For two-and-a--half years, the House of Shammai and the House of Hillel debated. These said: It is better for man not to have been created than to have been created; and those said: It is better for man to have been created than to not have been created. In the end, they voted on it and concluded: It is better for man not to have been created than to have been created; but now that he was created, he should search his deeds.