Shammai (active 1st century BC), called Hazaken, or Elder, was a Jewish sage. He founded the Bet Shammai, the "House of Shammai," which was the persistent opponent of the rival Bet Hillel, the "House of Hillel."

Shammai was probably a little older than Hillel (ca. 60 B.C.-ca. A.D. 10). The two sages formed the last of the five Zuggot, or Pairs, who transmitted the Unwritten or Oral Tradition (as distinguished from the Written or Scriptural) to successive generations over a period of about 2 centuries (ca. 175 B.C.-A.D. 10). Shammai was the Av Bet Din, the "Father," or Senior Judge, of the Court of the Great Sanhedrin, and Hillel was its Nasi, or President. Shammai, a conservative, belonged to the upper classes and followed strictly the older, rigid, Oral Tradition. Hillel, a liberal, attempted to broaden the tradition by means of interpretation of the biblical text. In...