רבי ישמעאל בן אלישע כהן גדול

Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha the Kohen Gadol was among the leaders of the first generation of Tannaim, and served as Kohen Gadol in the closing years of the second Beit HaMikdash; some learn from the Midrash Eleh Ezkerah that his father Elisha also served in the kehunah gedolah. The Gemara in Berachot brings his own words describing his entry lifnai v’lifnim, into the Kodesh HaKodashim on Yom Kippur, where he was asked to give a bracha and asked that Hashem’s mercy overcome His anger and that He deal with His children beyond the letter of the din.

His colleagues said of him that he knew the Shem HaMeforash. He was killed al kiddush Hashem as one of the Asarah Harugei Malchut, together with Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel HaZaken; Shmuel HaKatan, at his own petirah, foretold that Shimon and Yishmael would fall by the sword. Tradition marks the day as 25 Sivan of the year 3828. The Gemara adds that one who sees Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha in a dream should fear punishment, for his death came with terrible suffering.

The Midrash and the Gemara tell of his son and daughter, taken captive at the churban to two separate masters; recognizing one another, the children of the Kohen Gadol wept until their neshamot departed. The kinah “V’Et Navi Chatati,” said on Tisha B’Av, mourns them.

His traditional kever is in the village of Sajur in the upper Galil (Israel); on 25 Sivan, his hillula day, many come there. The chroniclers of the Tannaim discuss his relationship to the later Rabbi Yishmael, the colleague of Rabbi Akiva; one view makes the latter his grandson.