Kabbalah Library

1. When the souls were created, they clothed in a holy form of light in the Garden of Eden of above, and in a different holy form in the Garden of Eden of below. They were given a high inheritance, and they were given a high potion. After they were given that, the angel told them, “It is time for you to go outside, since the Creator said that you should leave here.”

2. They wondered and said, “Where to?” Two angels said to them, “The Creator said, “Go forth from your land, and from your kindred, and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” “From your land” is the bottom Garden of Eden.” “From your father’s house” is the top Garden of Eden. “To the land that I will show you” is the dark and lowly land.

3. Before he was created, Adam was shown all of the Garden of Eden. He was shown halls and houses, high sections and degrees, and every part that each righteous has in and of himself.

4. The two angels said to him, “These forty-two halls that are embroidered with several beautiful colors, each person who reads the Shema reading and aims the name Mem-Bet [forty-two] properly, which is the forty-two words in the portion of the Shema reading from the word, “And you will love,” to the words, “And it shall come to pass that if you hear,” will inherit them.”

He came to seventy degrees, with seventy-two windows in them, embroidered with several colors. They told him, “Any person who reads the Shema reading and aims in the name AB [seventy-two] words properly, which is seventy-two words from the words, ‘And it shall come to pass that if you hear,’ until the word, ‘and place,’ will inherit them.”

5. He came further and they showed him fifty other sections embroidered with several colors. They told him, “These are for every person who reads the Shema reading and aims the name of fifty words properly, fifty words that there are from the words ‘and place’ to the end of the portion, he will inherit this.”

6. They showed him seventy-two other sections, embroidered with several colors. They told him, “These are for every person who reads the Shema reading and aims the name of seventy-two words that there are in the fourth portion, from the word ‘And He said,’ to the end of the portion.”

7. He said to them, “And by what will I merit this?” They said to hm, “In sadness you shall eat of it.” The sadness is “we will do and we will hear,” which means doing, with good deeds. And hearing in the Torah, with sadness, as we learn, “The Torah exists only in one who puts himself to death over it.”

8. They took him out from the Garden of Eden and walked with him to Hell. And the pillar of cloud to walk by it by day on his head, and the pillar of fire to walk by it at night. They said to him, “This place is darkness day and night. They showed him all the sections of Hell, and the blaze of the swirling sword, “and the dogs are brazen; they know no satiation.”

9. They said to him, “These are forty-two dark halls, which are the punishments for those who did not observe the name forty-two of holiness, and several people with shackles on their necks, and their hands and legs are fettered, and they cry out and say, ‘Woe to us, for we walked in the vanities of the world, and did not go to the house of assembly, and did not read the name of the forty-names, that we did not learn it. Woe to us; woe to our souls.’ And the minister of the prison is appointed over them.”

10. They brought him further. They showed him seventy-two dark windows, and the shackles on their necks were stuck in them. These are the punishments for those who did not aim the name seventy-two in the portion, ‘And it shall come to pass that if you hear,’ until ‘and place.’”

They brought him further and showed him fifty gates, and they are all holes, and the legs of the wicked were entering those holes. They were shouting and saying “Woe to our feet that walked in the vanities of the world and did not go to the house of assembly, and we did not learn the name of the fifty words from the Shema reading, from the words ‘and place’ to the end of the portion.”

11. They brought him further and showed him seventy-two sections, and their hands were caught in the holes in the Mezuzas of the house. They were saying “Woe to us, woe to our hands that did not tie the Tefillin on the head and on our hands,” as there, there are the punishments for those who did not aim in the name AB [seventy-two], in the seventy-two words from “and said,” to the end of the portion.

12. They brought him further and showed him all the sections of Hell. They said to him, “Every person in the world will come to this place, even one who is free, as it is written, ‘Small and great are there, and a slave who is free from his master.’ There is none who are free, but any person who knows the name of the Creator properly, as it is written, ‘I will exalt him for he knew My name; he will call Me and I will answer him.’”

13. Each person who does good deeds, commandments to-do, each and every commandment he does goes up and stands before the Creator and says, “I am from so and so, who did me,” and the Creator gives him an angel to help him in the place of darkness in Hell, which is called “night,” which is in this place.

14. Every word of Torah that he heard, for everything, the Creator gives him an angel for everything to help him. This is why it is written, “And you shall contemplate it day and night, so that you are careful to do all that is written in it,” for then your way will succeed, and then you will be enlightened.

If you do what the Creator commanded you and engage in Torah day and night, and observe and do all that is in it, you will not fear this place, the Creator will be with you when you engage in Torah day and night, and the Creator will be with you when you guard, so as to do all that is written in it, and the Creator will be with you when you depart from the world and come here.

15. If you do not engage in Torah, and do not observe or do the commandments of the Torah, the Creator will depart from you, and will not charge His angels with guarding you in all your ways, as it is written, “And if you walk contrary to Me, and are not willing to listen to Me, I will also walk contrary to you, in fury.”