Mention Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi and immediately what comes my mind is his role as the editor of the Mishna. Worried that the Oral Law, the Torah She’ba’al Peh, would chas v’shalom be forgotten or accidentally changed, he decided to gather the laws, organize them and compile them as a permanent record that lasts to this very day.
But amidst his vast learning, one vignette from his life stands out. He once saw a calf being led to being slaughtered. It broke free and came up to him, with eyes that seemed to plead, please save me! He said to the calf, “Go to your fate; this is what you were created for.” His lack of empathy for the animal led to his punishment for years of illness.
Years later his housekeeper was about to kill some small pests in the house and he turned to her and said let them be, because we learn “[G-d’s] tender mercies are over all his works.” After this expression of chesed, a heavenly voice said that just as he had had pity on G-d’s lowly creatures, so should pity be taken on him. We learn that he was immediately cured. His demonstration of compassion reminds us to strive for empathy even in the most unlikely of situations.
