Rabbi Ze’eira said: “Behold it was very good” – this is the Garden of Eden; “and behold it was very good” – this is Gehenna. Is Gehenna, then, very good? This is a rhetorical question. This is analogous to a king who had an orchard. He stationed laborers there and he built a storage house at its entrance. He said: ‘Anyone who performs successfully in the labor of the orchard, he may enter its treasury; anyone who does not perform successfully in the labor of the orchard, he may not enter its treasury.’ So, too, anyone who amasses mitzvot and good deeds, here is the Garden of Eden. Anyone who does not amass mitzvot and good deeds, here is Gehenna.16Gehenna is a good thing in that it spurs man to act virtuously.