Karen Armstrong, part II

...And there was a wonderful moment when I actually went and asked for some help from a Jewish scholar at a college...And he explained to me...the revolutionary idea that religion was not about believing things (emphasis mine). He was telling me the story of Rabbi Hillel, the older contemporary of Jesus who'd been approached by a bunch of pagans who said they would convert to Judaism if Hillel could recite the entire Torah while he stood on one leg. And Hillel stood on one leg and said, "Do not do unto others what you would not have done unto you. That is the Torah, the rest is commentary. Go and learn it."
And I said, "Well, that's all very nice, but, I mean, what were these Gentiles supposed to believe?" And Chaim said, "Well, it's easy to see you were brought up Christian." He said, "We Jews, we — it really doesn't matter what you believe, religion is about doing things. It's about, say, living, as Hillel says, in a compassionate way that changes you.

~Karen Armstrong, interviewed by Krista Tippet

My last post prompted me to take a second look at those 2 interviews with Karen Armstrong. If you have the time, both interviews are on the websites (links in previous post), and are well worth reading or listening to.
Karen Armstrong was the 2008 recipient of the TED prize: $100,000 to grant a wish, which she used to launch her
Charter for Compassion. Her acceptance speech below is just wonderful, if you have a spare 20 minutes to get an idea of just how wise and insightful she is about religion in the world.