HADRIAN! HADRIAN! WHERE ARE YOU?

There is an anecdote that has been told and retold countless times in different versions and can almost be described as apocryphal.  It wasn't until recently that I began to do a little casual research to investigate the meaning of this Jerusalem urban legend.  Why does it seem to hit such a raw nerve?


First listen to my version of the anecdote and then to some of the background and you will begin to understand its popularity.  

Yisrael Eldad 

Every year on the 9th of the month of Av (the anniversary of the destruction of the temple - a fast day) during the 1980's an elderly man would visit the Israel museum.  Yisrael Eldad would dress up in his IDF army uniform and visit the statue of the Emperor Hadrian prominently displayed in the archaeological section.  He would walk up to the statue, stand thinking seriously for a few moments, then stand at attention and salute the image of the great Roman emperor. Suddenly, he would say; "Hadrian! Hadrian! ..... take a look at what we have achieved and become, and then take a look at where you are."  Afterwards, he would put himself at ease, smile, and with a bit of a swagger he would leave.  

Hadrian - Tel Shalem

Part of the charm of this story comes from the live character in the cast.  Yisrael Eldad (1910 - 1996) was a fighter for the Lehi (Lohamei Herut Israel - "Fighters for the Freedom of Israel") in the years from the Second World war to the Israeli War of Independence.  As opposed to the Palmach and Haganah, which operated under the control of Ben Gurion and his associates, the Lehi adopted more violent tactics much earlier in the conflict and its members were committed to removing the British and their policies by whatever means necessary.  In fact Mr. Eldad with his fiery eyes was the ideological inspiration for the organization, led an astonishing career, and even escaped British captivity on occasion.  (This anecdote has been retold so many times that it has taken on different versions.  Some ascribe it with great certainty to another man altogether - to Yehoshua Cohen who also fought for the Lehi against the British.  Others claim that is was not The 9th of Av, it was Hanuka.)


However the main impact of the story lies within the history of the Emperor Hadrian himself.  A history of the Roman Empire will likely as not list Hadrian (117 - 138) as one of the 5 greatest and most successful of Roman Emperors.  From the perspective of the Jews of Judea, he was the cruelest most bloodthirsty imperialistic demagoge to ever rule over the land of Israel.  Jerusalem sat desolate and abandoned in the aftermath of the First Jewish revolt when Hadrian decided to rebuild the city as a pagan Roman capital and name it after himself Aelia Capitolina.  In preparation for his visit to the area in 130 he reoriented the main entrance to the city from the north and created two large market streets, the Cardo, down into the middle of the city. He dedicated a great temple to Venus (in the area now occupied by the Holy Sepulcher) off the western Cardo.  He also set out to crush the practice of the Jewish religion, outlawing Jewish learning, education, and circumcision etc.  The consequence was the Bar Kochba revolt, which enjoyed initial successes, however, Hadrian drew on the Empire's strength and sent additional legions that subsequently destroyed Bar Kochba's army (132 - 135). He brutally punished the general populace with genocidal rampages, slavery, murder, rape and the confiscation of wealth, land, and farms.  After Hadrian there was little to no Jewish presence in Jerusalem until the middle of first Muslim period over 600 years later.  

Tel Shalem Victory Arch - Artist's depiction

The third character in the story is the saga of the statue itself.  It was found in 1978 by chance south of  the city of Beit Shean in the Jordan valley by a fortune hunter using a metal detector.  Nearby they also found remnants of a very large inscription and victory arch dedicated by the Senate of Rome and written in Latin not Greek.  Given the proximity of the two finds there is guarded speculation that the statue sat on top of the archway and may even have depicted Hadrian with his foot on the back of a small child representing the Jews of Judea (similar statues have been found intact elsewhere).   This bust of Hadrian perhaps more than any other physical artifact represents his determination to subjugate and crush the spirit of the Jews of Judea and make sure that they would never again have the audacity to challenge the might of the Roman Empire.  


All three characters come together in our anecdote; the Jewish freedom fighter, the imperialist Roman Emperor and the statue representing his callous cruelty.  Thus, when a man like Yisrael Eldad, salutes the statue of the the bombastic Emperor found in the sand of the Jordan valley  - as my Bubie would say like an onion with its head in the dirt and its feet up in the air - and when Yisrael Eldad points out how time has determined the ultimate victor, this story touches on our Jewish instinct for survival and cast iron belief in our ultimate redemption.  Accurate or not, the story is legendary.