Why Would They Set Fire to This Sage’s Tomb?

 

The Tomb of Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha

Why did two masked men set explosives at the tomb of a great sage? Perhaps it is his message of goodness 

Our hearts and prayers are turned towards Israel, as our brothers and sisters are under a barrage of deadly missiles, as a fragile ceasefire goes into effect.

This latest campaign, in which the IDF successfully targeted Islamic Jihad leadership, included another less noticed occurrenece. Last Wednesday, two masked men tried to explode the ancient tomb of a great Sage, Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha. There can be no possible explanation or rationalization for evil, but we must still try to decipher messages that promote hope and generate acts of goodness and kindness.

Why would two sinister thugs, 2000 years after the passing of this Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha, be so threatened by his grave and the lifestyle that this ancient Rabbi promoted?

After the destruction of the second Temple, when Rabbi Yishmael, was just a child, he was kidnapped and sold as a slave to Rome. Rabbi Yishmael had every reason to be bitter at the world! Jerusalem, the capital of his people lay in ruins, his holy Temple was reduced to rubble and his purity as a child was not spared but rather brutally exploited by human trafficking! And this very same Reb Yishmael refused to be consumed with hate, self pity and revenge,but rather our Rabbi Yishmael is recorded in the annals of history as a benefactor who exuded kindness and compassion!

Precisely because Rabbi Yishmael had such a painful childhood, did be choose to exert himself to help uplift the subdued and restore hope into the hearts of the oppressed! Jewish girls who were rejected and so depressed that they despaired about their futures- turned to Reb Yismoel who championed their cause and secured their happy marriages.

At a time that all Jewish spirits were painfully crushed and subjugated under cruel Roman dictatorship, Rabbi Yishmael ruled into Jewish law that “ All Jews are children of royalty” Bava Metzia 113b. The shackles of oppression may seem so tight, the yoke of persecution may seem so unbearably heavy but Rabbi Yishmael tells each and every Jew that their status will and must always remain pure royalty!

Rabbi Yishmael is historically recorded as one of the 10 holy martyrs, we read about on Yom Kippur. Although the evil executioners knife flayed his skin, his soul and the eternal lessons of his life could simply never be destroyed. And two thousands years later, these two terrorists have yet again failed to rid the world of Yishmael ben Elisha !

We are Rabbi Yishmael’s spiritual successors! Every mitzva we do, banishes the darkness and evil of our oppressors!

Article by Rabbi Areyah Kaltmann at https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/371389