Aggada -- Translations into English; Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends; Midrash -- Translations into English
There are eighty myriads of trees in every corner of Paradise, the
meanest among them choicer than all the spice trees. In every corner
there are sixty myriads of angels singing with sweet voices, and the
tree of life stands in the middle and shades the whole of Paradise.[81]
It has fifteen thousand tastes, each different from the other, and the
perfumes thereof vary likewise. Over it hang seven clouds of glory, and
winds blow upon it from all four sides,[82] so that its odor is wafted
from one end of the world to the other. Underneath sit the scholars and
explain the Torah. Over each of them two canopies are spread, one of
stars, the other of sun and moon, and a curtain of clouds of glory
separates the one canopy from the other.[83] Beyond Paradise begins
Eden, containing three hundred and ten worlds[84] and seven
compartments for seven different classes of the pious. In the first are
"the martyr victims of the government," like Rabbi Akiba and his
colleagues;[85] in the second those who were drowned;[86] in the
third[87] Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai and his disciples; in the fourth
those who were carried off in the cloud of glory;[88] in the fifth the
penitents, who occupy a place which even a perfectly pious man cannot
obtain; in the sixth are the youths[89] who have not tasted of sin in
their lives; in the seventh are those poor who studied Bible and
Mishnah, and led a life of self-respecting decency. And God sits in the
midst of them and expounds the Torah to them.[90]
As for the seven divisions of Paradise, each of them is twelve myriads
of miles in width and twelve myriads of miles in length. In the first
division dwell the proselytes who embraced Judaism of their own free
will, not from compulsion. The walls are of glass and the wainscoting
of cedar. The prophet Obadiah,[91] himself a proselyte, is the overseer
of this first division. The second division is built of silver, and the
wainscoting thereof is of cedar. Here dwell those who have repented,
and Manasseh, the penitent son of Hezekiah, presides over them. The
third division is built of silver and gold. Here dwell Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, and all the Israelites who came out of Egypt, and the whole
generation that lived in the desert.[92] Also David is there, together
with all his sons[93] except Absalom, one of them, Chileab, still
alive. And all the kings of Judah are there, with the exception of
Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, who presides in the second division,
over the penitents. Moses and Aaron preside over the third division.
Here are precious vessels of silver and gold and jewels and canopies
and beds and thrones and lamps, of gold, of precious stones, and of
pearls, the best of everything there is in heaven.[94] The fourth
division is built of beautiful rubies,[95] and its wainscoting is of
olive wood. Here dwell the perfect and the steadfast in faith, and
their wainscoting is of olive wood, because their lives were bitter as
olives to them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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