The wicked [governor] Tinneus Rufus asked Rabbi Akiva: ‘How is this day [Shabbat] different from the other days of the week?’31Why should it be treated differently from the other days? He said to him: ‘How is this man [Tinneus Rufus] different from other men?’32Why is it that you are treated differently from other men? He said: ‘What did I say to you and what did you say to me?’ He said to him: ‘You said to me: How is this day different from the other days of the week, meaning, in what way is Shabbat different from every day?
And I said to you: How is this man different other men, meaning, in what way is Tinneus Rufus different from other men?’ He said to him: ‘It is because the king wished to honor me.’ He said to him: ‘This [Shabbat], too, the Holy One blessed be He wished to honor it.’ He said to him: ‘From where can you prove it to me?’33That Shabbat is actually different from other days.
He said to him: ‘The Sambatyon River proves it, as it flows with stones all the days of the week, but on Shabbat it rests.’ He said to him in astonishment: ‘Are you dragging me to a river?’34We are not going to travel to the Sambatyon to witness it, so you have still not proven anything. He said to him: ‘Necromancers, who raise the dead via the male organ, will prove it, as a dead man can be brought up all the days of the week, but on Shabbat he cannot be brought up.
Let this man [Tinneus Rufus] test this out with his father.’ One time, he [Tinneus Rufus] needed to do so, and he tested it with his father. He was brought up all the days of the week, but on Shabbat he could not be brought up. On Sunday he brought him up again.
He said to him in bewilderment: ‘Since you died, have you become a Jew? Why were you brought up all the days of the week, but on Shabbat you could not be brought up?’ He said to him: ‘Anyone who does not observe Shabbat willingly in your place, will observe it here perforce.’ He said to him: ‘Do you have labor there for which you exert yourselves all the days of the week, that you can experience rest on Shabbat?’
He said to him: ‘All the days of the week we are punished, but on Shabbat we rest.’ He [Tinneus Rufus] returned to Rabbi Akiva and said to him: ‘If it is as you say, that the Holy One blessed be He honors the Shabbat, let him not make the wind blow [on Shabbat], let him not make rain fall, let him not allow grass to grow.’ He said to him: ‘May the spirit of that man35Tinneus Rufus. depart from him.
I will tell you a parable: [It is analogous to] two people who resided in the same courtyard. If one does not contribute to the eruv and the other one contributes to the eruv, is it, perhaps, permitted to transport items in the courtyard? However, if one person resides in a courtyard alone, it is permitted for him [to transport items] in the entire courtyard. Here, too, the Holy One blessed be He, because there is no other power that co-exists with Him, and the entire world is His, it is permitted for Him [to transport items] throughout the entire world.
Additionally, those who partook of the manna can attest to it,36That Shabbat is indeed different from the other days of the week. as all the days of the week it would fall, but on Shabbat it did not fall.’