Thirteen Years in a Cave, Now What?

What's the first thing you do after you leave the cave you've been hiding in for the past thirteen years?

You spend some time with your family (which hopefully has not deserted).

Arrange a news conference.

Sign a book deal.

Negotiate a major motion picture.

Make the front cover of every tabloid magazine.

End up in rehab.

If you are of more humble stock, you try to return to your humble life, and count your blessings for years to come.

A person "inconvenienced" by living in a cave for thirteen years would presumably scoff at the younger generation who call every triviality a traumaSentenced to death after talking against the Roman regime, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai hid in a cave for thirteen years together with his son Elazar. For thirteen years they wallowed in sand – they were filled with painful sores upon exiting – subsisting only on carobs and water from a tree and stream that miraculous appeared at the cave's entrance. (Click here for the story, as told in the Talmud.)

They exit after thirteen years. What is the first thing on Rabbi Shimon's agenda?

The townspeople tell him about a road under which there is a lost grave. As kohanim (priests) are not permitted to come in contact with or even pass over a corpse, they had to take a detour when wishing to travel that route. Rabbi Shimon discerns the location of the body, the grave is marked, and the problem corrected.

Think about it.

A person who was "inconvenienced" by living in a cave for thirteen years would presumably feel that he has a monopoly on pain and discomfort, and scoff at the younger generation who call every triviality a trauma.

To try to ease their pain? Forget it.

But here we find Rabbi Shimon doing just that, spending his first moments of freedom helping some kohanim get rid of a relatively small inconvenience!

Is there nothing bigger and more important than helping a person with some minor nuisance after being locked up in a cave for almost a decade and a half?

No there isn't.