Kabbalah Library

430. It is written, “His descendants will be mighty on earth.” Happy is he who has been rewarded with sons in this world. If he is not rewarded, he goes from hand to hand, as it is written, “Hand to hand will not be cleaned from evil.” What is “hand to hand”? It is as it is written, “The secret of the Lord for those who fear Him,” meaning that it is a secret that must not be told to any person.

431. “Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a mighty man from the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz,” and it is written, “The man is a relative of ours, one of our redeemers,” meaning he will redeem Machlon, who died without sons, since he was incarnated in Oved, the son of Ruth. By this, the text implies “Hand to hand will not be cleaned from evil,” which is written about he who dies without sons, that he incarnates from body to body through his brother’s levirate marriage. If “hand to hand” means that he incarnates, what is “will not be cleaned from evil”? It should have said “will clean evil.”

432. It is like an officer who was beating the wicked one until he is given a guarantor. If he gives a guarantor, they do not let the officer beat him anymore. Here, too, “will not be cleaned from evil” altogether, but the son who is born from the levirate marriage is like his guarantor, where if he walks on the straight path, he redeems him. If not, he does not.

433. Rabbi Zamiraah went out to the village Ony. He saw flames rising from the fissures in the creases of the glands. He listened and heard voices. That Arab told him, “Walk with me and I will show you wonders that are hidden from people.”

He went with him behind a rock and saw other fissures and flames rising up. They heard other voices. He said to him, “Listen over here.” He listened and heard voices saying “Woe!”

434. He said, “This must be one of those places in Hell.” That Arab passed him and he remained. In the meantime, he bent himself elsewhere and saw a man making loud noises. They took him and brought him to the depth of another section and he was covered and he did not see him anymore.

435. He fell asleep and saw that man in a dream. He said to him, “Who are you?” He said, “I am a wicked Jew; there is no evil or sin in the world that I did not do,” he told him in the dream. “What is your name?” He told him, “I do not know, for the wicked in Hell do not know their names.”

436. He told him, “What is the name of your place?” He told him, “I was a butcher in Upper Galilee, and because of the many evils I had committed there, that man is sentenced three times a day and three times at night.”

437. He got up from there and went to Upper Galilee. He heard the voice of a child saying, “If you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Creator.” He went to another seminary. He heard the voice of another child saying “Seek justice; seek humbleness; perhaps you will be hidden.”

438. He went and searched for that wicked man and asked another child. He told him, “Rabbi, so and so will come to that person who did not leave wickedness and sins in the world that he did not commit. Such and such will become of that wicked one and the nursing woman who nursed him.”

439. He said to him, “Did he leave a son in the world?” He said to him, “Yes, he left one son, who is as wicked as his father, and he is a child who goes to the slaughterhouse.”

He searched for him and took him and taught him Torah, until he taught him the Five Books of Moses, and prayer, and the Shema reading. Afterwards, he taught him Mishnah, Talmud, rules, and legends until he grew very wise, and he is Rabbi Nahum the Pakuli.

440. He was named “The Pakuli,” as it is written, “stumbling in judgment,” since he brought out his father from the judgment in that world. Several of the sages of that generation were called Pakuli.

441. That man came to him in a dream and said to him, “Rabbi, as you comforted me, so will the Creator comfort you, for since the day when my son knew one verse, I was exempted from the judgment. When he read the Shema reading, my sentence was brought up whether in the day or in the night only once. And when he read a verse in his teacher’s house, my judgment was revoked altogether.

442. “On the day when he grew wise and was called a Rabbi, they set up my chair among the righteous in the Garden of Eden, and each day when Torah was innovated by him, I am crowned with a high crown with which the righteous are crowned.

443. “Thanks to you, I have been rewarded with all that honor. Happy is he who left a son in this world who engages in Torah.”