The martyrdom of Rabbi Hananya ben Teradyon is among the most harrowing passages in all of rabbinic literature. The Talmud (Avodah Zarah 17b-18a) describes his execution with the kind of detail that suggests the rabbis wanted no one — ever — to forget what happened.
The Romans found Rabbi Hananya teaching Torah publicly, a Torah scroll spread across his lap. This was a capital offense under the imperial decree banning Jewish study. His punishment was designed to be as cruel as the imagination of his executioners could devise.
They wrapped him in the very Torah scroll he had been teaching from. They piled green wood around him — green wood burns slowly, prolonging the agony. They set the pyre ablaze. And to extend his suffering even further, they placed tufts of water-soaked wool over his heart, so the fire would not reach his vital organs too quickly.
His students watched from a distance, weeping. "Rabbi, what do you see?" they cried out.
From within the flames, Rabbi Hananya answered: "The parchment is burning, but the letters are flying upward." The scroll could be destroyed. The words of Torah could not. They were rising from the fire like freed birds, returning to the heaven from which they had been given at Sinai.
The Roman executioner, watching this extraordinary scene, was moved to an act that changed his own destiny. "Rabbi, if I increase the flames and remove the wool from your heart — will you bring me into the World to Come?" Rabbi Hananya agreed. The executioner removed the wool, stoked the fire, and then threw himself into the flames alongside the sage.
A heavenly voice declared: "Both Rabbi Hananya ben Teradyon and the executioner are destined for the World to Come."