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Bar Deroa Could Leap a Roman Mile and Still Fell

A hen and a rooster stood for a new marriage. Roman soldiers ate them. The defender who leapt a mile said God had forgotten the town.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Wedding Birds
  2. A Mile in One Jump
  3. God Has Forgotten Us
  4. Lamps in the Wrong Hour
  5. Trees Cut for an Axle
Bar Deroa Could Leap a Roman Mile and Still Fell Click for full size

The Wedding Birds

In a Jewish town under Rome, a bride and groom were given a hen and a rooster. Small living signs. Pairing. A house that was supposed to go on. Roman soldiers passed through, caught the birds, and ate them in the street while the wedding party still stood there.

The Jews attacked the soldiers. Rome read the attack as rebellion. An army came.

A Mile in One Jump

The town had a defender named Bar Deroa. He could leap a Roman mile in a single bound and cut down enemies along the whole length of the jump. He bent, he left the ground, and the road under him filled with men who did not get up. Legionaries fell in a line the length of a mile. One man became a wall.

The Roman emperor heard it and prayed not to be delivered into the power of a single human being. The army camped outside and waited. Bar Deroa's body had bought the town a pause that looked like safety. He jumped again. Men went down again. The mile kept belonging to him.

God Has Forgotten Us

He was winning. The wall had not broken. In the middle of that winning he opened his mouth and said the wrong sentence. He said God had forgotten them.

The words were still in the air when a snake came out of a crevice and bit his ankle. He looked down. The fang was already in. He died where he stood. The strength that had looked like his had never been his. The moment he named abandonment, abandonment arrived.

The emperor, hearing of the death, was so glad he lifted the siege and went away. He had prayed not to be given into one man's hand. Heaven had answered him with a snake.

Lamps in the Wrong Hour

The town lit lamps. A great illumination. Joy for a siege that had walked off. Wine. Song. Light in every window they could reach.

Rome saw the lights from a distance and read them as rebellion a second time. The army came back. The town was so large that while they were killing in one quarter, people in another quarter were still holding feasts, still singing, still unaware that the lamps had called the swords in.

The birds had been a meal to the soldiers. To the town they had been a marriage. Rome could not tell the difference, and it did not need to. It only needed a reason.

Trees Cut for an Axle

In Bet Tur they planted a tree when a child was born. When that child married, the tree was cut for the wedding. A bench. A pole. A frame that had grown with the person, ring by ring. Roman soldiers cut the trees down to make an axle for the emperor's daughter's carriage.

A lifetime of wood went under a wheel. The town rose. Rome called it rebellion and destroyed Bet Tur. The blood ran so far it reached the sea, and the water ran red for miles.

Bar Koziba, in the same ruin, would later say a sentence in Bar Deroa's shape. "Do not help us, O Lord, and do not subdue us." He sinned in the saying. A snake was found around his body too. The pattern did not need to be taught. It kept arriving. A small stolen thing. A mouth that told God to stay out. A town that learned, too late, that the wall had always been a gift.

Bar DeroaRomeWarGalileeDestructionHumilityExempla Of The Rabbis
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From the tradition

Sources

3 sources

The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Exempla of the Rabbis, No. 72Exempla of the Rabbis (Gaster, 1924)

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Exempla of the Rabbis, Moses Gaster (1924) · Public Domain

It was the custom to present newly married people with a hen and a cock and once the Roman soldiers passing by caught the birds and ate them; the Jews then attacked them. This was taken as an act of rebellion and the Romans went against the place. The leader of the Jews was Bar-Deroa, who could jump a mile and kill the people all along the way. But he forgot himself so far as to say: that God had forgotten them. He was bitten by a snake and died. The Roman Emperor had prayed not to be delivered into the power of one man. After this miraculous death he was so overjoyed that he raised the siege and went away. The Jews made a great illumination which was again taken as a sign of rebellion and the town and its inhabitants were destroyed. The town was so large that whilst they were killing the people in one quarter of it, they were holding festivities and rejoicings in the other.

