“And he encamped [vayiḥan] before the city” – he graced [ḥanan] the leadership of the city, he began sending them gifts. Another matter, “and he encamped [vayiḥan] before the city” – he began establishing markets and selling at low prices. That is what they say, that a person must show gratitude to a place from which he benefits. Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai and Rabbi Elazar his son were hiding in a cave for thirteen years during the days of persecution.
They would eat withered carobs until they broke out in sores. After thirteen years, he [Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai] emerged and sat at the cave entrance. He saw a certain hunter standing and hunting birds. When Rabbi Shimon would hear a Divine Voice from Heaven: ‘Freedom, freedom,’ it would escape.
But when he would hear a Divine Voice saying: ‘Killing,’ it would be hunted and trapped. He said: ‘Were it not for Heaven, a bird would not be hunted; the soul of a person, all the more so.’ He went out and found that matters were calm, and that the edict10The edict that Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai should be killed. had been abrogated. They came and bathed in that heated bathhouse in Tiberias.
His son said to him: ‘Tiberias has afforded us so much benefit, and we are not purifying it from the dead?’11There were areas of Tiberias in which priests could not go because there unidentified graves there. Purifying Tiberias would allow the priests to go to those places. He said: ‘We must perform an act of good just as our ancestors would, as they would establish markets and sell at low prices.’
He said: ‘We need to purify Tiberias.’ What did he do? He took a mandrake. He would cut the mandrake, cast the cuttings, and scatter them in the street.
Every place where there was a corpse, it would rise, and they would move it and take it out of the city. And every place where there was no impurity, the mandrake would remain, and it would indicate which was a place of purity and which was a place of impurity until the time that they purified it from all the corpses. A certain Samaritan ignoramus saw him and said: ‘Will I not go and mock this Jewish elder?’
Some say it was in the wicker basket market, and some said it was the sack market. He took a corpse and concealed it in one of the streets that had been purified. In the morning, he went and said to them: ‘You said that ben Yoḥai had purified Tiberias. Come and see this corpse.’
Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai saw through the Divine spirit that he placed it there.12That the Samaritan had placed the corpse there. He said: ‘I decree that the one who is above shall descend, and the one who is below shall ascend,’ and so it was.13The Samaritan who was above died and descended to the grave, and the corpse that he had buried came to life and rose from the grave. He14Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai. ascended and sat in his house.
He passed by the Tower of Colors and heard the voice of Nakai the scribe. He said: ‘Did you not say that bar Yoḥai purified Tiberias? But they say that they found a corpse.’ He said:15Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai. ‘Let him come to me, if I do not have at my disposal halakhot as numerous as the hair on my head regarding Tiberias, that it is pure, with the exception of this-and-that place.
You were not with us in the quorum when it was purified. You breached the fence of the Sages, and in your regard it is written: “One who breaches a fence, a serpent will bite him”’ (Ecclesiastes 10:8). He [Nakai the scribe] immediately became a pile of bones. He [Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai] passed in the Beit Nekofa Valley.
He saw a person standing and gathering the sefichin16Vegetables which grow during the Sabbatical year are called "sefichin." It is forbidden to eat sefichin. of the Sabbatical year. He said to him: ‘Is this not the sefichin of the Sabbatical year?’ He said to him: ‘But is it not you who permitted it?
Did we not learn: Rabbi Shimon says: All the sefichin are permitted except for the sefichin of cabbage, as there is nothing like it in the vegetables of the field.’17Mishna Shvi'it 9:1. He said to him: ‘But do my colleagues not disagree with me? You breached the fence of the Sages, and “one who breaches a fence, a serpent will bite him.”’ And so it was for him.
Another matter, “and he encamped before the city” – he entered on Friday near sunset, while it was still day, and established Shabbat boundaries while it was still day. That is to say: Jacob observed Shabbat before it was given.