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Gleanings
The editors

Biblical Texts

"You are my witnesses," says the Lord,
"and my servant whom I have chosen,
that you may know and believe me
and understand that I am He.
Before me no god was formed,
nor shall there be any after me."
Isaiah 43:10

"I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.
Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples."
Isaiah 55:3-4

The Martyrdom of the Seven Maccabees

In the second book of Maccabees, ch. 7, there is told the story of a family's martyrdom at the hands of Antiochus Epiphanes, the Greek King, in the second century before the common era.

"It happened also that seven brothers and their mother were arrested and were compelled by the king, under torture with whips and cords, to partake of unlawful swine's flesh. One of them, acting as their spokesman, said, `What do you intend to ask and learn from us?' For we are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our fathers." This caused the king to fall into a rage and have him promptly put to death."

After the first brother had died, the account continues with the description of the martyrdom of the five next brothers in turn. In order to save face, the kind tried to persuade the youngest brother with all kinds of promises which were to no avail. The king called upon his mother to plead with him to save his life. She, however, encouraged him in their native language:
"My son, have pity on me. I carried you nine months in my womb, and nursed you for three years, and have reared you and brought you up to this point in your life, and have taken care of you. I beseech you, my child, to look at the heaven and the earth and see everything that is in them, and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed. Thus also mankind comes into being. Do not fear this butcher, but prove worthy of your brothes. Accept death, so that in God's mercy I may get you back again with yourbrothers." So he died in his integrity, putting his whole trust in the Lord. Last of all, the mother died, after her sons."
2 Macc. 7.

"There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him.
He was not the light,
but came to bear witness to the light."
John 1:7

"I bear witness to myself,
and the Father who sent me bears witness to me."
John 8:18

"And with great power the apostles gave testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus."
Acts 4:33

"I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God."
Rev. 20:4

Rabbinical Text

"...When Rabbi Akiba was taken out for execution, it was the hour for the recital of the Shema,1 and while they combed his flesh with iron combs, he was accepting upon himself the kingship of heaven. His disciples said to him: Our teacher, even to this point? He said to them: All my days I have been troubled by this verse, with all thy soul. I said: When shall I have the opportunity of fulfiling this? Now that I have the opportunity shall I not fulfil it? He prolonged the word ehad 2 until he expired while saying it. A bath kol (heavenly voice) went forth and proclaimed: Happy art thou, Akiba, that thy soul has departed with the word ehad!"
T. Ber. 61b.