Hillel and Shammai were two competing rabbis who lived in the century before the beginning of the common era.
A gentile approached Shammai and vowed to convert to Judaism if Shammai could teach him the Torah while he stood on one foot. Believing (correctly) that he and his faith were being ridiculed, Shammai seized a builder's measuring stick and chased the Gentile off.
The gentile approached Hillel with the same challenge, and Hillel replied, "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."
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