Three Sages sat together — Rabbi Yehudah, Rabbi Yossi, and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai — and Rabbi Yehudah remarked how impressive the Romans were: they had built markets, bathhouses, bridges. Rabbi Yossi said nothing. But Rabbi Shimon spat back: "Everything they built, they built for themselves. Their markets feed licentiousness. Their bathhouses are for their own pleasure. Their bridges collect tolls."
A student named Yehudah ben Gerim overheard and carried the words to Roman ears. The Emperor's edict came swiftly. Rabbi Yehudah was promoted for his praise. Rabbi Yossi was banished to Sepphoris. Rabbi Shimon was sentenced to death.
The Cave at Peki'in
Rabbi Shimon and his son Elazar fled. First they hid in the study hall, where Shimon's wife brought them bread and water. But fearing she might crack under interrogation, they went deeper — into a cave. There the Holy One performed a miracle: a carob tree sprouted bearing fruit year-round, and a spring opened for their drinking.
To preserve their clothes they stripped them off, burying themselves in sand up to the neck, studying Torah twelve hours a day. Only for prayer did they dress. Twelve years passed this way.
The Prophet at the Mouth of the Cave
Then Elijah appeared at the entrance with news: the Emperor was dead. The decree was void. Father and son emerged — but their eyes had been rewired by the cave. When they saw farmers plowing and sowing, Rabbi Shimon exclaimed, "They neglect eternal things and busy themselves with the temporal!" Wherever they looked, fields burst into flame.
A Bat Kol — a heavenly voice — thundered: "Have you come out to destroy My world? Go back to your cave!"
They returned for twelve more months. When they finally pleaded to be released — noting that even the wicked in Gehinnom serve only twelve months — the Bat Kol called them out again. This time their eyes had softened. This time they could bear the sight of a world that was not made entirely of study.
The cave gave them Torah. The year after gave them mercy.
by bridges, and erected baths. To this remark Rabbi Yossi kept silent, but Rabbi Shimon replied, "Yea, indeed; but all these they have done to benefit themselves. The markets they have opened to feed licentiousness, they have erected baths for their own pleasure, and the bridges they have raised for collecting tolls. Yehudah ben Gerim thereupon went direct and informed against them, and the report having reached the Emperor's ears, an edict was immediately issued that Rabbi Yehudah should be promoted, Rabbi Yossi banished to Sepphoris, and Rabbi Shimon taken and executed. Rabbi Shimon and his son, however, managed to secret themselves in a college, where they were purveyed to by the Rabbi's wife, who brought them daily bread and water. One day mistrust seized the Rabbi, and he said to his son, " Women are light-minded; the Romans may tease her and then she will betray us.w So they stole away and hid themselves in a cave. Here the Lord interposed by a miracle, and created a carob-tree bearing fruit all the year round for their support, and opened a perennial spring for their refreshment. To save their clothes they laid them aside except at prayers, and to protect their naked bodies from exposure they would at other times sit up to their necks in sand, absorbed in study. After they had passed twelve years thus in the cave, Elijah was sent to inform them that the Emperor was dead, and his decree powerless to touch them. On leaving the cave, they noticed some people plowing and sowing, when one of them exclaimed, " These folk neglect eternal things and trouble themselves with the things that are temporal.* As they fixed their eyes upon the place, fire came and burnt it up. Then a Bath Kol was heard exclaiming, " What ! are ye come forth to destroy the world I have made? Get back to your cave and hide you.* Thither accordingly they returned, and after they had stopped there twelve months longer, they remonstrated, pleading that even the judgment of the wicked in Gehenna lasted no longer than twelve months; upon which a Bath Kol was again heard from heaven, which said, "Come ye forth from your cave.8 Then they arose and obeyed it.
