torah has its own famous line in Leviticus 19:18: love your neighbor as yourself. The same verse opens with don't take revenge and don't hold a grudge.
The saying from Shabbat 31a is widely read as the practical version of that verse. Feeling love for everyone on command is hard. Checking whether you'd hate what you're about to do is something you can manage before you hit send.
What does it look like in real life?
You hate being left on read for three days. So you answer the text, even if it's just "slammed, will reply tonight."
You hate finding out a group chat was roasting you. So you don't screenshot someone's message into another chat.
You hate getting talked over in meetings. So you let the new person finish their sentence.
None of it takes a theology degree, which is kind of the point. You can start on one foot. The learning happens on two.
Questions people ask
Who said "what is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow"?
A famous teacher in the Talmud, known above all for his patience, who lived about 2,000 years ago. He says it to a non-Jew who asks to learn the whole Torah while standing on one foot. The story is in Shabbat 31a, and the line is in Aramaic.
Is "what is hateful to you, do not do" in the Bible?
No. It's from the Talmud, Shabbat 31a, not the Bible. The closest Bible verse is Leviticus 19:18, "love your neighbor as yourself," and the Talmud's line is often read as the practical, everyday version of it.
What does "the rest is commentary, go and learn it" mean?
The one-sentence answer is the core, and everything else in the Torah explains and builds on it. The teacher doesn't stop there, though. He tells the new convert to go study, so the short version is where learning starts, not a replacement for it.
Is "what is hateful to you, do not do to others" the same as the Golden Rule?
They're cousins. The common Golden Rule is a positive: treat others how you want to be treated. The Talmud's version is a negative: don't do what you'd hate. That makes it a clear minimum, without assuming everyone wants what you want.
Sources
Every Hebrew line on this page is copied word for word from the source and checked against Sefaria, the free online library of Jewish texts. The English is our own translation.