Three Days to Think
It is told that the king himself finally asked Rav Amnon to give up his faith, after his ministers had tried to persuade him every day and he had never paid them any heed. Feeling uncomfortable in front of the king, Rav Amnon looked for a way out of the confrontation and simply said, “Give me three days’ time to think about it.”
He had no intention of considering the request at all. He had said it only as an excuse to gain time. Still, the matter gave him no rest. He was tormented that he had given the king even the merest impression that he would consider giving up his faith. How could he have made it seem that he was willing even to consider renouncing his emunah in Hashem and the Torah? His friends and family tried to console him, but to no avail.
When the three days had passed, he refused to appear before the king. The king summoned him to stand trial for failing to come, and Rav Amnon said that he would pass judgment on himself and announce a fitting punishment for his misdeed.
“My lying tongue that spoke falsely should be cut out,” he proclaimed. Rav Amnon felt that it would be a kiddush Hashem, since he had spoken as if he considered the possibility of leaving his faith.
“No,” the king declared. “I will cut off the feet that failed to bring you before me, and we will torture your body.” As they cut off each of his limbs, they asked him to reconsider, to renounce his faith and accept theirs. Though he suffered horribly, he staunchly refused. When the torture was finished, the king had him placed in a wooden box, together with all his severed limbs, and in this manner they had him brought home.
On Rosh Hashanah, Rav Amnon asked that they carry him to shul in the box, together with his limbs. They placed him beside the chazzan. He accepted his terrible pain and suffering with love, as penance for his mistake. When the chazzan reached Kedushah, Rav Amnon asked him to pause. “Let me sanctify Hashem’s name in public,” he said, and he recited the famous liturgical poem, Unesana Tokef. At that moment, his soul departed.
Three days later he appeared to Rabbeinu Kalonymos ben Rabbeinu Meshulam. He taught him the words of the poem and asked that it be taught and spread among Klal Yisroel. It was thus established that it be recited each year on Rosh Hashanah, so that Klal Yisroel would be remembered favorably before Hashem in connection with the great rectification that Rav Amnon made.