But for Rabi Chananya there was no escape. The executioner wrapped him in his sefer Torah and placed tufts of wool soaked in water over Rabi Chananya’s heart, so that his neshama wouldn’t depart from this world too quickly. The executioner then lit the pyre, but this too he did in such a way so that Rabi Chananya’s torment would be prolonged.
Bruriah was watching all this from nearby and she exclaimed, “Oy, Father, that I see you like this!’ He replied, “It is better for me, my daughter, that you see me like this.”
“His students were standing near him and asked him, ‘Rabbeinu, what do you see?’ He told them ‘I see the parchment burning and the letters flying away,’ and he began to cry. His students asked him why he was crying, and he replied, ‘If I alone were being burnt, it wouldn’t be so difficult for me. But now I am being burnt and the Torah as well’” (Midrash Eleh Ezkerah).
According to the account in Avodah Zarah 18a, the talmidim begged Rabi Chananya to open his mouth so that the flames could enter, hastening his death. But he replied that Hashem, who had given him his soul, must be the one to take it away; a person should never do anything to injure himself.
The executioner had been listening, and he said to Rabi Chananya, “Rabi, if I make the flames hotter and remove the wool sponges from your heart, will you bring me to the World to Come?” Rabi Chananya said yes, but it wasn’t enough. The executioner asked him to swear, and he did. The executioner made the flames hotter and removed the wet pieces of wool. Soon afterward, Rabi Chananya’s soul left his body. The executioner threw himself into the fire. A bat kol then proclaimed: “Rabi Chananya ben Teradyon and the executioner are invited to the World to Come.”
When Rebi (Yehuda HaNassi) heard this, he wept and said: “One may acquire eternal life in a single hour, while another only after many years.”
Next Week: For These We Cry—Rabi Chutzpit the Interpreter
