The asarah harugei malchus lived and died to sanctify His Name

Every Yom Kippur, Ashkenazi communities tearfully recite the piyut “Eileh Ezkerah,” which recounts the death of ten Tannaim, known as the asarah harugei malchus, at the hands of the Roman emperor Hadrian. Their crimes: keeping the mitzvos, learning Torah in public, and continuing the mesorah

Every Yom Kippur, Ashkenazi communities tearfully recite the piyut “Eileh Ezkerah,” which recounts the death of ten Tannaim, known as the asarah harugei malchus, at the hands of the Roman emperor Hadrian.

Their crimes: keeping the mitzvos, learning Torah in public, and continuing the mesorah.

The cruel deaths of these Tannaim — their cries of Shema Yisrael, their defiant assertion of Hashem’s Oneness and kedushah, their pride and courage, their faith in the righteousness of Hashem’s judgment — echo through the pages of Jewish history. The greatest empires have evaporated into nothing, while these martyrs’ legacies live on.

While researching this story, I discovered that this piyut was deliberately placed right after the seder ha’avodah of the Kohein Gadol to teach us that to die sanctifying His name and to live sanctifying His name are one and the same act — the ikar is to amplify kevod Shamayim in the world.

Writing this piece wasn’t easy. The Churban stared out at me from every word, and I grasped on a visceral level why the death of a tzaddik is equated with the burning of the Mikdash.

Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel and Rabi Yishmael Kohein Gadol

My beloved brothers in exile,

Put on ashes and sackcloth and raise your voices in lamentation, for not only has the Beis Habechirah been burned, but we have lost the nasi of Yisrael, and the head of the Kohanim — Rabi Yishmael Kohein Gadol and Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel are no more.

Ruin follows ruin, and sorrow is added to sorrow, for the light of our eyes has been extinguished.

Oh! Who will bring back Shimon ben Gamliel, who was a modest leader and always ruled leniently for others? When will we see the likes of Rabi Yishmael HaKohein who probed and explored Heavenly mysteries, and was among the seven most beautiful people in the world, and whose face was the image of an angel of G-d’s hosts?

My brothers, it was on Thursday when the rumor came from Rome that Caesar had ordered the arrest of these tzaddikim, along with 8,200 talmidei chachamim from Yerushalayim.

Men rushed to Rabi Yishmael Kohein Gadol and adjured him to invoke the Holy Name and ascend to the Heavens to find out if Hashem had passed a decree.

Rabi Yishmael ascended to the Heavens and met the angel Gavriel, who said to him as follows: “Yishmael, my son, by your life I heard from behind the veil that ten sages of Yisrael have been doomed to death at the hands of the evil kingdom.”

“Why?” Rabi Yishmael asked.

Answered the angel, “Because of the selling of Yosef. At no time since the ten brothers sold Yosef into slavery have there been ten men as righteous and pious as the brothers, in one generation, until now. Therefore, Hashem is settling the debt with you.”

The Romans came for Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, and Rabi Yishmael ben Elisha began weeping. Rabban Shimon said to him, “Why do you weep? In two steps you’ll be in the company of the righteous.”

Rabi Yishmael answered, “Do I weep because we are to be killed? I weep because we are to be killed as murderers and violators of the Shabbos!”

The terrible day arrived, and the executioner got ready to behead Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel. Rabi Yishmael cried out, “Take your hands from the neck of Rabban Shimon and kill me first, for I am a Kohein Gadol and the son of a Kohein Gadol, and let me therefore not witness the death of my friend.”

Rabban Shimon responded, “Chalilah! Rather kill me first, for I am a nasi and the son of a nasi.”

The executioner drew lots, and the lot fell on Rabban Shimon, and the executioner beheaded him. When Rabi Yishmael saw this, he fell to the earth, cradled Rabban Shimon’s head in his lap, caressed and kissed it, and cried bitterly, “The mouth that interpreted the Torah in seventy languages is filled with sand. Holy mouth, faithful mouth, mouth that produced diamonds and precious stones, who cast you in the dust? Who filled your tongue with ashes and dust?”

Rabi Yishmael’s cries carried all to the way to the window of Caesar’s daughter. She looked through the window, saw Rabi Yishmael’s beauty, and had mercy on him. She sent a message to her father to pardon the old man and send him to her.

Caesar laughed cruelly and said, “Do you wish to behold his beauty? Then I will flay the skin from his face so you may behold it.” So Caesar flayed his skin, and when he arrived at the spot on the forehead where tefillin are placed, Rabi Yishmael let out a great and bitter shout that shook the Heavens and the earth. Said HaKadosh Baruch Hu, “What can I do, my son? It is a decree from my throne and cannot be undone.”

He cried out a second time and the Kisei Hakavod shook. The malachei hashareis hurried down to Rabi Yishmael and said to him, “Happy are you, Yishmael, and happy are your friends.”

The Roman heard Rabi Yishmael’s cries and beheaded him.

Rabi Nechemia said, “These cries won’t depart from the throne of the King until He avenges Himself on the gentiles.”

After the two sages’ execution, Rabi Akiva said to his students, “Prepare yourselves for judgment. For it is known before He Who spoke and made the world that a great retribution will be visited upon our generation, and now He has taken these from among us….”

The skin of the Kohein Gadol’s face is still in Rome.