Rabbi Yochanan ben Zachai says, that coming once upon a man who was gathering wood, he addressed him, but at first he made no reply. Afterward, however, he came up and said, "Rabbi, I'm not a living man, but a dead one." "If thou art a dead man," said I, "what is this wood for?" He replied, "When I was alive upon earth, I and an associate of mine committed a certain sin in my shop, and when we were taken thence, we were sentenced to the punishment of mutual burning; so I gather wood to burn him, and he does the same to burn me."
I then asked him, "How long are you to be punished thus?" He replied, " When I came here my wife was enceinte, and I know she gave birth to a boy. May I beg thee, therefore, to see that the child is instructed by a teacher, for as soon as he is able to repeat, ( Bless ye the blessed Lord! > I shall be brought up hence and be free from this punishment in hell." Tanu d'bjy Eliyahu.