The wicked kingdom once decreed that the Jews should no longer keep the Sabbath, nor circumcise their sons, nor observe the laws of ritual purity the Torah commands. Three commandments — a body's rest, a body's covenant, a body's cleanliness — were forbidden at once.
Reuben ben Astrobolus, whose face could pass for Roman, disguised himself as a councillor and slipped into the imperial chamber. He argued, with flawless senatorial calm: "We want to impoverish the Jews and weaken them and reduce their numbers. But our decree does the opposite. Forbid them the Sabbath — and they will work seven days a week, grow wealthy, multiply. Forbid circumcision — and their sons will grow strong unhindered. Forbid the laws of purity — and their families will swell in number. If we truly wish to diminish them, we must allow them everything we have just forbidden."
The argument worked. The decree was rescinded, and the Jews breathed. But later, when the Romans learned that the persuasive councillor had been a Jew, they renewed the decree in fury.
This time two sages were sent as messengers, Eleazar ben Joseph and Shimon bar Temalion. At the imperial palace they found the emperor's daughter shrieking: a demon had entered her and would not leave. The sages commanded the demon, and the demon obeyed them — it left the princess at their bidding and fled the palace. As a reward the emperor brought them into his own archive and let them tear up the decree with their own hands.
The Exempla preserves the tale because it teaches two kinds of Jewish courage. There is Reuben's courage, which is cleverness in the teeth of power. And there is the courage of the sages, who commanded a demon because they were already commanded by Torah. Sometimes the law is saved by wit, sometimes by sanctity, and sometimes — as here — by both in the same generation.
(From The Exempla of the Rabbis, Moses Gaster, 1924, no. 19, based on Meilah 17a-b and the Ma'aseh Book.)