Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai Emerges From the Cave to Purify Tiberias

"Perhaps." Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai and Rabbi Eleazar his son hid for thirteen years in a cave that had split open, eating carobs of the terumah-portion until their bodies grew covered with rust-like scabs. At the end of thirteen years Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai came out and sat at the entrance of the cave. He saw a man spreading a net to trap birds. The man spread it a first time, and Rabbi Shimon heard a voice from heaven say "Pardon," and the bird escaped. The man spread it a second time, and he heard a voice from heaven say "Caught," and the bird was taken. He said: even a bird is not snared apart from Heaven, and shall we sit here? When he heard that matters had quieted, he said: let us go down and be healed in the hot springs of Tiberias. They said: we ought to show gratitude in the way our forefathers did, who would set up markets and sell cheaply. So he set up a market and sold cheaply. They said: we must purify Tiberias. He took lupines, cut them up, and scattered them in the marketplace, and wherever there was a corpse it floated up and rose. A certain Samaritan saw this and said: I will go and mock this old man of the Jews. What did he do? He took a corpse and went and hid it in one of the streets that had been purified. He came to Rabbi Shimon and said: did you purify such-and-such street? He said: yes. He said: if I bring out a corpse from there behind you? He said: go, show me. Rabbi Shimon perceived by the Holy Spirit that they had placed it there, and he said: I decree upon the upper to go down and upon the lower to go up. And so it was for him. When he came out he passed before the synagogue of Magdala and heard the voice of a child, the scribe of Magdala, saying: behold, the son of Yochai who purified Tiberias. He said to him: and were you not among the counted? He raised his eyes and looked at him, and at once he became a heap of bones.