The Talmud on Halakhic Disputes

The sages taught: [There was] an incident involving a Sadducee [who was appointed as high priest] who prepared the incense outside [and then] brought [it into the holy of holies]. Upon his emergence he was overjoyed. The father of [that Sadducee] met him and said to him, “My son, although we are Sadducees, we fear the Pharisees [who prepare the incense inside the shrine—Ed.].” He [the son] said to him, “All my days I have been troubled over this verse: For I will appear in the cloud above the ark cover (Leviticus 16:2). I said [to myself—Ed.], When will [the opportunity] become available to me, and I will fulfill it? Now that [the opportunity] has become available to me, [will] I not fulfill it?”

They [the sages] said: Not [even] a few days [passed] until he died and was laid out in the garbage [dump], and worms were coming out of his nose. And some say he was struck as he emerged [from the holy of holies], as R. Ḥiyya taught: A type of sound was heard in the Temple courtyard, as an angel came and struck him in the face. And his fellow priests came in [to remove him] and they found the likeness of a footprint of a calf between his shoulders. [That is the mark left by an angel striking,] as it is stated: And their feet were straight feet, and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot (Ezekiel 1:7).