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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Near the end of the page of Mesechet Sanheidrin 90b it says “Queen Cleopatra questioned Rabbi Meir…”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Obviously that could never have happened. Queen Cleopatra VII committed suicide in 30BCE, her children and relatives were executed, the Ptolemy dynasty came to an end, and Egypt would have no more kings and queens, but would have a similar governorship by Rome as was in Israel.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Rabbi Steinsaltz in his text, as well as “Rabbi Artscroll” remark “Cleopatra was the name of a long line of Egyptian queens” (which is correct) “The one mentioned here is *<b>not</b>* the one commonly known.” (which cannot be correct)<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The implication is that this was a later Queen Cleopatra in Egypt. But there was none, and neither source cites where they got that idea from.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I found another source (W.Bacher in the JQR, I., 336) that turned the Aramaic for “Queen Cleopatra” into “Patriarch of the Cutheans” as an anagram. But in order to do that, he needs to ignore the mem and lameds in the original, and toss in a dalet and an extra yud for it to work, which doesn’t have a satisfying answer to me. He tries to force MNidrash Rabbah 5:11 where a Cuthean is asking R’ Meir if the dead will come back to life in secret or in public with the Cleopatra question if the dead will come back to life dressed or naked, and does the forced anagram.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Granted, there are other incidents in the Gemara, such as the story of Rabbi Yochanan Zakkai speaking to Vespasian and claiming he is the new Emperor and in that instant, a messenger came to declare it so. It could not have happened based on the recorded events at that time, and it is unlikely that they ever spoke. Obviously, there was something trying to be described in that case, which I will forego speaking of right now.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>What I am wondering is, has anyone else given this meeting with Cleopatra and Rabbi Meir any thought, given that they never could have met? And has anyone the source that Rabbi Stensaltz and others use to provide that claim that there was a Queen Cleopatra 100 years after there was no longer an Egyptian empire?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Thanks.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:navy'>Eliyahu Grossman<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></body></html>