Roman Officers Learn Torah

It once happened that the wicked [Roman] government dispatched two officers to learn Torah from Rabban Gamaliel. They learned from him Scripture, Mishnah, Talmud, and Aggadah. At the end, they said to him, “Your entire Torah is pleasant and praiseworthy except for these [inequitable] rulings which you say:

• An Israelite woman may not serve as…