" ... It was said about Rabbi Ishmael, the high priest, that he was one of the seven most handsome men in the world, and that his face resembled an angel. When Rabbi Yose, Rabbi Ishmael’s father, reached the last days of his life, his wife said to him, “My dear husband and master, why do I see that many people manage to have children, while we have not? For we have no heir, neither a son nor a daughter.”

Rabbi Yose replied, “The reason is this: When other men’s wives leave the ritual bathhouse, they watch themselves very closely. If anything unseemly happens to them, they return to the bathhouse and immerse a second time, and so they succeed in having children.”

His wife said, “If this is what has prevented me, then I promise to be very scrupulous in these matters.”

The next time she went to immerse herself, after she left the ritual bathhouse, a certain dog crossed her path. So she returned to the bathhouse, and re-immersed herself. [But when she left] the dog crossed her path again; she returned once more and re-immersed herself. Eight times this happened, until the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Gabriel,

“How much trouble this righteous woman takes upon herself! Go and appear to her in the form of her husband.”

Gabriel immediately went and sat at the door of the ritual bathhouse, where he appeared to the woman in the form of her husband, Rabbi Yose. He took her [by the hand] and led her home. That same night she conceived Rabbi Ishmael, and he was as handsome as Gabriel himself.

For this reason, Gabriel encountered Rabbi Ishmael when he ascended to heaven. The angel said to him, “Ishmael, my son, I swear to you that I overheard from behind the heavenly partition that ten sages are to be handed over to the wicked kingdom to be executed.”...

(Translated by David Stern)