The executioner then stepped in:
אמר לו קלצטונירי רבי אם אני מרבה בשלהבת ונוטל ספוגין של צמר מעל לבך אתה מביאני לחיי העולם הבא אמר לו הן השבע לי נשבע לו מיד הרבה בשלהבת ונטל ספוגין של צמר מעל לבו יצאה נשמתו במהרה אף הוא קפץ ונפל לתוך האור.
The executioner said to him: My teacher, if I increase the flame and take off the tufts of wool from your heart, so that you die sooner and suffer less, will you bring me to the life of the World-to-Come? Rabbi Ḥanina said: Yes. The executioner said: Take an oath for me, and he took the oath, and the executioner immediately increased the flame and took off the tufts of wool from his heart, causing his soul to leave his body quickly. The executioner too leaped and fell into the fire and died.
They were both destined for the World to Come:
יצאה בת קול ואמרה רבי חנינא בן תרדיון וקלצטונירי מזומנין הן לחיי העולם הבא בכה רבי ואמר יש קונה עולמו בשעה אחת ויש קונה עולמו בכמה שנים.
A Divine Voice emerged and said: Rabbi Ḥanina ben Tradyon and the executioner are destined for the life of the World-to-Come. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi wept and said: There is one who acquires his share in the World-to-Come in one moment, such as the executioner, and one who acquires his share only after many years of toil, such as Rabbi Ḥanina ben Tradyon.
That is the story. Rav Sholom Schwadron says, Rav Elya Lopian came along and brought a Mishna from Massechet Kallah (5:4), one of the small tractates at the end of Massechet Avodah Zara. The Mishna tells the same story but with two small additional details that are in reality huge.
אמרו עליו על רבי חנינא בן תרדיון שפעם אחת נתחלפו לו מעות פורים במעות של צדקה והיה יושב ותמיה ואמר אוי לי שמא נתחייבתי מיתה לשמים.
It is related of R. Ḥanina b. Teradion that once some money to be distributed on Purim was mixed up with charitable funds. He sat in confusion and exclaimed, ‘Woe is me! Perhaps I have incurred the penalty of death at the hand of Heaven’.
He wondered whether he was subject to death as a result of his mishandling of the moneys. His assumption, according to commentators on this Mishna, is that such an act was a sign it had occurred more than once – given that aveirot generate more aveirot.
עד שהיה יושב ותמיה בא קסטינר א״ל רבי גזרו עליך לכורכך ולשורפך בתורתך ולישראל עמך ועמד וכרכוהו בתורתו והקיפוהו חבילי זמורות והציץ בו האור והיה אור מצטנן ומתרחק ממנו.
While he was still sitting in a troubled state of mind, the executioner came and told him, ‘Master, it has been decreed against you that you be wrapped in your Torah and be burnt with it’. He arose and they wrapped him in his Torah and surrounded him with bundles of twigs. When the fire caught sight of him, it cooled down and removed itself from him.
The fire refused to spread, and the executioner was baffled. All the steps he took, and the science behind them, meant the fire should spread and consume his victim rapidly. Yet, for some reason, the opposite was happening.
עמד קסטינר בבהלה א׳׳ל רבי אתה הוא שגזרו לשורפך א״ל הן. א״ל ולמה האור מכבה א״ל נשבעתיו בשם קוני שלא יגע בי עד שאדע אם גזרו עלי מן השמים המתן לי שעה אחת ואודיעך.
Whereupon the executioner rose up in amazement and asked him, ‘Master, are you the man condemned to be burnt?’ He replied, ‘Yes’. He then asked him, ‘Why has the fire gone low?’ He replied, ‘I adjured it in the name of my Creator that it should not touch me until I know whether it was so decreed against me in Heaven. Wait one hour and I will let you know’.
Rabbi Chananya was controlling the fire! Like Rabbi Yishmael, he had the ability to ascend to Heaven and inquire as to what was taking place in the world. The fire would wait for that verdict and the executioner’s interest was now piqued!
היה קסטינר יושב ותמיה אמר הללו שגוזרין מיתה וחיים לעצמן למה עול מלכות עליהן. א׳׳ל קום לך וכל מה שמלכות רוצה לעשות בי יעשה.
The executioner was sitting in wonderment and said to himself, ‘Why should persons who control death and life for themselves through their adherence to the Torah be subject to the yoke of the Roman government?’ He said to R. Ḥanina, ‘Arise and go, and whatever the government desires to do to me let it be done’.
He threw his hands up in the air and gave up, allowing his victim to walk away from the fate of the flames. He acknowledged that one who is able to control fire was not meant to die at his hands. Even at the cost of his own life! We’d all walk away. We’d run! But that is not how the story ended.
אמר לו ריקה הסכימה עלי גזרה מן השמים ואם אין אתה הורגני הרבה הורגים יש למקום הרבה דובים ונמרים ואריות וזאבים והרבה נחשים ועקרבים שיפנעו בי אלא סוף שהמקום עתיד ליפרע דמי מידך.
וידע קסטינר שכך היא המדה מיד עמד ונפל על פניו וכיון אבד והשמיע קולו מן האש ואמר באשר תמותי אמות ושם אקבר באשר תחיה אחיה מיד יצתה בת קול ואמרה רבי חנינא בן תרדיון וקסטנירו מזומנין לחיי העולם הבא.
He replied, ‘You foolish man! Heaven has approved the sentence passed on me, and if you do not kill me G-d has many slayers – many bears, leopards, lions, wolves, serpents and scorpions to attack me. Ultimately, however, G-d will exact from you punishment for my blood’.
Thereupon the executioner understood that such was the Divine method; That G-d would hold him responsible although he only acted under the orders of his government. So he jumped into the fire. From the midst of the fire he shouted: ‘Where you die, I will I die, and there will I be buried.’ (Ruth 1:17) A voice from heaven declared, ‘R. Ḥanina b. Tradyon and his executioner are both destined for the life of the World to Come’.
Rabbi Chananya stood back and accepted the fate decreed in Heaven. The executioner, after the epiphany experienced, jumped into the fire alongside him. He wished to align with, and die with, one able to control fire through Torah.
