Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on May 12 said that Israel poses little threat to the Islamic Republic and compared it to a pesky insect.
“Israel is nothing more than a mosquito which cannot see the broad horizon of the Iranian nation,” Ahmadinejad said while speaking in northeastern Iran’s Khorassan province, according to the semi-official Fars news agency. [ Before Nuclear Talks, Iranian President Compares Israel to Mosquito ]
Our Sages tell us: When Titus was traveling back to Rome on a ship with the Jewish captives and the vessels of the Holy Temple, a storm at sea threatened to drown him. He said: "It seems that the G‑d of these people only has power over water. When Pharaoh came, He drowned him in water. When Sisera came, He drowned him in water. Now He is about to drown me in water. If He wants to show His strength, let Him come onto dry land and fight with me there!"
A Divine voice came forth and said to him: "Wicked one, the son of a wicked one, descendant of Esau the wicked, I have an insignificant creature in My world called a gnat. Come ashore and do battle with it!" Titus went ashore and a gnat [mosquito] came and entered his nostril, and pecked at his brain for seven years.
One day, Titus was walking past a blacksmith's shop. The gnat heard the noise of the sledgehammer and became silent. Titus said: "There is a remedy!" Every day they brought a blacksmith and he hammered in Titus' presence. To a gentile blacksmith he would give a handsome stipend, but to a Jew he would say: "It is sufficient that you see your enemy suffering!"
For thirty days they brought smiths to hammer in Titus' presence. Then the gnat adjusted to the noise of the hammer, and continued pecking at Titus' brain even when the hammers were struck.
Rabbi Pinchas ben Arova said: "I was with the great men of Rome at the time when Titus died. They examined his brain and what they found in it was the size of a small bird!"
As Titus lay dying, he instructed his servants: "Burn me and scatter my ashes over the seven seas so that the G‑d of the Jews cannot find me and bring me to judgment." [See: Death of Titus]
One day, Titus was walking past a blacksmith's shop. The gnat heard the noise of the sledgehammer and became silent. Titus said: "There is a remedy!" Every day they brought a blacksmith and he hammered in Titus' presence. To a gentile blacksmith he would give a handsome stipend, but to a Jew he would say: "It is sufficient that you see your enemy suffering!"
For thirty days they brought smiths to hammer in Titus' presence. Then the gnat adjusted to the noise of the hammer, and continued pecking at Titus' brain even when the hammers were struck.
Rabbi Pinchas ben Arova said: "I was with the great men of Rome at the time when Titus died. They examined his brain and what they found in it was the size of a small bird!"
As Titus lay dying, he instructed his servants: "Burn me and scatter my ashes over the seven seas so that the G‑d of the Jews cannot find me and bring me to judgment." [See: Death of Titus]
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