There was an incident involving a certain woman who came to Rabbi Eliezer to convert.75She was a heretic and wanted to repent (Matnot Kehuna). She said to him: ‘Rabbi, draw me near.’ He said to her: ‘Detail your actions.’ She said: ‘My little son is from my big son.’
He rebuked her. She went to Rabbi Yehoshua, and he accepted her. His students said to him: ‘Rabbi Eliezer rebuffed her and you draw her near?’ He said to them: ‘Once she has decided to convert she will not live at all, as it is written: “None that go to her will return” (Proverbs 2:19), and if they did return, “they do not attain ways of life” (Proverbs 2:19).’76The woman had been a heretic, and would not be able to avoid severe transgressions for very long.
However, since she had decided to repent, she would not live long enough to return to her sinful ways, and therefore Rabbi Yehoshua was not concerned that she would lead others to sin (Midrash HaMevoar). Ḥanina the son of Rabbi Yehoshua’s brother went toward Kefar Naḥum, and the heretics cast a spell on him, and they lifted him and placed him on a donkey on Shabbat. He went to [Rabbi] Yehoshua his uncle, and he placed oil on him, and he was cured.
He said to him: ‘Since the donkey of that wicked one rose against you, you cannot dwell in the Land of Israel.’ He descended to Babylon and died there in peace. Rabbi Yonatan, one of his students absconded to them [the heretics]. He went and he found him completely debauched.77He had become a heretic himself, and had involved himself in debauchery as had the other heretics.
They sent heretics after [Rabbi Yonatan], and so they said to him: But is it not written: “Cast your lot among us, let us all have one purse” (Proverbs 1:14)?78“Purse” is a euphemism for a prostitute. He [Rabbi Yonatan] was flying and they were flying after him.79He miraculously flew away from them, and they flew after him to chase him, using black magic. He was barely able to escape from them. They had said to him:80This is what happened before he escaped. ‘Rabbi, come and perform a kindness for this bride.’
He went and found them engaged [in promiscuous behavior] with a certain young woman. He said to them: ‘Is this the way that Jews act?’ They said to him: ‘But is it not written in the Torah: “Cast your lot among us, [let us all have one] purse”?’ He was flying and they were flying after him, until they reached his door and he slammed it in their faces.
They said: ‘Rabbi Yonatan, go and relate joyfully to your mother that you did not turn around and did not look at us, as had you turned around and looked at us, more than the extent to which we would have flown after you, you would have flown after us.’ Rabbi Yehuda ben Nekosa, the heretics were harassing him. They would ask him and he would respond, they would ask him and he would respond. He said to them: ‘You are responding to me for naught.
Let us agree between us that any person who prevails over his counterpart will wound the brain of his counterpart with a hammer.’ He prevailed over them and wounded their brains until they were filled with wounds upon wounds. When he came, his students said to him: ‘Rabbi, they aided you from Heaven and you prevailed.’ He said: ‘For naught [do you praise me], go and pray for that man and for that bag, which was filled with gems and pearls, but is now filled with coals.’81The reference is to himself. He was full of Torah, but now, having debated the heretics extensively, he had been exposed to their claims and ideas.