Ten Jewish sages in the second century who, traditionally, were tortured and martyred on the orders of the Roman emperor Hadrian. The account is based on several midrashim, especially the medieval Midrash Eleh Ezkerah. According to this, the Roman ruler asked the rabbis what Jewish law prescribes as punishment for one who kidnaps and sells a fellow Jew. The rabbis informed him that the Bible stipulates that the criminal be put to death. The emperor then brought up the case of Joseph, who was kidnapped by his ten brothers and sold as a slave to Egypt. He argued that since the brothers were not sentenced to death, ten sages of Israel must be put to death in their place. The ten included the most distinguished scholars and leaders of the time, such as R. Akiva, Hananiah ben Teradyon, Eleazar Ben Shammua, Ḥananiah ben Hakhinah, the High Priest Ishmael, and the president of the Sanhedrin, Simeon ben Gamaliel.
Historically, there are many inaccuracies in the Midrash. The ten listed martyrs did not all live at the same time; though some of them met their death at the hands of the Romans, they were murdered on other pretexts and in other circumstances than those described; others were not murdered at all. Tannaitic and early talmudic literature does not contain the story at all, other midrashim contain only partial accounts and several contradict each other in important details, including the identity of the martyrs. Most authorities conclude that the story has little historical basis.
Nevertheless, while the story may not be historically true, it portrays the tragic situation of the Palestinian Jews under Roman oppression, particularly in the period of the Hadrianic persecutions following the unsuccessful revolt of Bar Kokhba (132-135 CE). It was a time of the severest persecution, when the Romans issued repressive edicts prohibiting the study of the Torah and the practice of Judaism and many Jewish leaders were indeed martyred.
The story, in poetic form, found its way into the Day of Atonement liturgy, where it is read during the Additional Service (Eleh Ezkerah). Conservative synagogues have supplemented this section of the liturgy (the Martyrology) with the inclusion of readings from Holocaust literature which memorialize the martyrdom of six million Jews in Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. The story of Jewish martyrdom is thus continued in the modern liturgy and made more relevant for the contemporary age.
The story of the Ten Martyrs also found its way into the liturgical Kinot (elegies) for Tishah Be-Av (Arzé Levanon).
During the Middle Ages, when extensive Jewish martyrdom at the hands of Christian persecutors was a fact, it assumed a mystical dimension.
