Rabbi Ishmael ben Elisha the High Priest

The emperor said: Ishmael! Extend your neck. Rabbi Ishmael said: By your life, O emperor! Leave me for a moment until I weep for my companion. Immediately, Rabbi Ishmael took the head of Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel, placed it on his knees, put his eyes upon his eyes, his mouth upon his mouth, and his nose upon his nose, and cried out with a bitter sound like a shofar, saying: "Holy mouth, faithful mouth, mouth that prevailed with the strength of the Torah of a holy and pure people, mouth that brought forth precious stones and pearls! Who has buried you in the dust? Who has filled your tongue with dust and dirt?" He cried out over him with bitter soul and said: "Is this the Torah, and is this its reward"?! How can the tongue that elucidated the Torah in seventy languages now lick the dust?! And he lamented and wept over Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel.

The emperor said to him: While you weep for your companion, weep for yourself, for your death is harder than his death. Rabbi Ishmael said to him: I do not weep for myself, for my companion is greater than I in Torah and wisdom, and I weep because he preceded me to the celestial academy.

The emperor said to him: Is there anyone in your nation like you, or more handsome than you? He said to him: No. Immediately, he decreed his execution. From his cry, the emperor's daughter looked down and saw Rabbi Ishmael's beauty and coveted it, for they said of him: "There was no one as handsome as he since the days of Joseph son of Jacob," and he was one of the seven most beautiful people in the world: Adam the First, Jacob our Patriarch, Joseph son of Jacob, King Saul, Absalom son of David, Rabbi Abahu, and Rabbi Ishmael ben Elisha the High Priest. He was beautiful in form and fair in appearance like the image of the angel Gabriel, beautiful of eyes and good of sight like the angel of the Lord of Hosts.

The emperor's daughter said to the governor, wait an hour until I go to my father to save him, for her mercy was stirred for him.

Immediately, he waited for her, and she entered her father and said to him: Father, I have one question and request of you. He said to her: Whatever your question, it shall be given to you, and whatever your request, it shall be done, except for Ishmael and his companions.

She said to him: Father, this is my question and my request, how can I bear to see the destruction of his beauty, for she coveted the form of his beauty, I ask of you to save his life! He said to her: My daughter, I have already sworn. She said to him: If so, give me permission to remove the skin of his face so that I may look at it instead of in a mirror.

And the emperor commanded to do as her request; she commanded to peel the skin from his face. And she embalmed it with balsam oil so that it would remain preserved and not change. When they reached the place of the tefillin, Rabbi Ishmael cried out a great and bitter cry, and the whole world, heavens and earth, was shaken. The emperor said to him: Why did you not cry out until now? He said to him: I do not cry out for my soul, but for the mitzvah of tefillin that they are taking from me, I cry out.

The emperor said: And do you still trust in your God? If He is mighty, let Him come and save you now. He said to him: "Behold, He will slay me; I will not hope" [Job 13:15].

The ministering angels said before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the Universe, this righteous man to whom You showed all the treasures of the firmaments, the treasures of the supernal realms and the secrets of the nethermost realms, such an evil decree was issued against him that he should be killed with a strange death by this wicked man – is this the Torah, and is this its reward?! The Holy One, blessed be He, said: Leave him, so that his merit may endure for the generations after him. He cried out a second bitter cry to the Creator of his soul; the Throne of Glory was shaken, and the Holy One, blessed be He, sought to turn the whole world back to chaos.

Immediately, Gabriel descended to Rabbi Ishmael and said: If you cry out a third time, the world will immediately return to chaos. Rather, happy are you and happy are your companions, what is hidden and what is fitting for you! When Rabbi Ishmael heard this, he placed his tefillin on his mouth until his soul departed.

The Holy One, blessed be He, opened and said: "The memory of the righteous is for a blessing" [זצ"ל]. Michael and Gabriel opened and said: "His soul is in Eden" [נ"ע]. The holy creatures opened and said: "May his soul be bound in the bundle of life" [ת. נ. צ. ב. ה]. The Seraphim opened and said: "His soul is in the Garden of Eden above" [נלב"ע]. The angels and all the hosts of heaven opened and said: "His memory is for the life of the World to Come" [זלה"ה] with the righteous, and the skin of Rabbi Ishmael's face still lies in Rome.