Rabbi Ishmael ben Elisha was captured as a child during the destruction of Jerusalem. He was sold into slavery, separated from his family, and taken far from the Land of Israel. His beauty was said to be extraordinary — the kind that drew attention even in a world of brutality.
The Talmud (Gittin 58a) records that Rabbi Yehoshua ben Hananiah heard that a Jewish child of great beauty was being held captive in Rome. He went to the prison and stood outside. He called out the verse: "Who gave Jacob over to plunder, and Israel to robbers?" (Isaiah 42:24).
From within the prison, the child's voice answered with the next line of the verse: "Was it not the Lord, against whom we sinned?" Even in captivity, even as a child, Rabbi Ishmael knew his Torah so well that he could complete a verse called out by a stranger through prison walls.
Rabbi Yehoshua wept. "I am certain," he said, "that this child will become a great teacher in Israel." He paid whatever ransom was demanded — the Talmud says it was an enormous sum — and redeemed the boy.
He was right. Rabbi Ishmael grew to become one of the most important sages of his generation, whose methods of interpreting Torah — the thirteen hermeneutical principles — are recited to this day in every synagogue as part of the morning service. A child ransomed from a Roman prison became one of the pillars of all subsequent Jewish learning.