For the source text click/tap here: Taanit 19
To download, click/tap here: PDF
It was a drought. The Jews went up to Yerushalayim for the Sholosh Regolim, but they had no water to drink. Nakdimon ben Gurion, a wealthy man, saw this and went to the Roman governor who owned water cisterns and said to him, "Lend me twelve of your water cisterns so that I can give them to the pilgrims. I will return all the twelve cisterns of water and if I cannot, I will give you twelve large silver bars." The silver was worth much more than the water. In fact, it was enough to pay for porters to transport that much water from afar and even have a great deal left over! The two made up a date by which Nakdimon would have to replenish the cisterns — or pay the debt.
Here begins one of the most famous interactions between the procurator and our hero Nakdimon or Nikomedus. It is part of a genre of wonder Rabbis who are able to perform miracles through divine intercession including Honi the Circle maker.
We examine the etymology of his name and the scholarship as to the possible identity of Nichomedus in the NT with our hero.
Finally a muse on the hebraification of Russian names by early Zionists like Ben Gurion and an entertaining thought on James Joyce's Leopold Bloom character.