Eliezer Ben Hurcanus - Charge of Heresy

Charge of Heresy

Eliezer was charged for being a heretic, and was summoned before the penal tribunal. Being asked by the Roman governor, "How can a great man like thee engage in such idle things?" he simply replied, "Blessed is the True Judge". The judge, thinking that Rabbi Eliezer was speaking about him, released him, while Rabbi Eliezer understood by "judge" God, justifying the judgment of God which had brought this trial upon him. That he should be suspected of apostasy grieved him sorely, and though some of his pupils tried to comfort him, he remained for some time inconsolable. At last he remembered that once, while at Sepphoris, he had met a Christian who communicated to him a singular halakhah in the name of Ben Pandera, (Jesus) that he had approved of the halakhah and had really enjoyed hearing it, and, he added, "Thereby I transgressed the injunction, 'Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house,' which the Rabbis apply to sectarianism as well as to heresy". The suspicion of apostasy and the summons before the dreaded tribunal came, therefore, as just punishment. This event in his life may have suggested to him the ethical rule, "Keep away from what is indecent and from that which appears to be indecent". It is suggested that his sayings, "Instructing a woman in the Law is like teaching her blasphemy", "Let the Law be burned rather than entrusted to a woman", and "A woman's wisdom is limited to the handling of the distaff", also date from that time, he having noticed that women were easily swayed in matters of faith.

The term heresy has been interepreted by Christians as a reference to Christianity. The Keraits, a mongolian tribe of Nestorian Christians, recognise Eliezer ben Hurcanus as one of the Apostles like Luke mentioned in their Lectionary.