Rabbi Tanchum's Answer to the Emperor's Invitation

Midrash Aggadah Sanhedrin 39a

Curated by The Jewish Mythology Team · Published January 18, 2025

Caesar once said to Rabbi Tanchum, "Come, let us become one people."

The rabbi answered calmly. "Very well. But we are circumcised, and we cannot simply become as you are. If, however, you agree to be circumcised yourselves, then we would be alike in that regard, and we could be one people."

The emperor paused and then admitted, "You have answered reasonably. But Roman law decrees that anyone who silences his ruler in argument shall be cast to the lions."

At a word, Rabbi Tanchum was flung into the lions' den. The lions, the tradition reports, would not touch him. A heretic watching the scene scoffed that the beasts simply were not hungry. To test the claim, he was thrown in next, and the lions devoured him at once (Sanhedrin 39a).

The emperor sought a political merger. The rabbi answered with the Torah's own boundary mark, and Heaven answered with the lions.

Themes

Rabbis Miracles Exile Wisdom

Continue Reading

Midrash Aggadah The Emperor, the Lion of Deblai, and the Roar That Leveled Rome The emperor of Rome once put a mocking question to Rabbi Yehoshua ben Hananyah. "Why is your God compared to a lion? Any... Midrash Aggadah How Two Rabbis Proved the Ocean Drinks Its Own Water Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua were aboard a ship when a storm drove them far out into the open ocean. The wind pushed... Midrash Aggadah Joseph the Sabbath-Keeper and the Diamond in the Fish A man named Joseph, who kept the Shabbat with uncommon care, had a neighbor who was rich, fearful, and utterly convinced... Midrash Aggadah Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai Escaped Besieged Jerusalem in a Coffin During the Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE, the storehouses had been burned by Jewish zealots to force the city to fig... Midrash Aggadah Rabbi Yehudah ha-Nasi Told Antoninus How to Refill the Treasury The Roman Emperor Antoninus — traditionally identified with one of the Antonine emperors of the second or third century ... Midrash Aggadah The Rabbi Who Pretended to Convert to Save His Community There was once a pious scholar who left behind a son, Rabbi Isaac, greater in learning and piety than himself, and a day... Midrash Aggadah Maimonides Escapes Egypt and Writes the Mishneh Torah A folk legend survived about how Moses ben Maimon, known to the world as Maimonides or the Rambam (1138-1204), supposedl... Midrash Aggadah Shimon bar Yochai, Twelve Years Buried in Sand Three Sages sat together — Rabbi Yehudah, Rabbi Yossi, and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai — and Rabbi Yehudah remarked how impr... Midrash Aggadah Rabbi Akiva Sees the Man the Waves Refused to Keep Rabbi Akiva was standing on a shore — the Talmud places the scene at the edge of the Mediterranean — when a ship offshor...