Stories in the Gemara

Asked by Barry Davidson · August 8, 2003 · Other

Question

Dear Rabbi Abadi, Yesterday afternoon I was studying the relevent gemara concerning the destruction of Jerusalem in gamara gitten. The gemara describes how a mosquito entered emperor cicero's nose, crawled up into his brain, and began muching on it for 7 years, this driving him crazy. My quesiton is: Is this story to be taken literally? Because I can't find reference to it in any of my vast historical archives. Please advise.

Answer

Answered by Aaron Abadi

Yes, it should be taken literally. It was not necessarily a Mosquito, but something in that range. It could easily be that to avoid the king's embarassment, it was covered up. It's not something public that would have to end up in history books. AA