Among the Ten Martyrs whose deaths Jewish tradition recalls on Yom Kippur and Tisha B'Av were Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, the Patriarch of the Jewish people under Roman occupation, and Rabbi Ishmael ben Elisha, the High Priest.
The Romans forced them to draw lots to decide who would be executed first. The lot fell to Rabban Shimon, and the sword came down on his neck before the eyes of his friend.
Rabbi Ishmael, left alive for the moment, picked up Shimon's severed head and cradled it against his own chest. Tears ran down his face into the hair of the dead man, and he spoke to his friend as if still alive: "Mouth that poured out Torah, how did the dust silence you? Tongue that argued the law, how has the earth taken you? Head that rose above all Israel — oh, Shimon, my friend — how have they laid you so low?"
Then he comforted Rabban Shimon, even in death. "You went first," he said. "That was the kinder fate. You did not have to see them kill me. I will see it, but soon I will join you, and we will be together."
Moments later the Romans took Rabbi Ishmael too.
The Exempla preserves this scene not to dwell on cruelty but to show how Jews die when they must. Even in the last seconds, Rabbi Ishmael was teaching — teaching that the love between chavrutot, study partners, is stronger than fear, and that Torah scholars comfort one another even past the edge of life.
(From The Exempla of the Rabbis, Moses Gaster, 1924, no. 76, drawing on the Ten Martyrs traditions.)