Combating Witches

R. Eliezer, R. Joshua, and Rabban Gamaliel traveled to Rome. They came to a place and found some children making piles of dirt, saying, “This is how the people of the land of Israel do and say, ‘This is for the heave offering, and this is for the tithe.’” They [the sages] said, “It appears that there are Jews here.” They went to a place and were housed together in one house. They sat to eat, and [for] every dish that came before them, if they did not first bring it to a small room, they would not serve it to them. They worried perhaps they were eating dead sacrifices [to idolatry]. They said to him [the host], “What is your business such that every dish that you serve before us you only serve if you bring it to a small room?” He said to them, “I have one father, an old man, and he decreed upon himself that he would not leave that room until he sees the sages of Israel.” They said to him, “Tell him to come out to us here for we [the sages] are here.” He came out to them. They asked him, “What is your business?” He said, “Pray for my son, who has not had a child.” R. Eliezer said to R. Joshua, “What now, Joshua ben Ḥananiah, show him what you [can] do.” He said to them, “Bring me a seed of flax,” so they brought him a seed of flax. He appeared to be sowing it on a stone plate, he appeared to water it, it appeared to grow, he appeared to uproot it, until he pulled up a woman by the braids of her hair. He said to her, “Undo what you did!” She said to him, “I will not undo it.” He said to her, “If not, I will expose you.” She said to him, “I cannot [undo it], for they were thrown into the sea.” Joshua decreed upon the Prince of the Sea, and he spit them out. And he prayed for him [the host], and he merited to raise R. Judah ben Betera. They said, “If we only came here to raise this righteous man [Judah ben Betera], it would suffice for us.”

Source: Leiden University Libraries, MS Or. 4720

Translated by Simcha Gross and Avigail Manekin.