The Holy One, blessed be He, calls the ministering angels
and says to them: "My children I created you only for the sake of
this hour, so that you cause Me satisfaction." The ministering angels
answer Him and say before Him: "Master of the World! Behold, we stand
before You in everything you want." The Holy One, blessed be He,
answers and says: "Go and roam about in the four winds of the world,
and lift up the four corners of the earth, and prepare channels in the
soil for each and every pious man who is in foreign countries to the Land
of Israel, and bring Me each and every pious man, the pious and the saintly
and the sages who gave up their lives for the sanctification of My name
day after day, so that they should not suffer and should come to the Land
of Israel, and [there] I shall resuscitate them."
Instantly they set out, every angel and every seraph, and every heavenly
prince, and every host. And they roam about in the four winds of the world
and lift up the four corners of the earth, and shake the wicked off it.
. . . And they make channels in the soil of the earth for all the pious
men who are in foreign countries, and bring them through the channels
to the Land of Israel, to the Holy One, blessed be He, to Jerusalem. And
the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself rises and resuscitates them and makes
them stand on their feet.
And how does the Holy One, blessed be He, resuscitate the dead in the
World to Come? We are taught that the Holy One, blessed be He, takes in
His hand a Great Shofar, which is a thousand cubits of the cubits of the
Holy One, blessed be He, and blows it, and its sound goes from one end
of the world to the other. At the first blow the whole world shakes. At
the second blow the dust breaks up. At the third blow their bones gather.
At the fourth blow the members become warm. At the fifth blow their skins
are stretched over them. At the sixth blow spirits and souls enter their
bodies. At the seventh blow they become alive and stand up on their feet
in their clothes. . . .
(Mid. Alpha Beta diR. Akiba, BhM 3:31)
- - -
The letter kaf [whose name means "palm of the hand,"]
indicates that at the banquet of the pious in the World to Come, He will
clap His hands in great joy, and will rise and dance before them at the
banquet. And each pious man will be accompanied by the Shekhina with a
myriad myriads of ministering angels, with pillars of lightning round
about them, and sparks of splendor will surround them, and fireworks of
radiance will make their faces glow, and sparks of light will make their
eyelids shine. And winds will gather before them, and clouds drip before
their faces, and mountains dance before them. . . .
In the future Isaiah will say before the Holy One, blessed be He, at the
banquet of the pious in the Garden of Eden, in the hour when He dances
before them: "Master of the World! Your hand is exalted. Let not
the wicked come and see the happiness of the pious." But the Holy
One, blessed be He, answers and says: "Isaiah, My son, let them come
and see the joy and the happiness of the pious, and let them be covered
with shame and disgrace. . . ." Isaiah answers and says before the
Holy One, blessed be He: "Let them not come and not see!" The
Holy One, blessed be He, says: "Who should decide between us so that
we do as he says?" Isaiah answers and says before Him: "Master
of the World! Let the Great Community of Israel come and decide between
us, and we shall do [accordingly]." Instantly the Holy One, blessed
be He, calls Metatron, the Prince of the Face, and says: "My servant,
go and fetch the Community of Israel, so that she decide between us."
Instantly Metatron goes and brings the Community of Israel before the
Holy One, blessed be He, and before Isaiah. And when the Community of
Israel sees the Holy One, blessed be He, she says before Him: "Why
did You summon us?" The Holy One, blessed be He, answers and says
to her: "My daughter because I say let the wicked come and see the
happiness of the pious [and Isaiah says let them not come]." She
answers: "Let them come and be shamed…"
In that hour the wicked come to the door of the Garden of Eden, and stand
and watch the happiness of the pious. And they see all the pious, each
one with the face of his glory, in royal robes, and with a royal crown,
and with jewels of kingly pearls. And each one sits like a king on his
golden throne, and before each one is a table of pearls, and in the hands
of each is a golden goblet emblazoned with precious stones and pearls
and filled with the elixir of life. And all the delicacies of the Garden
of Eden are placed before them on the table, and before each one stand
three ministering angels to serve them. And rays of majesty are on their
heads, and sparks and lightnings issue from their mouths, and the radiance
of their faces goes from one end of the world to the other like the radiance
of the sun. . . . And the heaven and the heaven of heavens open their
doors, and let rain upon them fragrant dews of pure balsam whose scent
goes from one end of the world to the other. And a thousand thousands
of ministering angels stand before them, holding in their hands pipes
and harps and cymbals and every instrument of song, and they sing before
them at the banquet. And the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself stands and
dances at the banquet, and the sun and the moon and the stars and the
constellations are on His right and left, and dance with Him before them.
