Rome had issued three decrees against the Jews. They were forbidden to keep the Sabbath, forbidden to circumcise their sons, and forbidden to observe the laws of family purity. The decrees were aimed at the three commandments that most visibly marked a Jewish household as Jewish.
Reuben ben Istrubli did something unexpected. He cut his hair in the Roman style, dressed as a Gentile, and walked into the senate chamber. The senators did not recognize him. They took him for one of their own.
"If a man has an enemy," Reuben asked them, "does he want that enemy to be rich or poor?" "Poor," the senators answered at once. "Then why are you making the Jews rest every seventh day? You are handing them a day of leisure. Let them work seven days a week and grow exhausted and weak." The senators agreed. The decree against Sabbath was repealed.
"If a man has an enemy," Reuben continued, "does he want him strong or weak?" "Weak." "Then let them circumcise their sons. The pain weakens a boy in his first days. You are making them stronger by preventing it." The decree against circumcision fell.
One by one, Reuben reasoned the Romans out of their own legislation. When they discovered afterward that he was a Jew, they reenacted every decree in fury. The Jews needed an emissary who could go to Rome itself and argue the case before the emperor. Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai was chosen, with Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Yossi beside him, because Shimon was known to be a worker of miracles. The Talmud preserves the story in tractate Me'ilah (17a–b).
The lesson of the Istrubli episode is blunt: sometimes the only way to save the commandments is to speak briefly in the language of the enemies who hate them.