I am researching the story of Lilianus and Papus for a children's textbook--I was wondering why Yom Taryanus is translated as Emperor Trajan Day--do you have a source that the one who killed the two brothers was indeed the Emperor Trajan. If that is the case then he would have had to have been emperor then and it was his daughter that was killed. It could not have been that he became emperor later because he was killed on the spot. So that would put the Harugei Lud at approzimatly the year 117--about 38 years after the churban bayis sheni. Can you provide a source for that? thank you for any help you can give me in the matter.
Ahuva Weiss, Staten Island, NY USA
Dear Ahuva,
Thanks for your inquiry. The issue you raise is indeed a complicated one (thus the delay in my reply). It is hard to place any event in Megilas Ta'anis after the Churban (see Rosh Hashanah 20a-b), thus the difficulty in connecting the story to the Emperor Trajan. Furthermore, Trajan is believed to have died a natural death in the month of August which is no where near the month of Adar. Historians thus scramble to identify who it was and when this actually happened. At this stage most of their suggestions are guesswork, thus I cannot really recommend any of their suggestions.
B'hatzlacha.
Y. Landy
Thanks for your response. I discussed the issue with my researcher, my husband, and my father, Rabbi Reuven Feinstein Shlita, who could only tell me that it was post churban. I had thought that it was perhaps the Emperor Trajan's father and that would put him in the time of Nerva or even before. I also thought it was during the time that the chachomim had to run away and set up quietly in Lod. It all made sense--but as you say there is no firm proof only supposition. Thank you for your help.
Ahuva Weiss
Hello again. It is a little difficult to place the establishment of any Yom tov mentioned in Megilas Ta'anis, after the churban, as I explained above. Since the Yomim Tovim of Megilas Ta'anis were canceled after the churban (see Rosh Hashanah 20a-b) the annulment of Yom Turyanus must have occurred before the churban.
Y. Landy