There are all sorts of strange cameos and guest-starring roles in the Talmud. Just like a sitcom, where, unexpectedly, Larry David might be having lunch with Mayim Bialik, the ancient rabbis also had guests show up in unexpected places–for instance, the sage Rabbi Meir’s debate with Cleopatra. In the Babylonian Talmud (in Sanhedrin chapter 11), Rabbi Meir states that the dead […]