When Rabbi [Yehuda HaNasi] was dying in Tzippori, the residents of Tzippori were saying: ‘Anyone who comes and says that Rabbi died, we will kill him.’ Bar Kappara54He was one of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi’s disciples, and was with him as he died. went to the window and looked outside, and his head was covered and his garments were rent. He said: ‘Our brethren, descendants of Yedaya,55Beginning in the Second Temple period, the members of the priestly watch of Yedaya resided in the city of Tzippori. hear me, hear me.
Angels and righteous people grasped the Tablets. Angels overcame the righteous, and they snatched the Tablets.’56This was his way of saying that Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi’s soul had ascended to heaven. They said to him: ‘Has Rabbi died?’ He said to them: ‘You said so, I did not say so.’
Why did he not say? Because it is written: “One who utters a negative report is a fool” (Proverbs 10:18). They rent their garments until the sound of the rending reached Gufteta, at a distance of three mil. It was read in his regard:57Regarding bar Kappara.
“The advantage of knowledge is that wisdom [preserves the life of its possessors]” (Ecclesiastes 7:12). Rabbi Neḥemya [said] in the name of Rabbi Mona: Miraculous acts were performed on that day. It was Friday and all the cities gathered for Rabbi’s eulogy. They stopped his [burial procession to eulogize him] at eighteen synagogues and took him to Beit She’arim,58That was Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi’s home.
Several years earlier he had taken ill and he moved to Tzippori. and the day lasted until each and every one of the people of Israel reached home and kindled a lamp for himself, roasted a fish for himself, filled a barrel of water for himself, until the last of them did so; [then] the sun set and the rooster crowed.59The rooster crowed signifying daybreak, which came just after sunset because sunset had been miraculously delayed for so long. [The people] began to become agitated and said: ‘Alas, we have desecrated Shabbat!’
A Divine Voice called out and said: ‘Anyone who was not indolent in the eulogy of Rabbi is destined for life in the World to Come except for the launderer, who was there, but did not come.60He was in the town but did not come to the funeral. When [the launderer] heard [this], he ascended and cast himself from the roof, and he fell and died. A Divine Voice called out and said: Even the launderer is destined for life in the World to Come. Yerushalmi Gittin, Ketubot, and Avoda Zara, all the incidents involving the pious>.