Aggada -- Translations into English; Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends; Midrash -- Translations into English
When Moses was on the point of departing from heaven, a celestial voice
announced: "Moses, thou camest hither, and thou didst see the throne of
My glory. Now thou shalt see also Paradise and hell," and God
dispatched Gabriel on the errand of showing hell to him. Terrified by
its fires, when he caught sight of them as he entered the portals of
hell, Moses refused to go farther. But the angel encouraged him,
saying, "There is a fire that not only burns but also consumes, and
that fire will protect thee against hell fire, so that thou canst step
upon it, and yet thou wilt not be seared."
As Moses entered hell, the fire withdrew a distance of five hundred
parasangs, and the Angel of Hell, Nasargiel, asked him, "Who art thou?"
and he answered, "I am Moses, the son of Amram."
Nasargiel: "This is not thy place, thou belongest in Paradise."
Moses: "I came hither to see the manifestation of the power of God."
Then said God to the Angel of Hell, "Go and show hell unto Moses, and
how the wicked are treated there." Immediately he went with Moses,
walking before him like a pupil before his master, and thus they
entered hell together, and Moses saw men undergoing torture by the
Angels of Destruction: some of the sinners were suspended by their
eyelids, some by their ears, some by their hands, and some by their
tongues, and they cried bitterly. And women were suspended by their
hair and by their breasts, and in other ways, all on chains of fire.
Nasargiel explained: "These hang by their eyes, because they looked
lustfully upon the wives of their neighbors, and with a covetous eye
upon the possessions of their fellow-men. These hang by their ears
because they listened to empty and vain speech, and turned their ear
away from hearing the Torah. These hang by their tongues, because they
talked slander, and accustomed their tongue to foolish babbling. These
hang by their feet, because they walked with them in order to spy upon
their fellow-men, but they walked not to the synagogue, to offer prayer
unto their Creator. These hang by their hands, because with them they
robbed their neighbors of their possessions, and committed murder.
These women hang by their hair and their breasts, because they
uncovered them in the presence of young men, so that they conceived
desire unto them, and fell into sin."
Moses heard hell cry with a loud and a bitter cry, saying to Nasargiel:
"Give me something to eat, I am hungry."— Nasargiel: "What shall I give
thee?"—Hell: "Give me the souls of the pious."—Nasargiel: "The Holy
One, blessed be He, will not deliver the souls of the pious unto thee."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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