Hebrew Visions of Hell and Paradise Reader

R. Joshua, son of Levi, was a pious man. When the time approached that he should leave this world, the Lord said to the angel of death, "Go and fulfil whatever his wish may be." He went to him and said unto him: "The time is nigh when thou shalt leave this world, but now tell me what thou wishest, that I may fulfil it." As soon as R. Joshua heard this, he said: "I pray thee, show me my place in Paradise." He answered and said: "Come and I will show thee it." R. Joshua answered and said, "Give me thy sword, so that thou shouldst not frighten me." And he gave him his sword. So they went together till they reached the wall of Paradise. At that moment R. Joshua jumped down from the wall and fell into Paradise. The angel of death caught him by his mantle and said to him, "Get thee out thence." But R. Joshua swore by the name of God that he would not do so. The angel of death had no power to enter therein.

R. Joshua, son of Levi, tells: "Paradise has two gates of carbuncle, and sixty myriads of ministering angels keep watch over them. Each of these angels shine with the lustre of the heavens. When the just man approaches them they divest him of the clothes in which he had been buried and clothe him with eight clothes, woven out of clouds of glory, and place upon his head two crowns, one of precious stones and pearls and the other of gold." And they undergo three transformations passing through three wards. In the first ward the just is changed into a child, and he enters the compartment of children and tastes the joys of childhood. In the second ward he is changed into a youth, there he enjoys the delights of youth. In the third ward he is changed into an old man, he enters the compartment of the old and enjoys the pleasures of mature age.

I saw further the fiery river Rigyon, which comes out before God, from under the throne of glory, and is formed from the perspiration of the holy Creatures who support the throne of glory; and out of dread of God's majesty perspire fire. This river is meant by the saying "a fiery stream issued and came forth before him; thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the judgment was set and the books were opened" (Dan. vii. 10). For the Almighty sits and judges the ministering angels, and after the judgment they bathe in that river of fire and are renewed. Afterwards the river flows on and carries with it fiery coals, and falls on the heads of the sinners in Hell, as it is said: "Behold the tempest of the Lord, even His fury is gone forth, yea, a whirling tempest; it shall burst on the head of the wicked" (Jer. xxiii. 19).

R. Joshua went and searched through Paradise and he found therein seven compartments, each of twelve myriads of miles in width, and twelve myriads of miles in length; the measure of their width being the same as that of their length. The first compartment corresponds to the first door of Paradise. Here dwell the proselytes who had embraced Judaism of their own free will, not from compulsion. The walls are of glass and the wainscoting of cedar. The second compartment is built of silver and the wainscoting thereof of cedar. Here dwell those who repent, and Manasseh, son of Ezekiah, presides over them. The third compartment is built of silver and gold. Here dwell Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and all the Israelites who came out of Egypt, and the whole generation who had lived in the desert, and all the kings. The fourth compartment is beautifully built, but its wainscoting is of olive-wood. Here dwell the perfect, and faithful, and just men. Why is the wainscoting of olive-wood? Because their life has been bitter to them as olives.

The fifth compartment is of silver, and gold, and refined gold, and of crystal, and bdellium; and through its midst flows the river Gihon. The walls are of silver and gold, and a perfume breathes through it more exquisite than the perfume of Lebanon. And beds of silver and gold are there prepared, covered with violet and purple covers. Here dwell the Messiah and Elijah in a palanquin of the wood of Lebanon; the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the seat of it of purple. Herein lieth the Messiah, the son of David. The prophet Elijah takes the head of the Messiah and places it in his bosom and says to him: "Be quiet and wait, for the end draweth nigh." On every Monday and Thursday and Saturday and Holiday the Patriarchs come to him and the fathers of the Tribes and Moses and Aaron and David and Solomon and every king of Israel and of the house of Judah, and they weep with him and comfort him.

God said then to Moses: "Moses, my servant! Thou camest up here and hast been worthy of the privilege of seeing all with thy (earthly) power; and I have made thee ascend seven heavens, and have shown thee my treasures and I have given thee my law. Now thou shalt be worthy of seeing the two parks I have created in this world, one for the righteous and one for the sinners, viz. Paradise and Hell." At that hour God sent Gabriel and said unto him: "Go with my beloved servant Moses and show him Hell!" And Moses said to him: "I cannot enter Hell, that blazing fire." He said to him: "Moses, there is a fire which burns more than all the seven Hells, and yet when thou wilt tread it with thy feet, it shall not burn thee." At an hour when Moses entered Hell, the fire of Hell withdrew for 500 parasangs. The master of Hell said to him: "Who art thou?" He answered: "I am the son of Amram." The Lord of Hell answered: "Not here is thy place." And Moses said: "I came to see the powerful works of God, blessed be He."

Moses saw there men tortured by the angels of destruction. Some of the sinners were hanged by their eyelids, some by their ears, some by their hands, and others by their tongues, and they cried bitterly. And he saw women hanging by their hair and by their breasts and in such like ways, all were hanging by chains of fire. And Moses asked the Lord of Hell, and said "Why are these hanged by their eyes and by their tongues and are so fearfully tortured and so sorely punished?" And the master of Hell answered: "Because they looked with an evil eye at fair women, and at married women, and at the money of their friends and neighbours, and gave false witness against their neighbours." He saw other men hanging by their ears and their tongues, and he asked: "Why are these hanging by their ears and tongues?" And he answered: "Because they neglected the study of the law, and talked slander and vain words and empty words."

Moses went further and saw two sinners hanged by their feet with their heads downwards, and they cried by reason of the torture of Hell, and their bodies were covered with black worms, each worm 500 parasangs long. And these sinners cry and lament, saying: "Woe unto us, for the terrible punishment of Hell; would we could die." But they cannot die. Moses went then to another place. There the sinners were lying on their faces; and he saw two thousand scorpions swarming over them and stinging them and torturing them, and the sinners cried bitterly. Each scorpion has 70,000 mouths, and each mouth 70,000 stings, and each sting has 70,000 vesicles filled with poison and venom. He saw there another place where the sinners stood up to their knees; the name of that place is Tit hayaven ("miry clay"). Angels of destruction tie them up with chains of iron and lash them with fiery whips, and they take fiery stones and break with them the teeth of the sinners, from morning until evening.