Today Israel goes into its third national lockdown requiring all of us to stay at home for the next few weeks, and as I wonder how we will manage to get through it once again, I am reminded of a story that took place a long time ago.

Some 450 years ago, an earthquake shook northern Italy and so frightened the people that they all ran from their homes out into the streets in order not to be buried under the rubble. One of the refugees that survived was Rabbi Azariah dei Ross. Out on the street he met a Christian scholar who sat reading the Letter of Aristeas, a 2nd century BC Jewish letter describing the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible Law by 72 interpreters sent to Egypt from Jerusalem at the request of the librarian of Alexandria, which resulted in the Septuagint translation.

A Jew and a Christian meet – all of their personal belongings and libraries left at home are destroyed – and in their hands a book about a translation of the Bible. The story...