Two astrologers were sent on a delegation to Rabbi Gamliel in the town of Usha. Their mission was to study Jewish law from its source, to examine it in detail, and to report back to their own authorities on what they found.
Usha in the second century was one of the centers where the Sanhedrin reassembled after the failure of the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE. Rabban Gamliel of Yavneh's grandson presided there. The astrologers arrived expecting to find a body of law they could critique or dismiss.
They did not. The astrologers studied what Rabban Gamliel taught them, and they found the Torah's legislation excellent. Civil procedure, property rules, the treatment of servants and strangers, the calendar of festivals, the laws of witnesses and evidence, all of it appeared to them sound and wise. The Exempla uses the word "excellent." The two men were not converts and did not become converts, but they were honest observers.
They did report back that a few minor legal prescriptions seemed peculiar to them. Some Jewish rulings on narrow technical matters struck them as odd compared to what they knew of Roman or Babylonian law. But the overall judgment was clear. The Jewish system held up under the scrutiny of foreign experts.
The story preserves a small but important Jewish self-assurance. The sages were not nervous about outside examination. They welcomed the astrologers, opened the tradition to them, and let the law speak for itself. The Book of Exempla places this scene among its brief reports because what it records is rare. A foreign delegation looked at Jewish law and said, on the whole, it works.