TCP: Whenupon He Shouted

To our Rabbanim Hillel and Shammai,  

This letter is for your eyes only. If it is to be discovered, we're all the dead men we may soon be. 

Herod says nothing, he merely sits in full royal robes in a makeshift throne on a raised platform as a tribunal of 150 Pharisees sit below him in the temple to do his every bloody bidding. Nicolaus of Damascus lays out the charges and prosecutes every case - including his sons. There is no counsel for the defense. Everyone is an agent of his now executed children and heirs, everyone is treasonous, everyone is put to death by unanimous consent. Gradually, a trickle of tribunal members are put before the tribunal themselves, where the tribunal votes them as guilty of sedition as the alleged partisans. Herod replaces them on the tribunal with the alleged guilty's sons or brothers, where they have no choice but vote the death of kin. 

There was, however, revolt among the Sadducee class implemented by ones Yehuda ben Tzipori and Matisyahu ben Margalot. They lead a force to storm the temple, cut Rome's eagle down with an axe, threw the eagle down the western wall. For their futile stunt, they were burnt alive right in the Temple courtyard in front of the tribunal and all the Sadducees who followed them, whereupon the Sadducee offenders were hung on crosses at Golgotha Hill. 

It is said they were inspired by rumors of Herod's death, but no Jew is ever so lucky. Herod refuses to die. The maggots invading his boils are plainly visible. It's claimed he cannot talk without slurred speech, while his entire right side is plainly paralyzed. Amid these hundreds of showtrials, Herod's made only one intelligible comment whenupon he shouted 'Palestine has defeated Israel!' 

And that is not the worst that's said. It's said when Herod dies that he's ordered execution of the entire Sanhedrin that same day so that he might stop celebrations of his demise. Rather, the day of his death would be a day of national mourning. 

My dear Rabbanim, wherever you choose to go, if you return to Jerusalem, Judaism itself shall die. 

Ever your bokher,

Gamliel