...Which is in the Book "Gittin" of the Talmud.... Before
Titus the world was like unto the eyeball of man; the ocean
being as the white, the world as the black, the pupil
thereof Jerusalem, and the image within the pupil the Temple
of the Lord....
Verily hath it been said, in Chullin of the Holy Shas, that "sixty iron
mines are suspended in the sting of a gnat."
For in those days Titus--may his ears be made into sockets for the
hinges of Gehenna to turn upon!--came from Rome with his idolaters,
and laid siege to the Holy City, and destroyed it, and bore away the
virgins into captivity. He who had not beheld Jerusalem before that day
had not seen the glory of Israel.
There were three hundred and ninety-four synagogues, and three hundred
and ninety-four courts of law, and the same number of academies for
the youth.... When the gates of the temple were opened, the roar of
their golden hinges was heard at the distance of eight Sabbath days'
journey.... The Veil of the Holy of Holies was woven by eighty-two
myriads of virgins; three hundred priests were needed to draw it, and
three hundred to lave it when soiled. But Titus--be his name accursed
forever!--wrapped up the sacred vessels in it, and, putting them in a
ship, set sail for the city of Rome....
Scarcely had he departed beyond sight of the land when a great storm
arose--the deeps made visible their darkness, the waves showed their
teeth! And an exceeding great fear came upon the mariners, and they
cried out, "It is the Elohim!"
But Titus, mocking, lifted his voice against Heaven, and the thunders,
and the lightnings, and the mutterings of the sea, exclaiming: "Lo!
this God of Jews hath no power save on water! Pharaoh He drowned;
Sisera He drowned also; even now He seeketh to drown me with my
legions! If He be mighty, and not afraid to strive with me on land, let
Him rather await me on solid earth, and there see whether He be strong
enough to prevail against me." (Now Sisera, indeed, was not drowned;
but Titus, being ignorant and an idolater, spake falsely.)
Then burst forth a splendor of white fire from the darkness of the
clouds; and deeper than the thunder a Voice answered unto him: "O thou
wicked one, son of a wicked man and grandson of Esau the wicked, go
thou ashore! Lo! I have a creature awaiting thee, which is but little
and insignificant in my world; go thou and fight with it!"
And the tempest ceased.
So Titus and his legions landed after many days upon the shore of the
land called Italy--the shore that vibrated forever to the sound of the
mighty city of Rome, whereof the Voice was heard unto the four ends
of the earth, and the din whereof deafened Rabbi Yehoshuah even at the
distance of a hundred and twenty miles. For in Rome there were three
hundred and sixty-five streets, and in each street three hundred and
sixty-five palaces, and leading up to the pillared portico of each
palace a marble flight of three hundred and sixty-five steps.
But no sooner had the Emperor Titus placed his foot upon the shore
than there attacked him a gnat! And the gnat flew up his nostrils, and
entered into his wicked brain, and gnawed it, and tortured him with
unspeakable torture. And he could obtain no cessation of his anguish;
neither was there any physician in Rome who could do aught to relieve
him. So the gnat abode in his brain for seven years, and the face of
Titus became, for everlasting pain, as the face of a man in hell.
Now, after Titus had vainly sacrificed unto all the obscene gods of the
Romans, it came to pass that he heard one day, within a blacksmith's
shop, the sound of the hammer descending upon the anvil; and the sound
was grateful to his ears as the harping of David unto the hearing of
Saul, and the anguish presently departed from him. Then, thinking unto
himself, he exclaimed, "Lo! I have found relief"; and having offered
sacrifices unto the Smith-god, he ordered the smith to be brought to
his palace, together with anvils and hammers. And he paid the smith
four zouzim a day--as money is reckoned in Israel--to hammer for him.
But the smith could not hammer unceasingly; and whenever he stopped the
pain returned, and the gnat tormented exceedingly. So other smiths were
sent for; and at last a Jewish smith, who was a slave. To him Titus
would pay nothing, notwithstanding he had paid the Gentiles; for he
said, "It is enough payment for thee to behold thy enemy suffer!"
Yet thirty days more; and no sound of hammers could lessen the agony of
the gnawing of the gnat, and Titus knew that he must die.
Then he bade his family that they should burn his body after he was
dead, and collect the ashes, and send out seven ships to scatter the
ashes upon the waves of the Seven Seas, lest the God of Israel should
resurrect his body at the Day of Judgment.
[But it is written in Midrash Kohelet, of the holy
Midrashim, that Hadrian--may his name be blotted out!--once
asked Rabbi Joshua ben Chanania, "From what shall the body
be reconstructed at the Last Day?" And the Rabbi answered,
"From Luz in the backbone." When Hadrian demanded proof, the
Rabbi took Luz, the little bone of the spine, and immersed
it in water, and it was not softened. He put it into the
fire, and it was not consumed. He put it into a mill, and it
could not be ground. He hammered it upon an anvil; but the
hammer was broken, and the anvil split asunder.
Therefore the desire of Titus shall not prevail; and the
Lord will surely reconstruct his body for punishment out of
Luz in the backbone!]
But before they burned the corpse of Titus they opened his skull and
looked into his brain, that they might find the gnat.
Now the gnat was as big as a swallow, and weighed two selas, as weight
is reckoned in Israel. And they found that its claws were of brass, and
the jaws of its mouth were of iron!