Rabbi Chananya ben Tradyon, one of the "Ten Martyrs" (see entry for Sivan 25) was killed on this date. When the Romans discovered him teaching the outlawed Torah they wrapped him in a Torah scroll, piled bundles of twigs around him, and before setting him afire they placed damp woolen cloths on him to prolong the agony of being burned to death.
As the flames engulfed him, his disciples asked him, "Master, what do you see?" Rabbi Chananya replied: "I see a scroll burning, but the letters flying up to Heaven."
Links:
The Ten Martyrs
Even from the most horrible things we can learn great lessons. From the threat of nuclear destruction we can learn several things about how to rearrange the world for the good:
• You don’t need great armies.
• It can take only one simple act.
• You don’t have to understand how it works—just what button to press.
• It doesn’t matter who does it, as long as he presses the right button.
• From the smallest things come the biggest changes.
• Tremendous power has always been there—it needs only to be revealed.
. . . and since all this has been discovered only in our generation, it must be of particular relevance to us.