The parable of the blind man and the lame man in the orchard, told by Antoninus to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi in Sanhedrin 91b, establishes one of the Talmud's most important doctrines: body and soul are judged as a unit.
But the conversation between Antoninus and Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi extends far beyond the afterlife. Antoninus asked why the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said: even if the pattern were reversed, you would ask the same question. The sun must go somewhere.
Antoninus pressed: but why does it always set in the west, never deviating? Because the Divine Presence rests in the west—the direction of the Holy of Holies in the Temple, where the Ark stood. The sun sets in the west as an act of worship, bowing toward God's throne. The proof text: "And the hosts of heaven worship You" (Nehemiah 9:6).
Antoninus proposed an alternative: let the sun come halfway across the sky, bow, and return east. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi replied: it continues west for the sake of workers and travelers. If the sun reversed course at noon, people would lose track of time and never find their way home.
The exchange between the Roman emperor and the Jewish patriarch is remarkable for its tone. These are equals. Antoninus does not mock; he probes. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi does not bristle; he reasons. And on at least one occasion—the question of when the soul enters the body—the rabbi defers to the emperor's logic.
The Talmud records that Antoninus would visit Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi through a secret underground tunnel, sending his two servants away at the entrance so no one would know. The most powerful man in the world studied Torah in secret, guided by a man he considered his teacher.