Pirkei Avot 1:12
"Hillel and Shammai received the transmission from them [the previous generation of scholars, of Mishna 10]. Hillel said: Be of the students of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving people and bringing them closer to Torah."
As so much of Pirkei Avot, this mishna resonates on two levels. On one level, we have the advice of Hillel, to be like Aaron, loving and pursuing peace and loving people and bringing them closer to Torah. This brings to mind the gentle, warm characteristic of Aaron, known as a peacemaker, and Hillel, who indulged the cynic who asked him to teach him Torah standing on one foot with the answer "do not do unto others what is hateful to you." This is the approach that is in vogue today, to bring Jews back to Judaism by being warm and welcoming, in the wake of the demographic studies predicting our demise to intermarriage and secularism.
But the mishna alludes to another approach. Why does it tell us that Shammai received the transmission from the same source as Hillel? Shammai was known for a more literal interpretation of the Torah. Hillel spoke to the skeptic, and sought to bring him into the fold. Shammai spoke to those already in the fold, and sought to transmit the content of the transmission. Hillel has fared better in the popular description of the two, but the pasuk reminds us that Shammai's approach came from the same source.
Pirkei Avot inclines to accessibility and to outreach, and thus repeats the teaching of Hillel, not Shammai. But the quotation from Hillel alludes to the other perspective. It urges us to be of the students of Aaron, yet the reader knows that Aaron, in his love of peace, allowed the Israelites to worship the golden calf, while his brother, Moses, immediately rejected the golden calf. The end of the quotation from Hillel points to Shammai: "bringing [people] closer to Torah" moves from loving them to bringing them closer to the text, where love alone is not enough. The purpose of loving them is to bring them closer to Torah, which they must study and take to heart.
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