It was the night after his wife died, and the leader of the Sanhedrin—the rabbinic court— took a bath. His students were puzzled. “Our rabbi,” they asked him, “didn’t you teach us that this is not done? Isn’t a mourner forbidden to bathe?” The leader of the Sanhedrin told his puzzled students that the rule he had taught them did not apply to him, the Nasi, Rabban Gamaliel. “I am not like other people,” he said. “I am delicate.” *** What does it mean when the rules don’t apply to you?
