The Roman Emperor sent word to the Jewish sages: "Send me a luminary — your wisest man." The sages debated and chose Rabbi Meir, whose very name meant "one who illuminates." He was sent to the imperial court as the living embodiment of Jewish wisdom.
The Emperor received Rabbi Meir and immediately posed a question designed to embarrass him. "Tell me about swine," the Emperor said. Swine — the animal that symbolized everything forbidden in Jewish law, the creature whose very name was an insult among Jews. "Why are pigs called 'hazirini' in your language?"
Rabbi Meir did not flinch. He knew the Emperor was testing him, trying to make him squirm at the mention of an unclean animal. Instead, he turned the question into a lesson.
"The word 'hazir' in Hebrew means 'returning,'" Rabbi Meir explained. "The pig is called by this name because it returns a profit to its owner. It eats anything, requires little care, and produces valuable offspring. In purely economic terms, the pig is a profitable animal."
"But," Rabbi Meir continued, "the profit of those who keep themselves from every creeping and unclean thing is far greater. The pig returns money. Purity returns the soul." The Emperor expected embarrassment; he received wisdom. The sage who came to illuminate the world found light even in the darkest, most unclean corner of creation.
The rabbis preserved this exchange as proof that there is no question — however hostile, however designed to humiliate — that Torah cannot answer. A sage armed with wisdom can walk into the emperor's court and turn the emperor's mockery into a teaching.