Rabbi Judah, Rabbi Jose and Rabbi Simeon, son of Yohai, were sitting together, and with them was a man called Judah, the son of the Proselytes (or Judah ben Gerim).

Rabbi Judah commenced speaking and said, "How beautiful are the works made by the heathen! They build market places where one can buy cheaply. They build bridges over the water so that one may cross. They make bathhouses where one may wash and bathe."

Rabbi Jose sat silent.

Then Rabbi Simeon, son of Yohai, replied and said, "Whatever the heathen make they make for their own pleasure and comfort. They make market places and streets to put prostitutes there. They build bridges over the water for the purpose of levying toll. They make bathhouses to delight their bodies."

Judah, son of the Proselytes, went home and related to his father and mother all that had been said. And the report of it spread until it reached the king.

The king said, "I hear that Judah has praised our work, therefore he shall also be honored and exalted. Rabbi Jose, who sat silent, shall go into exile. Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai, who has reviled our work, shall be put to death."

As soon as Rabbi Simeon heard of this, he took his son with him and hid in the bet ha-midrash, where his wife came every day and brought him stealthily bread to eat and water to drink. When Rabbi Simeon heard that men were searching for them and trying to capture them, he said to his son, "We cannot rely upon a woman's discretion, for she can easily be talked over. Or perhaps she may be tortured until she discloses our place of concealment."

So they went together into the field and hid themselves in a cave so that no man knew what had become of them. And a miracle happened to them, for the Lord, blessed be He, caused a carob tree to grow up inside the cavern and a spring to appear so that they had enough to eat and drink. Then, taking off their clothes, they sat all day up to their necks in sand and studied the Torah. And when the time for prayer came, they put their clothes on and after having eaten, they again dug themselves into the sand and continued their study, so that their clothes should not wear away. Thus they spent twelve years in that cave.

When the twelve years had come to an end, Elijah the prophet came and, standing at the mouth of the cavern, called out, "Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai and his son, be it known unto you that the king is dead and his decree has been annulled."

When they heard this, they came out of the cave and saw the people ploughing the fields and sowing hhe seed.

Said Rabbi Simeon to his son, "See, these people are forsaking the eternal world,

losing the world to come, and are attending only to this world."

And when they looked upon a man, he was immediately consumed by the fire of their eyes.

Then a voice from heaven said, "If you came out of the cave to burn up the people and to destroy My world, you should have remained in your cave."

Accordingly they returned to the cave and tarried there another twelve months; "for," they said, "the punishment of the wicked in hell lasts twelve months. Therefore we will spend another twelve months in the cave."

When the twelve months had come to an end, the voice was heard from heaven saying, "Come out of the cave."

They came out again, and whenever his son Eleazar hurt the people, his father healed them.

Rabbi Simeon said to his son Eleazar, "If only we two remain in this world to study the Torah, that will be sufficient."

It was the eve of Sabbath when they left the cave, and as they came out, they saw an old man carrying two bunches of myrtles in his hand, a sweet smelling herb having the perfume of paradise. Rabbi Simeon asked the old man what he intended to do with the myrtles, and the old man replied, "I keep them in honor of the Sabbath, because they smell so sweet."

So Rabbi Simeon said, "You have enough with one, why do you need two?"

The old man replied, "I want them both, one in response to the commandment 'keep', and the other in response to the commandment 'remember', the Sabbath."

Then Rabbi Simeon said to his son Eleazar, "Behold and see how dear God's commands are to His people Israel," and the son was pleased in his mind.

When Rabbi Phinehas, son of Yair (a son-in-law of Rabbi Simeon), heard that his father-in-law, who had been absent from his home for thirteen years and whom everyone had believed (heaven forfend!) to be dead, was coming home, he went to meet him. He saw that his father-in-law's skin was shriveled up, because he had been

sitting so long in the sand, and they went to the bath. When he saw him nude, Rabbi Phinehas began to weep and the tears ran down his face and he said, "Woe unto me that I see you in such a state."

But Rabbi Simeon replied and said, "Happy are you that you can see me in this state. If you did not see me as I am, you would not find in me that which you now find."

He meant to say that if he had not been sitting in the cave, he would never have learned so much of the Law.

Before Rabbi Simeon had gone away, Rabbi Phinehas would give twelve answers to every question that Rabbi Simeon asked, but now it was just the reverse – for every question that Rabbi Phinehas asked, Rabbi Simeon was able to give him twelve answers. All this he had learned while he was in the cave.

One finds also in the Talmud what kind of a person Rabbi Simeon was. He was the author of that famous book called the Zohar.