Let me tell you a story about the Emperor’s secret tunnels. This story is about a great friendship between Rebbi Yehuda Hanasi, the leader of the Jews, and the powerful Roman Emperor Antoninus. At that time, the Jews were not respected, but the emperor developed a deep love for Rebbi Yehuda. Whenever the emperor had a difficult question, he would secretly send it to Rebbi Yehuda, and Rebbi Yehuda would always give an answer that impressed him.
The emperor really wanted to visit Rebbi Yehuda in person whenever he wished, but how could he go without anyone seeing? So Antoninus had secret tunnels built from beneath his palace all the way to Rebbi Yehuda’s house. He would travel in secret through these tunnels whenever he wanted to meet with him.
But the Gemara says that in order to keep the secret safe, the emperor—who always traveled with two guards—would kill one guard when he arrived at Rebbi Yehuda’s house and the second guard when he returned to the palace. That way, no one could ever reveal the secret of his visits.
One day, Emperor Antoninus went through the tunnel to Rebbi Yehuda’s house, but when he entered, he saw that Rebbi Yehuda was sitting with another Rebbi. Antoninus became worried that his secret might be revealed. This is why he always killed the guards! Now he was faced with the realization that he might have to kill Rebbi Yehuda’s guest.
Rebbi Yehuda reassured him that his guest, Rebbi Chanina, was more like an angel than a person, and his secret was safe with him. Still, Antoninus decided to test him. He turned to Rebbi Chanina and said, “Can you go outside and call the guard who’s sleeping by the door?”— knowing full well that he had just killed that guard.
Rebbi Chanina went outside and saw the dead guard. He thought to himself: if I come back in and say he’s dead, the emperor might think I killed him. If I run away, the emperor might think I’m trying to expose his secret. So Rebbi Chanina davened for a miracle, and the Gemara says a great miracle happened, and the guard came back to life!
Rebbi Chanina returned to the room with the guard. The emperor saw this miracle and was convinced that this Rebbi Chanina was truly more of an angel than a person, and that his secret was safe with him.
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 48.
