Rabbi Ze’eira desired to see Rabbi Yosei ben Rabbi Ḥanina [in a dream]. He appeared to him. [Rabbi Ze’eira] said to him: ‘Alongside whom are you situated [in heaven]?’ He said: ‘Alongside Rabbi Yoḥanan.’ [Rabbi Ze’eira asked:] ‘And Rabbi Yoḥanan, alongside whom [is he situated]?’ ‘Alongside Rabbi Yonatan ben Amram.’ ‘And Rabbi Yonatan ben Amram, alongside whom?’ ‘Alongside Rabbi Ḥiyya the Great.’ ‘And Rabbi Rabbi Ḥiyya the Great, alongside whom?’ ‘Alongside Rabbi Yoḥanan.’48The last exchange is omitted in the portrayal of this dream in Bava Metzia 85b. That version appears to be more accurate, given the next sentence. [Rabbi Ze’eira asked:] ‘But Rabbi Yoḥanan is not alongside Rabbi Ḥiyya?’ [Rabbi Yosei ben Rabbi Ḥanina] said to him: ‘In a place of fiery sparks and burning fires, who can bring the son of Nappaĥa49Son of a blacksmith, an appellation for Rabbi Yoḥanan. there?’
When Rabbi Naḥum, the man who was holy of holies, died, they covered the faces of the statues with mats. They said: Let him not see in his death what he did not see in his lifetime.50Rabbi Naḥum would not look at statues in his lifetime, which he considered idolatrous or semi-idolatrous, and they did not want him to see them as his funeral procession passed by. Is it possible that he would see them [when he was dead]?
Rabbi Ashyan said: The difference between the righteous [after death] and the wicked [while alive] is only with regard to speech.51Even after death, the righteous see and hear what is happening on earth. Rabbi Shimon ben Levi said: The difference between the righteous and us is only with regard to speech. Rabbi Ze’eira said: The dead hears his accolades from inside his bier like a dream. Why was he called Naḥum, the man who was holy of holies?
Because he never looked at the image engraved on a coin in his life. Rabbi Ḥiyya said: “Do not turn to false gods” (Leviticus 19:4) – do not turn [to them] to worship them. Rabbi [Yehuda HaNasi] said: Do not turn to see them, in its plain sense. Why was [Rabbi Yehuda haNasi] called our holy Rabbi? Because he never looked at his circumcision in his life.
Antalimus52Antoninus. was circumcised. He said to Rabbeinu [Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi]: ‘Look at this circumcision of mine.’53He was proud that he had converted. He said to him: ‘At my own I have never looked, will I look at yours?’