The Ageless Wisdom of Judaism: Rabbi Yehoshua's Response to the Sages of Athens

A few years after the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE, a fascinating confrontation took place between the sages of Athens and one of the greatest Jewish sages, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananiah.

Athens was known in the ancient world as the home of philosophers and intellectuals who saw themselves as representatives of the “advanced” world. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananiah lived at the end of the Second Temple period. He was a Levite who sang in the Temple and personally experienced its destruction. In the years that followed, he became one of the most prominent spokesmen of Judaism.

Dialogues of Riddles and Parables

The Talmud (Bechorot 8b) records some of the exchanges between the sages of Athens and Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananiah. Most of these conversations were conducted through riddles, hints, and metaphors. They discussed lofty questions about the meaning of life, humanity’s role in the world, the purpose of existence, and the concept of the chosen people, all conveyed through symbolic language.

One such discussion revolved around salt.

The sages of Athens asked Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananiah, “When salt spoils, with what do you salt it?”
He replied, “With the placenta of a mule.”
They said to him, “Does a mule have a placenta? A mule cannot give birth.”
He answered them, “And does salt spoil?”

The Maharsha explains that this exchange symbolized a deep and ongoing debate, one that has continued for thousands of years and remains relevant today. At its core lies a fundamental question: what is the relevance of the Torah and Judaism in the modern world?

“The Torah Needs Updating”

The sages of Athens argued that the time had come to update the Torah. When they spoke about salt, they were referring to the Torah itself. Salt is a preservative, and the Torah is the preservative of the Jewish people. Even the sages of Athens understood this. As Rabbi Saadia Gaon famously wrote, “Our nation is a nation only through its Torah.” What preserved, preserves, and will preserve the Jewish people as a people, what unites them, is the Torah.

The sages of Athens claimed that this preserving substance had gone bad. They argued that it had become moldy, outdated, and irrelevant. It had served its purpose until now, but Jerusalem had been destroyed, the Temple lay in ruins, the people were in exile, and a new era had begun. The Torah, they said, needed to be updated.

Judaism, they claimed, was old and in need of improvement. These were the golden days of Greek culture, and even many Jews saw the Torah as outdated. To ensure its popularity, the elders of Athens argued, Judaism needed to be changed. It required upgrades to make it more exciting and relevant to the new age, by incorporating Greek aesthetics, philosophy, culture, art, and literature.

“All of your commandments,” they told Rabbi Yehoshua, “Shabbat, mikveh, tefillin, kashrut, Torah study, mezuzah, modesty, and the like, are no longer relevant. The salt needs to be salted.”

The Mule and the Placenta

Rabbi Yehoshua replied that if they wanted to salt the salt, they should use the placenta of a mule. A mule is a hybrid offspring of a female horse and a male donkey. At first glance, a mule appears impressive. It is strong, resilient, has great endurance, is more resistant to disease, and survives on relatively simple food. It seems to take the best qualities of both parents.

Rabbi Yehoshua used the mule as a metaphor for what the sages of Athens wished to create: a “modernized” and “improved” Judaism, a hybrid of Greek culture and the Torah.

But, Rabbi Yehoshua explained, the fundamental problem is that a mule has no placenta. A mule cannot reproduce. It is sterile, as is the female mule. Hence its very name.

The Message of Authenticity

Rabbi Yehoshua delivered a powerful message. If you try to change Judaism, to update it and blend it with the latest fashions, it may look impressive on the outside. It may even be attractive for a short time. But it will not endure in the long run.

Authentic Judaism is what survives, just as salt does not spoil. The Torah, the preserving force of the Jewish people, will continue to preserve them as long as it remains pure and free of foreign hybrids.

History as the Final Proof

Today, nearly nineteen hundred years after this debate, it appears that Rabbi Yehoshua was right. One of the great thinkers of the modern era wrote:

“The Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the Persians arose in their turn, filled our world like blazing comets, and then faded and vanished. After them came the Greeks and the Romans with mighty thunder, and then fell silent and disappeared. Other peoples rose and held the great torch for a time, until it went out, and today they sit in darkness beneath the sun. The Jew saw them all, defeated them all, and shows no signs of decline, no symptoms of old age, no exhaustion, no loss of vitality. His alertness has not dimmed, his wisdom has not faded. All things are mortal except the Jew. All other powers pass, but his remains. What is the secret of his immortality?” (Mark Twain)

The Eternal Preservative

Judaism possesses the strongest preservative of all: the holy Torah given to the people of Israel. The Torah preserves itself best when it remains in its pure form.

The same Shabbat that gave peace of mind to those who observed it three thousand years ago grants the same peace today. The mikveh gave the Jewish family holiness and renewal two thousand years ago, and it does so today as well. If Moshe were to visit Jewish communities and synagogues around the world today, he would recognize everything: the Torah scroll he wrote, the mezuzah, the shofar, and the sukkah. All of it.

The world attempts to create strong mules, but they remain mules and remain sterile. The Jewish people safeguard their salt, and it is that salt that makes them eternal.