GOOD ROMANS AND BAD
ROMANS By Rabbi Allen S. Maller
Rabbi
Judah was a great sage, a wealthy man, and the leader of the Jewish
People in the Land of Israel. He was admired and respected by
everyone. But when Rabbi Judah was a little baby he had come very
close to being killed. This is how it happened.
Rabbi
Judah was born not long after Rabbi Akiba was put to death for
teaching the Torah. The Romans were angry with the Jews because they
had revolted against Roman rule, so the government decreed that it be
forbidden to teach the Torah or to circumcise newborns.
When
Rabbi Judah was born his mother and father decided to defy the Roman
decree and circumcise him as the Torah commands. When the mayor of
the city heard what had happened he summoned Rabban Simeon ben
Gamaliel and asked him why he had violated the Emperor’s decree by
circumcising his son.
Rabban
Simeon replied that he was not anti Roman, but commandments from God
come first. The mayor said that while he had great respect for Rabban
Simeon as the head of the Jews he could not allow a Roman decree to
be violated. “I will send the baby with his mother Aviva bat Malkah
to the governor’s palace and the Governor will do what he wishes”
“You
could just look the other way and save my son’s life” said Rabban
Simeon. “I don’t want to take a chance of getting in trouble with
Romans,” said the mayor, “I just follow orders. You are the one
who disobeyed.”
The
mayor arrested Rabban Simeon and put him in prison. The next day the
mayor took the baby as evidence, along with its mother Aviva bat
Malkah, to the governor’s palace in Cesarea.
They
traveled all day. In the evening the mayor ordered everyone to stop
for the night at an inn owned by a non-Jewish man named Antoninus.
While she was at the inn Rabbi Judah’s mother Aviva bat Malkah
began talking to the innkeeper’s daughter, relating to her the
great danger that she and her son faced. Now it happened that the
daughter of Antoninus the innkeeper had also recently given birth to
a boy and it turned out that both babies were born on the exact same
day.
Although
the innkeeper’s daughter was not Jewish she was very upset that a
Jewish mother and her baby were in danger because of the Roman
decree. “I must do something,” she thought, “I cannot stand by
and do nothing when somebody else is in danger.” She thought of an
idea. She would exchange her baby for Rabbi Judah. They were both the
same size. The mayor and the Roman guards would never notice the
switch. When Rabbi Judah's mother Aviva bat Malkah showed the baby to
the governor there would be no evidence of a circumcision. On her way
back from the governor’s palace they would switch babies again and
everything would be all right.
Aviva
bat Malkah agreed and they switched babies. When the Governor
examined the baby the next day he found no evidence of circumcision.
He fired the mayor and sent Aviva bat Malkah and her baby away in
peace.
When
the two returned to the inn of Antoninus Aviva bat Malkah blessed the
non-Jewish woman who had saved her child. Antoninus’s daughter
replied, “Since God had wrought a miracle for you through me, and
for your son through my son, let us and our sons be friends forever.”
And
so it was. The non-Jewish woman’s son was named Marcus Aurelius.
Many years later when Rabbi Judah had become a great sage and the
leader of the Jewish People in the Land of Israel, Marcus Aurelius
Antoninus became the emperor of Rome. (161-180 c.e.) adapted
from Tosafot on Avodah Zarah 10b