And when the wicked see all that greatness and royalty, and all that splendor
and glory, they stretch their height to one hundred cubits so as to be
able to see the honor of the pious in the Hall, and they ask about them,
saying: "Who are these to whom the Holy One, blessed be He, has given
all this honor and all this greatness?" And the ministering angels
will answer and say to them: "These are the people of the Holy One,
blessed be He, who occupied themselves with His Tora and with His commandments,
and they were brought to the Garden of Eden to receive a goodly reward
and a good portion." Instantly the wicked fall upon their faces and
open their mouths in praise of the Holy One, blessed be He, and of the
pious, and say: Happy is the people that is in such a case; yea, happy
is the people whose God is the Lord (Ps. 144:15
(Mid. Alpha Beta diR. Akiba, B:33-34)hM 3
- - -
The Holy One, blessed be He, will in the future call all
of the pious by their names, and give them a cup of elixir of life in
their hands so that they should live and endure forever. . . . And the
Holy One, blessed be He, will in the future reveal to all the pious in
the World to Come the Ineffable Name with which new heavens and a new
earth can be created, so that all of them should be able to create new
worlds The Holy One, blessed be He, will give every pious three hundred
and forty worlds in inheritance in the World to Come. . . . To all the
pious the Holy One, blessed be He, will give a sign and a part in the
goodly reward, and everlasting renown, glory and greatness and praise,
a crown encompassed in holiness, and royalty, equal to those of all the
pious in the World to Come. The sign will be the cup of life which the
Holy One, blessed be He, will give to the Messiah and to the pious in
the Future to Come.
(Mid. Alpha Beta diR. Akiba, BhM 3:32)
- - -
In the future the Holy One, blessed be He, will sit in the
Garden of Eden and expound [the Tora]. And all the pious will sit before
Him, and all the Supernal Family will stand on its feet. On the right
of the Holy One, blessed be He, will be the sun with the constellations,
and on His left the moon and all the stars. And the Holy One, blessed
be He, will expound to them the meanings of a new Tora which He will give
them through the Messiah. And when He reaches the Aggada [legends], Zerubbabel
ben Shealtiel will rise to his feet and will say: "Yitgadal w'yitqadash,
may the Great Name of the Lord be exalted and sanctified [the Kaddish
prayer]. . . ." And his voice will go from one end of the world to
the other, and those who walk on earth will answer, "Amen."
And even the wicked of Israel and the pious of the nations of the world
who will have remained in Gehenna will answer and say, "Amen,"
from the depths of Gehenna, until the whole world reverberates and their
voice is heard before the Holy One, blessed be He, and He asks about them
and says: "What is this great reverberation which I hear?"
The ministering angels answer and say before Him: "Master of the
World! These are the wicked of Israel and the pious of the nations of
the world who have been left in Gehenna, who answer 'Amen' from Gehenna."
Instantly the compassion of the Holy One, blessed be He, is greatly aroused
toward them and He says: "What can I do for them about this punishment
which the Evil Inclination had brought upon them?"
In that hour the Holy One, blessed be He, takes the keys of Gehenna and,
in front of all the pious, gives them to Michael and Gabriel, and says
to them: "Go and open the gates of Gehenna, and bring them up from
Gehenna…"
Instantly Michael and Gabriel go and open the forty thousand gates of
Gehenna, and bring them up from Gehenna. And how do they bring them up
from Gehenna? It teaches us that each Gehenna has a length of three hundred
parasangs and a width of three hundred parasangs, and its thickness is
a thousand parasangs, and its depth is a thousand parasangs, and none
of the wicked who fall into it can get out of it. What, then, do Michael
and Gabriel do? In that hour they get hold of the hand of each one of
the wicked and pull them up, like a man who raises his fellow man and
pulls him up from a pit. . . . And Gabriel and Michael stand over them
in that hour, and wash them, and anoint them with oil, and heal them of
the wounds of Gehenna, and clothe them in beautiful and good garments,
and take them by their hand, and bring them before the Holy One, blessed
be He, and before all the pious, all spruced and cleaned up….
And when they reach the gate of the Garden of Eden, first Gabriel and
Michael enter and take counsel with the Holy One, blessed be He. The Holy
One, blessed be He, answers them and says: "Let them enter and see
My glory." As soon as they enter they fall upon their faces and prostrate
themselves before Him and bless and praise the name of the Holy One, blessed
be He. Instantly the totally pious and honest who sit before the Holy
One, blessed be He, give praise and exalt the Holy One, blessed be He....
As soon as the wicked are brought up and repent before the Holy One, blessed
be He, they are accepted before the Shekhina like the pious and the saintly
who never sinned. . . . And more than that: they are brought up and seated
in the Yeshiva next to the Shekhina because they broke their heart in
repentance before the Holy One, blessed be He. . . .
(Mid. Alpha Beta diR. Akiba, BhM 3:27-29)
Source: Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts, Wayne
State University Press.