A Thousand Years of Jewish History / From the days of Alexander the Great to the Moslem Conquest of Spain

by Maurice H. Harris

A few were ready for ignoble acquiescence and called it submitting to the inevitable, forgetting that "inevitable" is an elastic term that varies with our moral determination. Meeting secretly in a garret, the Rabbis considered the momentous question of the religious policy of this critical hour. They decided that while this terrible decree lasted the people might disregard Jewish observances under duress, since the Law was given, not that they should die, but live by it. But fearing that their lenient proclamation might be mistakenly applied to the fundamentals of religion and morals, they made this safeguard: Even to save his life, no Jew must commit the sins of idolatry, adultery, or murder. This vitally important declaration, involving the all-compelling sanction of the second, sixth and seventh commandments, became an abiding principle in Judaism.

But many of the Rabbis themselves refused to take advantage of the leniency they were willing to grant to others, and determined to obey every injunction of Judaism. In particular they determined to teach the Law to their disciples, on which the continuance of the Jewish tradition depended—though they knew that death would be the penalty of discovery. Roman spies were everywhere ready to pounce upon any who committed the "crime" of fulfilling the precepts of Judaism in obedience to the dictates of conscience. Some were only fined, but others were put to death with tortures too cruel to tell.

Martyrdom.

There were ten famous martyrs among the teachers of the Law. One of these, Chananyah ben Teradion, had the scroll of the Law he was expounding, wound round him and was burnt in its flames—wet wool being placed on his heart to prolong his agony. His executioner, inspired by such lofty example of faith and courage, sought death with him on the same pyre.

Another, Rabbi Judah ben Baba, gathered some of his disciples about him in a lonely spot, to ordain them as rabbis by the rite of Semicha, already explained. Roman soldiers discovered him. He bade his pupils fly. They refused to obey until he pointed out that having learnt from him important decisions of the Law, it was their duty to live and teach them to others. Later they found him pierced with three hundred lances.

Rabbi Akiba was among the martyrs and would not avail himself of the temporary suspension of the ceremonial Law. Reproached for exposing his life by teaching the Law he answered in a parable that has since become famous, that of "The Fox and the Fishes." Seeing the frightened fish swimming from nets set to entrap them, a crafty fox on the bank called out, "Come up on land and escape the snares of the sea." "Nay," advised the counsellor among the fish, "far wiser will it be to remain in the water, your native element, even though made perilous by the nets of men." Was not Judaism the native element of the Jew?

Soon this noble teacher was seized and cast into prison. Rufus ordered him to be flayed to death by iron pincers. But religion cannot be killed in that way. In the midst of his agonies, a seraphic smile illuminated his face. "Daily," said he, "I have recited the Shema, 'Love God with heart and soul and might,' and now I understand its last phrase—'with all thy might,'—that is even though He ask thy life; here I give Him my life." With this wondrous recital of Israel's prayer, this sweet soul, whose opinions may have brought him some opponents, but whose character all loved, passed away. His parable of "The Fox and the Fishes" contained a profound truth exemplified in himself; for, dying in his native element, the Law, he lives immortally in the Jewish heart; aye, through the inspiration of his death and that of others like him, does Israel abide to-day. Here was another application of the "suffering servant" in Isaiah's fifty-third chapter.

Thus ended Israel's last struggle for liberty. It severed, too, the last link that yet united the Jewish Christians to the parent Jewish body. For they said, "Why hold further relation with a community completely crushed and discredited in the eyes of all the world?" They believed that Judaism's collapse and disappearance was at hand.

Note.

Rome first despised the Judean revolt and then had to send its greatest general to quell it. Compare the similar experience of Britain with the Boers.