Our Rabbis have taught, four entered into The Orchard. They were Ben Azai, Ben Zoma, Aher, and Rabbi Akiba. Ben Azai gazed and died. Of him it is written, “Precious in the eyes of HaShem is the death of his pious ones.” Ben Zoma gazed, and went insane. Of him, it is written, “Have you found honey, eat your share lest you become full, and vomit it up.” Aher became an apostate. Rabbi Akiba entered, and exited in peace.
—Hagigah 14b
Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget
What thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,
Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;
Where but to think is to be full of sorrow
And leaden-eyed despairs,
Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,
Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.
—Keats, “Ode to a Nightingale”