The Banquet Where God Bequeaths His Throne of Glory

At the far edge of the remade world, where the last fire of the River of Fire had cooled into morning, two princes left the throne and walked toward a wall of green. The Holy One had spoken three words to one of them. Go and give peace to the righteous in My name. So Gabriel went, and beside him went Michael, the prince of Israel, and together they stopped at the gate of the Garden of Eden and lifted their voices to the men and women waiting within.

"Receive peace," they called, "from the King of the kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He."

Two Princes Stand at the Gate of the Garden

The righteous did not rush the threshold. They looked at the angels, and they looked at the tables already laid behind them, and they answered with a request that turned the errand around. "Michael and Gabriel, go back and say to the Holy One, blessed be He: if it please Him, let Him come and dine with us at the feast prepared for us here. Let my Beloved come to His garden and eat its choice fruits."

The two princes carried the words back across the world. "Master of the universe," they said, "thus say the righteous. They ask that You come and dine with them." And the Holy One heeded them, and rose, and went toward the garden He had kept since the first week of all weeks.

The Slain Sea Beast Comes to the Table

The meat at the center of the feast had been waiting longer than any guest. On the fifth day of creation, when the great tanninim still churned the unsplit sea, the Holy One had made the Leviathan the slant serpent and the Leviathan the tortuous serpent male and female. Had the pair been left to mate, the earth could not have held their young, and the world would have been crushed in the coils of its own ocean. So He cut off the male and slew the female, and He salted her flesh and laid it away for the righteous in the time to come.

That day had come. The salted flesh of the great beast was carried in, and the choice fruits of the garden were heaped beside it, and the tables stood ready under trees that had never lost a leaf. The host had not yet sat down.

The Whole World Fills With Light

When the Holy One entered the garden, the righteous sprang to their feet, and the whole world filled with light, as when it is said that the Lord is God and has given light to us. He looked at them standing, every one upright in His presence, and He spoke gently. "Peace be upon you, O righteous. Why do you stand upon your feet? Sit, each one in his place." And He Himself sat down among them, in their place, at the meal He had prepared since the foundation of the world.

"Drink in goodness and eat," He said. "I too have come only in order to dine with you. I have come to My garden, My sister, My bride." Then He leaned toward them like a father with children gathered close. "My children, from the day I created My world I kept back from you only one thing, the Throne of Glory, the place of our sanctuary. Now I bequeath to you My Throne of Glory."

The Shepherds Are Seated and Saul Is Given a Place

He called for the good leaders of Israel, and they played before Him as a man plays with his fellow. Seven shepherds took their seats. At His right sat Adam, Seth, Enosh, and Methuselah. At His left sat Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The princely men followed, Jesse and Saul and Samuel, Zephaniah and Hezekiah, Elijah and the Messiah. David reclined opposite the Shekhinah, six handbreadths away, and Moses kept his own distance of six handbreadths, the length of the tablets he had once carried down a burning mountain.

Only Saul had nowhere to sit. He stood at the edge of the company with no place. Then David rose. "Master of the universe, Saul reigned before me, and he is a perfectly righteous man. Give him a place to sit." And the Holy One gave Saul a seat. Watching this, Solomon pressed his own case. "You sought a place for Saul who came before you. How much more should you seek mercy to seat me." And the Holy One held him in favor. "Look what this one did. He built a house for himself in thirteen years and built Mine in seven, and he set My kingdom before his own." And He gave Solomon a place to sit.

The Wicked Watch and the Last Accuser Dies

When every guest was seated, Moses prepared the feast, butter of cattle and milk of the flock with the fat of lambs. Melchizedek stood and read the names of the rewarded aloud, and the Holy One rose to His own feet to pour for them, going guest to guest. "Which wine do you ask of Me, the wine of apples, or of pomegranates, or the wine preserved in its grapes from the six days of creation?"

At the rim of the light, the wicked gathered and stared. They saw the righteous shining, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at the head, flashes of fire going out from their mouths and rays of splendor on their heads, their brightness reaching from one end of the world to the other. "Who are these," the wicked asked, "for whom He does all this honor?" And He answered, "They are the righteous of Israel." Then even the wicked said, "Happy is the King who has such a people."

And the Holy One turned the old order on its head. The Angel of Death, who had spent every age accusing Israel, He now sent as their defending advocate. The evil inclination, which had bent the human heart toward sin from the beginning, He seized and threw into the fire of the River of Fire, and burned it and swallowed it out of the world, so that death itself would never again be found. Then He became for the righteous their salvation and their consolation and their joy, and the feast went on under the unfading trees, the host at the table among His guests.