Works
Hillel, in spite of his wide philosophical knowledge, remained faithful to the teachings of Judaism in their most orthodox interpretation. He even pledged himself to implicit belief in the miraculous stories of the Bible and the Talmud, incurring thereby the censure of the more logical thinker Seraiah ben Isaac (Oẓar Neḥmad, ii.124 et seq.). In his chief work, Tagmule ha-Nefesh (Lyck, 1874), which reviews the philosophical literature, then in vogue, of the Greeks and Arabs, Jews and Christians, Hillel makes constant reference to the Bible and to Talmudic works, advancing his own opinion only when these latter are silent on the subject under consideration.
Hillel's works, in addition to the Tagmule ha-Nefesh, include: a commentary to Maimonides' 25 Propositions (Haḳdamot), printed together with the Tagmule ha-Nefesh; a revision of the Liber de Causis, short extracts of which are given in Halberstam's edition of Tagmule ha-Nefesh; Sefer ha-Darbon, on the Haggadah; a philosophical explanation of Canticles, quoted in Tagmule ha-Nefesh; Chirurgia Burni ex Latina in Hebræam Translata (De Rossi MS. No. 1281); and two letters to Maestro Gajo, printed in Ḥemdah Genuzah (1856), pp. 17–22, and in Ṭa'am Zeḳenim, p. 70.
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