When the Authorities Decreed Not to Put on Tefillin
It once happened that the Roman authorities decreed that any Jew who put on Tefillin and went out to the marketplace would have his brain pierced. Elisha, however, put on his Tefillin and went out to the marketplace. A Roman quaestor saw him, and Elisha fled from him, with the Roman official in pursuit. When the quaestor overtook him, Elisha removed his Tefillin from his head and held them in his hand. The Roman asked him: "What is that in your hand?" Elisha answered: "I am holding a dove`s wings." He opened his hand, and the wings of a dove were there. And so they called him "Elisha the man of the wings."