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Full source
Gaster, The Exempla of the Rabbis (1924), No. 72The Exempla of the Rabbis (1924)

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Exempla of the Rabbis, Moses Gaster (1924) · PD-US-pre-1929

There was once a custom in a Jewish town that newlyweds were greeted with a hen and a rooster, symbols of fruitfulness. One day Roman soldiers marched through the town, saw the birds, and ate them. The Jews, outraged at the insult to the ritual, rose up and attacked the soldiers. Rome read this as rebellion and dispatched an army.

The Jewish defense was led by a man named Bar Deroa, whose strength was said to be so great that he could leap a Roman mile in a single bound and strike down enemies along the whole length of his jump. Legionaries fell before him. The Roman emperor, watching his forces vanish, prayed in his desperation, “Let me not be delivered into the power of one man.”

For a while, Bar Deroa seemed invincible. But in the heat of one battle, he lost his footing and lost his mouth. He shouted, “God has forgotten us.”

The words had barely left his lips before a snake slid out of a crevice and bit him on the ankle. He died where he fell. The emperor, hearing of it, raised the siege and withdrew.

The town rejoiced and lit lamps in celebration. The Romans, seeing the illumination from a distance, read it once more as rebellion, returned, and destroyed everything. The town was so vast that the massacre was still underway in one quarter while citizens in the opposite quarter still feasted, unaware.

The rabbis preserved the story as a warning. The strongest warrior in Israel fell the moment he forgot who was holding him up. And the joy of victory, expressed without wisdom, became the signal for ruin.

Full source
Exempla of the Rabbis, No. 75Exempla of the Rabbis (Gaster, 1924)

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Exempla of the Rabbis, Moses Gaster (1924) · Public Domain

Short note of the destruction of Bet-Tur through the axle of the waggon. They used to plant trees on the birth of a child and afterwards used them at its wedding. These were once cut down by the Romans to make an axle for the carriage of the Emperor’s daughter, and the people rose in consequence against the Roman soldiers. This was taken as a sign of rebellion and the town was destroyed, the blood flowing for miles into the sea.

75 a. When Akibasaw Bar Coziba he declared him to be the Messiah. He had a large army of 80,000 and he had 200,000 from whom one finger was cut off. He was told by the sages not to mutilate the people any more and they advised him to recruit only such men who riding on horses could uproot trees. And they got 200,000 in this manner. He also said like Bar-Deroa “Do not help us O Lord and do not subdue us” and he sinned by so speaking. Adrianus besieged Bet-Tur for three years without being able to conquer it and he almost gave up. Eleazar Hamudai fasted daily, and prayed to God that the town might not be taken. A Kuthean asked Adrianus to wait and see what he could do, and he went up and pretended to whisper in to the ear of Eleazar, who was the uncle of Bar Coziba. On being asked what they had been whispering the Kuthaean said, “Whatever I say I shall be killed so I may as well tell the truth,” so he replied, that Eleazar had whispered to him that he might hand the town over to the Romans. So Bar Coziba asked Eleazar what he had said to the Khutean and Eleazar answered “Nothing.” Bar Koziba enraged, kicked Eleazar and killed him and a voice said

"'Oh you false shepherd who leaves the sheep! Thou hast killed R. Eleazar the right arm and the eye of Israel and thine arm shall be cut off and thine eye blinded." Bet- Tur was captured and Bar Coziba was slain and a snake was found round his body. The horses waded up to their bellies in blood and the brains of 300 children were found on one stone, one child only escaping, Shimeon ben Gamliel. They made a hedge of the dead of Bet-Tur eighteen miles square around the vineyards of Adrianus and the cause of destruction in that place was, that men used to intercept the pilgrims to Jerusalem and keep them there and were accustomed to obtain possession of the people by false pretences.

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