Rome Executed Ten Rabbis to Settle a Debt From the Torah

The ten sages executed by Rome are remembered every year on Yom Kippur in a liturgical poem called Eleh Ezkerah — "These I Remember." The poem is one of the most emotionally devastating texts in the Jewish prayer book. It describes the deaths of ten rabbinic figures, some of them the greatest minds in the history of halakhic literature, all executed under Hadrian's anti-Torah decrees following the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE.

What makes the liturgical tradition extraordinary is the framing. The rabbis did not explain these deaths as random Roman persecution. They connected them to a specific crime in Genesis — and the connection changed what the deaths meant.

The Charge Against the Rabbis

In the liturgical poem and the midrashic traditions that preceded it, the Roman emperor summons the ten leading sages and presents them with a question from the Torah. Exodus 21:16 states: "He who kidnaps a person and sells him — whether he is found in his hand or has already been sold — shall surely be put to death." The emperor asked: what was the penalty for kidnapping and selling a person?

The sages answered from their own law: death. The emperor said: then judge your ancestors. Joseph's ten brothers sold him into slavery. By the Torah's own standard, each deserved death. The brothers were long dead and beyond human judgment. The debt remained. The ten greatest sages of the generation would die in their place.

The Midrash Aggadah, particularly the Midrash Eleh Ezkerah (compiled in the Geonic period, c. 6th–10th century CE), records that the sages asked for three days to verify whether this was a divine decree or a human one. An angel confirmed it: this is a decree from before the divine throne. It had been arranged since the days of the brothers themselves. The ten sages accepted the verdict.

Who Were the Ten?

The traditional lists vary somewhat across different versions of the liturgy and the midrash, but the core names are consistently present. They include Shimon ben Gamliel, the Nasi (president of the Sanhedrin); Ishmael ben Elisha, the High Priest; Akiva ben Yosef, the greatest scholar of his age, who died with the Shema on his lips; Eliezer ben Shamua; Yehudah ben Bava; Hanina ben Teradion, who was wrapped in a Torah scroll and burned alive; Yeshevav the Scribe; Eliezer ben Shamua; Huzpit the Meturgeman (interpreter); and Yeshmael's student Nechunya ben Hakana.

The Legends of the Jews expands the accounts of specific martyrdoms. Hanina ben Teradion, burning inside the Torah scroll, told his students the parchment was burning but the letters were flying upward — the physical vessel was being destroyed, but what the vessel contained was returning to its source. Rabbi Akiva's executioner combed his flesh with iron combs. He died crying out the Shema. His last word was "One."

The Angels' Response

The liturgical poem records that the angels cried out to God when each sage died: "Is this the reward of Torah?" The divine voice responded: "If I hear another word, I will turn the world back to water. This is a decree from before Me. Accept it." The angels fell silent. Their silence, in the liturgical context, mirrors the silence of Aaron in Leviticus when his sons died: "And Aaron was silent."

The Midrash Rabbah (Lamentations Rabbah, c. 400–500 CE) treats the deaths of the ten martyrs as a cosmic payment — a debt in the divine ledger that had been accumulating since Joseph was thrown in the pit. The brothers had never fully been judged. The brothers' descendants received the judgment in their place. This theology is deeply uncomfortable, and the tradition knew it. The poem that preserves it is recited in a context of weeping, not understanding.

Why This Story Is Recited on Yom Kippur

The Yom Kippur placement is not arbitrary. Yom Kippur is the day when accounting is done — when debts are forgiven, sins are expiated, the record is cleared. The ten martyrs are remembered in the same liturgy because their deaths represented a debt that could not be cleared in any other way. They paid something that had been owed for fourteen centuries. Explore the ten martyrs and their midrashic traditions at jewishmythology.com.