Some Insights Into The Death Of Rabbi Chanina ben Tradion

From Avodah Zarah 17b-18a:

They then brought up R. Hanina b. Teradion and asked him, 'Why hast thou occupied thyself with the Torah?' He replied, 'Thus the Lord my God commanded me.' At once they sentenced him to be burnt, his wife to be slain, and his daughter to be consigned to a brothel.

(The punishment of being burnt came upon him because he pronounced the Name in its full spelling. But how could he do so? Have we not learnt: The following have no portion in the world to come: He who says that the Torah is not from Heaven, or that the resurrection of the dead is not taught in the Torah. Abba Saul says: Also he who pronounces the Name in its full spelling? — He did it in the course of practising, as we have learnt: Thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations, but thou mayest learn [about them] in order to understand and to teach. Why then was he punished? — Because he was pronouncing the Name in public. His wife was punished by being slain, because she did not prevent him [from doing it]. From this it was deduced: Any one who has the power to prevent [one from doing wrong] and does not prevent, is punished for him. His daughter was consigned to a brothel, for R. Johanan related that once that daughter of his was walking in front of some great men of Rome who remarked, 'How beautiful are the steps of this maiden!' Whereupon she took particular care of her step. Which confirms the following words of R. Simeon b. Lakish: What is the meaning of the verse, The iniquity of my heel compasseth me about? — Sins which one treads under heel in this world compass him about on the Day of Judgment.)

As the three of them went out [from the tribunal] they declared their submission to [the Divine] righteous judgment. He quoted, The Rock, His work is perfect; for all his ways are justice. His wife continued: A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is He; and the daughter quoted: Great in counsel and mighty in work, whose eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doing. Said Raba: How great were these righteous ones, in that the three Scriptural passages, expressing submission to Divine justice, readily occurred to them just at the appropriate time for the declaration of such submission.

The portion marked by Soncino in parentheses reads like an interjection into the story, for it continues exactly where it left off at the beginning parentheses. I spoke in the previous post about possible stammaic influence of the sugya in terms of reinterpreting Rabbi Chanina ben Tradyon's act of Hogeh et Hashem BeOtiyotav.

But two further points occurred to me, and thus this post. First, we can read all this elaboration as a gloss upon the original statement, which went

"They then brought up R. Hanina b. Teradion and asked him, 'Why hast thou occupied thyself with the Torah?' He replied, 'Thus the Lord my God commanded me.' At once they sentenced him to be burnt, his wife to be slain, and his daughter to be consigned to a brothel."

The following gemara can be read as a gloss, and indeed as a derasha, on the aforementioned segment. (Note how each piece of the previous, such as his daughter to the brothel, is cited and elaborated upon.) For see his response: " 'Thus the Lord my God commanded me.' At once they sentenced him to be burnt." Thus, the sentencing to be burnt was based on his saying 'Thus the Lord my God commanded me.' But how did he say those words? If there is a problem saying this, then it must be that he pronounced "the Lord my God" with its letters. Our gemara just prints it as ה' אלהי. But perhaps this derasha is reading it as YKVK. Then, it would bring in Abba Shaul's statement, but then would have to balance it so that it would not be so terrible.

Secondly, the statement from Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish serves a dual purpose here. That statement is:

Which confirms the following words of R. Simeon b. Lakish: What is the meaning of the verse, The iniquity of my heel compasseth me about? — Sins which one treads under heel in this world compass him about on the Day of Judgment.

Within the context of the entire gemara, the idea is that these are sins which are not so serious, which people do not take seriously, and which one treads under heel. Yet for very simple things they received such serious punishments.

However, there is also the juxtaposition which must be considered. The expanded text, encompassing the text immediately beforehand, we have:

His daughter was consigned to a brothel, for R. Johanan related that once that daughter of his was walking in front of some great men of Rome who remarked, 'How beautiful are the steps of this maiden!' Whereupon she took particular care of her step. Which confirms the following words of R. Simeon b. Lakish: What is the meaning of the verse, The iniquity of my heel compasseth me about? — Sins which one treads under heel in this world compass him about on the Day of Judgment.

Resh Lakish's prooftext about "the iniquity of my heel" easily applies to how Rabbi Chanina ben Tradyon's daughter was careful about her step, to impress some Roman men. Indeed, that could be a reason for calling this statement to mind. It also serves to provide summary of the entire section, perhaps once it is present. Baruch shekivanti -- now looking at Rashi, I see that he actually brings down these two possible explanations. But the first one does not really work with the explanation in Resh Lakish's statement. Which one is right? Both, but I think only the latter was Resh Lakish's intent when he made the statement, while the former may be how the gemara is also using it.