Kabbalah Library

692. As long as the body does not rest in its place in the grave, his soul, too, has no rest.

693. One day, Rabbi Perahia was walking in the field, and found one dead body under a carob tree. He looked at it, and found that he was a Jew, and found wrappings of commandment, Tefillin, and a book of the [Passover] Haggadah was with him.

694. He said, “He must be a disciple of the wise.” He tried to bury him, and he went to the city and fixed shrouds [coverings for the dead] for him, and a grave, and took people as witnesses, and wept over him, and tried to do everything for him, and spent on him all that he had.

695. When that body was concealed and buried, his soul went up to the high seminary. She was told, “Now you have no permission to enter here, in the place of the high rock, Malchut. Go and pay for the act of Hesed [kindness] to the one who completed you.”

696. One day, Rabbi Perahia was sitting at the gate of Lod, and he was sad for he was pressed for time. A man approached him and said to him, “Rabbi, would you like to go to a certain place? I will give you vessels of silver so we will exert together in Torah along the way.” He told him, “Let us go.” They went.

He said to him, “Rabbi, why is it written, ‘For the living know that they will die, and the dead know nothing’?” He said to him, “The living are the righteous, and the dead are the wicked.”

697. He said to him, “Indeed Rabbi, even the wicked know in that world about their own affliction, and know about the honor of the righteous and the judgments of the wicked, thus, what is ‘And the dead know nothing?’ for it means that the wicked do not know anything.”

698. He said to him, “It is written in this world that the righteous ,who are called ‘living,’ look and know that they will die, and are destined to be sentenced, that there is a judgment, and there is a judge, as it is written, ‘And the living shall lay it to his heart.’ But the wicked, who are called ‘dead,’ do not know, do not notice, and do not observe the actions of that world at all.

“And one who does not know the actions of that world is called ‘dead’ because this world is not from among the living, for the life of this world is not regarded as life. Rather, the life of the next world is regarded as ‘life,’ since that world is for souls and spirits, which do not die, and this world is for the body, which will eventually die.

699. “In that world, where spirits of people dwell, they are similar in shape to the shape they had in this world, they know each other and what is destined to be in the world, and they try to know the name of the glory of their master when they are clothed in the garment of that world.”

700. When he reached that field, that man told him, “Let us wait now.” He sighed. Rabbi Perahia said to him, “Why are you sighing?” He told him, “I lost something in this place.” Rabbi Perahia said, “The Creator will find it for you.”

701. They found a cave. That man said, “Rabbi, let us go in here, for I know and I recognize the place here.” They went in, climbed down stairs until they reached an orchard where they saw trees that were very different from each other and from the rest of the trees in the world, and one tree different from the other trees.

702. They went up there. They heard the noise of many camps saying, “Let us bow and kneel before the Lord our Maker.” Rabbi Perahia was surprised and said, “What is that?” He said to him, “Be quiet!”

703. Rabbi Perahia said, “I swear to God that when I came with him to the middle of the orchard, I saw two roads, and camps on either side. I told him, “What is that?” He said to me, “This is the crossroads of the souls, those who go to the Garden of Eden, and those who go to Hell. The one who goes to the Garden of Eden, these camps of angels go with her and complete her in peace. The one who goes to Hell, those camps take her to sentence her in Hell.”

704. We crossed that orchard and reached walls and towers and gates. When we got to one gate called the “gate of the east,” the man called “Open for me the gates of justice.” They said to him, “Why?” He said to them, “I come on a mission from the Master of the World.” They all opened and said, “Who placed a woman born in this place?” He said to them, “This is Rabbi Perahia.” They said, “Is he the one who dealt Hesed with you in that world?” He said, “Yes.”

705. They opened for him and said, “Undress him,” for it is forbidden to come here in a body of that world. They promptly undressed him and he wore the airs of the garden from within.