When Rabi Yishmael was asked by his colleagues to ascend to Heaven and determine if it was Hashem’s Will that they should accept martyrdom, Midrash Eleh Ezkerah tells us that it was the malach Gavriel who was the Kohen Gadol’s guide. It was also Gavriel who explained the reason for the decree. The Attribute of Justice came before Hashem every day and demanded, “Did You write even a single superfluous letter in Your Torah? Did not the brothers sell Yosef? Yet You have not yet punished them or their descendants for this!”
“Could Hashem not find anyone until now who could receive this punishment?” Rabi Yishmael asked Gavriel. “Why did He choose us?”
Gavriel replied that never before had Hashem found ten righteous and holy men in a single generation like the brothers. Thus, the decree could not be annulled.
When Rabi Yishmael returned to this world and related to the others what he had learned, they mourned that not even teshuvah could avert the decree and rejoiced that Hashem considered them to be as righteous as Yosef’s brothers. They had no more questions.
Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel and Rabi Yishmael were the first to be martyred. While Rabi Yishmael was still lamenting the death of his good friend, Caesar’s daughter saw him through her window. She sent a message to her father, asking him to let Rabi Yishmael live. When her request was denied, she sent a second message: “Flay the skin off his face so that I can look at it instead of a mirror.” This request was granted.
When the cruel executioners reached the place where Rabi Yishmael’s tefillin sat, his cries ascended all the way to the Heavenly Throne—but he did not cry out because of the physical pain. “I am not crying for my soul,” he explained to the Roman ruler, “but because of the mitzvah of tefillin that you are taking from me.”
“Do you still have faith in your God?”
Rabi Yishmael replied, “Even if you kill me, I will not lose my faith.” The soul of Rabi Yishmael then departed his body (Midrash Eleh Ezkerah).
According to Mishnah Smachos 8, when Rabi Akiva and Rabi Yehudah ben Bavi heard the news that both Rabi Yishmael and Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel had been murdered, they tore their clothes and donned sackcloth. They understood that Am Yisrael’s troubles were going to increase and grow worse.
Next Week: For These We Cry—Rabi Akiva ben Yosef
