Chasidut for Gittin 112:18

אונקלוס בר קלוניקוס בר אחתיה דטיטוס הוה בעי לאיגיורי אזל אסקיה לטיטוס בנגידא אמר ליה מאן חשיב בההוא עלמא אמר ליה ישראל מהו לאידבוקי בהו אמר ליה מילייהו נפישין ולא מצית לקיומינהו זיל איגרי בהו בההוא עלמא והוית רישא דכתיב (איכה א, ה) היו צריה לראש וגו' כל המיצר לישראל נעשה ראש אמר ליה דיניה דההוא גברא במאי א"ל

Abba Hanan said: Who is a mighty one like unto thee, O Jah?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Ibid. LXXXIX, 9. ');">¹⁵</span> Who is like Thee, mighty in self-restraint,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'and hard'. ');">¹⁶</span> that Thou didst hear the blaspheming and insults of that wicked man and keep silent? In the school of R. Ishmael it was taught; Who is like thee among the gods [elim]?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Ex. XV, 11. ');">¹⁷</span> Who is like thee among the dumb ones [illemim]. Titus further took the curtain and shaped it like a basket and brought all the vessels of the Sanctuary and put them in it, and then put them on board ship to go and triumph with them in his city, as it says, <i>And withal I saw the wicked buried, and they that come to the grave and they that had</i> &nbsp; &nbsp; <i>done right went away from the holy place and were forgotten in the city</i>.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Eccl. VIII, 10. ');">¹⁸</span> Read not <i>keburim</i> [buried] but <i>kebuzim</i> [collected]; read not <i>veyishtakehu</i> [and were forgotten] but <i>veyishtabehu [and triumphed]</i>. Some say that <i>keburim</i> [can be retained], because even things that were buried were disclosed to them. A gale sprang up at sea which threatened to wreck him. He said: Apparently the power of the God of these people is only over water. When Pharaoh came He drowned him in water, when Sisera came He drowned him in water. He is also trying to drown me in water. If he is really mighty, let him come up on the dry land and fight with me. A voice went forth from heaven saying; Sinner, son of sinner, descendant of Esau the sinner, I have a tiny creature in my world called a gnat. (Why is it called a tiny creature? Because it has an orifice for taking in but not for excreting.) Go up on the dry land and make war with it. When he landed the gnat came and entered his nose, and it knocked against his brain for seven years. One day as he was passing a blacksmith's it heard the noise of the hammer and stopped. He said; I see there is a remedy. So every day they brought a blacksmith who hammered before him. If he was a non-Jew they gave him four <i>zuz</i>, if he was a Jew they said, It is enough that you see the suffering of your enemy. This went on for thirty days, but then the creature got used to it.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'since it trod, it trod.' ');">¹⁹</span> It has been taught: R. Phineas b. 'Aruba said; I was in company with the notables of Rome, and when he died they split open his skull and found there something like a sparrow two sela's in weight. A Tanna taught; Like a young dove two pounds in weight. Abaye said; We have it on record that its beak was of brass and its claws of iron. When he died he said: Burn me and scatter my ashes over the seven seas so that the God of the Jews should not find me and bring me to trial. <i>Onkelos</i> son of Kolonikos<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' V. A.Z. (Sonc. ed.) p. 55, n. 1. ');">²⁰</span> was <font>the son of Titus's sister. He had a mind to convert himself to Judaism. He went and raised Titus from the dead by magical arts, and asked him; 'Who is most in repute in the [other] world? He replied: Israel. What then, he said,</font> &nbsp; &nbsp; about joining them? He said: Their observances are burdensome and you will not be able to carry them out. Go and attack them in that world and you will be at the top as it is written, <i>Her adversaries are become the head</i><span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lam. I, 5. ');">²¹</span> etc.; whoever harasses Israel becomes head. He asked him:

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