Shabbat 34A

ואית להו צערא לכהנים לאקופי. אמר: איכא איניש דידע דאיתחזק הכא טהרה? אמר ליה ההוא סבא: כאן קיצץ בן זכאי תורמסי תרומה. עבד איהו נמי הכי, כל היכא דהוה קשי ⁠— טהריה, וכל היכא דהוה רפי ⁠— צייניה.

and the priests are troubled by being forced to circumvent it, as it is prohibited for them to become ritually impure from contact with a corpse. There was suspicion, but no certainty, that a corpse was buried there. Therefore, they were unable to definitively determine its status. R' Shimon said: Is there a person who knows that there was a presumption of ritual purity here? Is there anyone who remembers a time when this place was not considered ritually impure, or that at least part of it was considered to be ritually pure? An Elder said to him: Here ben Zakkai planted and cut the teruma of lupines. In this marketplace R' Yoḥanan ben Zakkai, who himself was a priest, once planted lupines that were given to him as teruma. On that basis, the conclusion can be drawn that it was definitely ritually pure. R' Shimon, like Jacob, also did so and took steps to improve the city and examined the ground (Tosafot). Everywhere that the ground was hard, he pronounced it ritually pure as there was certainly no corpse there, and every place that the ground was soft, he marked it indicating that perhaps a corpse was buried there. In that way, he purified the marketplace so that even priests could walk through it.

אמר ההוא סבא: טיהר בן יוחי בית הקברות! אמר ליה: אילמלי לא היית עמנו, ואפילו היית עמנו, ולא נמנית עמנו ⁠— יפה אתה אומר. עכשיו שהיית עמנו, ונמנית עמנו, יאמרו: זונות מפרכסות זו את זו, תלמידי חכמים לא כל שכן?! יהב ביה עיניה ונח נפשיה. נפק לשוקא חזייה ליהודה בן גרים. אמר: עדיין יש לזה בעולם? נתן בו עיניו ועשהו גל של עצמות.

A certain Elder said in ridicule and surprise: Ben Yoḥai purified the cemetery. R' Shimon got angry and said to him: Had you not been with us, and even had you been with us and were not counted with us in rendering this ruling, what you say is fine. You could have said that you were unaware of my intention or that you did not agree or participate in this decision. Now that you were with us and were counted with us in rendering this ruling, you will cause people to say that rabbis are unwilling to cooperate with one another. They will say: If competing prostitutes still apply makeup to each other to help one another look beautiful, all the more so that Torah scholars should cooperate with each other. He directed his eyes toward him and the Elder died. R' Shimon went out to the marketplace and he saw Yehuda, son of converts, who was the cause of this entire incident. R' Shimon, said: This one still has a place in the world? He directed his eyes toward him and turned him into a pile of bones.