A man should not be hasty, and above all he should not be angry. The sages held up Hillel the Elder as the standard against which every temper was measured — and his wife's behavior one evening proved it.
Hillel had invited a distinguished guest to dinner. His wife had prepared the meal. Just before serving, a poor man arrived at the door with an urgent need: his daughter was being married that same evening, and there was not enough food for the wedding feast. Without hesitating, Hillel's wife took the entire meal she had prepared and handed it over for the wedding. Then she turned back to her kitchen to start a second dinner from nothing.
Hillel and his guest waited at the table for an hour, perhaps longer. The dishes kept not arriving. When at last the meal was served, Hillel's wife explained what had happened. She had given his dinner to the bride.
Hillel did not raise his voice. He did not complain about the delay, the inconvenience, or the embarrassment of keeping his guest hungry. He accepted the second meal and blessed it as if it were the first. The guest, who had watched the entire episode, understood that he had come for a dinner and received a sermon — the sermon of patience enacted in its natural habitat.
Gaster's Exempla of the Rabbis (1924, No. 259) preserves this small domestic scene as a laboratory demonstration of Hillel's defining trait. He was famous for never losing his temper, and his wife's quick charity gave him the daily opportunity to prove it.