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The Messiah Is Crowned and Wakes Adam From the Dust of Eden

Fitted with a crown and a helmet of salvation, the Messiah walks the burning walls of Paradise and calls Adam and the patriarchs out of sleep.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. A Crown and a Helmet of Salvation
  2. The Walls That Burn Green and Red
  3. The Voice at the Center of the Garden
  4. Enough Sleep

The Messiah waits inside a palace at the center of the garden, and the palace has a name. They call it the Bird's Nest. He has waited there since before the stars, and every sixth day, when Israel begins to sweep its houses and braid its loaves for Shabbat, the souls pressed against the second wall of Gan Eden look up and catch sight of him for the length of a single breath. Then he is gone again. The light of him rests over them for a moment and is hidden away.

This morning the Holy One does not hide him.

A Crown and a Helmet of Salvation

God clothes him. First the crown, set on his head with both hands. Then a helmet of salvation, the kind a man wears walking into a war he cannot lose. Radiance comes next, and splendor, and garments of glory laid over his shoulders until the figure standing in the garden no longer looks like a prisoner who has waited ten thousand years. He looks like a king on the morning of his accession.

The palaces of the garden feel it before anyone speaks. Every palace trembles. The Bird's Nest trembles hardest of all, the way a house shakes when the one who lived in it walks out the door for good. The Messiah steps from the inner chamber, and the righteous who have kept him company step out behind him, and he pulls on the garments of vengeance that were sewn for this single day, the day Israel is saved. The patriarchs fall in beside him. Together they move toward the center.

The Walls That Burn Green and Red

Behind him stand the walls of Paradise, set one inside another like the rings of a tree. The second wall is built of fire, green fire and red fire braided together, and an angel named Paniel stands appointed over it. Paniel knows every soul behind his wall, and they are not the souls a stranger would expect.

They are not sages. They are not men who filled their days with study. Behind Paniel's burning wall stand the parents who had no merit of their own and gave their children to Torah anyway. They could not read the words themselves. They went without so a boy could sit in a house of learning instead of in a field. They strained for it, year after year, and the merit they could not earn for themselves their children carried back to them like water drawn for a thirsty man. Beside them stand people of deeds, ordinary people who once, for the length of a moment, heard a word of Torah or a word of rebuke and did not let it pass. They acted. One moment of acting, and the gate of this wall opened to them.

The pleasantness of the righteous settles over all of them now, the same light that usually lasts a heartbeat and vanishes. This morning it does not vanish.

The Voice at the Center of the Garden

The Messiah reaches the pillar that stands in the middle of the garden, the axis around which the whole of Paradise is wound. He takes hold of the four rings fixed at the four corners of the garden, one in each hand, gripping the world's furthest edges as a man grips the reins of a beast he is about to drive. Then he gives forth his voice.

The firmament over the garden trembles. The sound does not stay inside the walls. It climbs the mountains of the world above, and the Holy One stands him on a high peak so that all Israel will hear, and the words he sends down are plain. "Salvation has drawn near."

Israel looks up at the figure crowned on the mountain and does not know him. "Who are you?" they call. He answers, "I am Ephraim." A murmur goes through them. "Are you the one God called Ephraim, My firstborn, the dear son?" "Yes," he says. And then Israel, who has waited as long as he has, gives him his first command. "Go and bring good news to those sleeping in Machpelah, so they may rise first."

Enough Sleep

He goes down to the cave at Hebron where the patriarchs lie. He stands over the dust and speaks into it. "Abraham. Isaac. Jacob. Rise. Enough sleep."

The dust stirs. A voice comes up out of it, thick with the weight of ages. "Who is this uncovering the dust from over us?" He tells them, "I am the Messiah of the LORD. Salvation has drawn near. The hour has drawn near." There is a silence in the cave. Then the patriarchs answer with the same instinct Israel had on the mountain, the refusal to take the first place for themselves. "If this is truly so, go and bring good news to Adam the first man, so he may rise first."

So the Messiah goes to the oldest sleeper of all, the one whose sin first put the rest of them in the ground. He bends close. "Enough sleep."

Adam stirs. "Who is this driving sleep from my eyes?" And the answer that comes is the one Adam waited for across every generation that descended from his body. "I am the Messiah of the LORD, from among your descendants."

Adam stands. And the instant the first man is on his feet, the ground gives up everyone. His whole generation rises with him. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. All the righteous. All the tribes. Every generation from one end of the world to the other comes up out of the dust at once, blinking in a light that no longer hides itself. They open their mouths, and what comes out is song. The mountains hear it and begin to dance like calves. The trees of the field clap, hand against hand, and over all of it rolls the sound of the feet coming down from the peak, beautiful upon the mountains, carrying the news that the long sleep is finished.

MessiahGan EdenResurrectionAdamPatriarchsAngelsMidrash
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From the tradition

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Otzar Midrashim, Midrashim on The Messiah, Pirkei Mashiach 5Otzar Midrashim, Midrashim on the Messiah

At that hour the Holy One, blessed be He, clothes the Messiah with a crown and places a helmet of salvation on his head. He gives him radiance and splendor, crowns him with garments of glory, and stands him on a high mountain to bring good news to Israel. He makes his voice heard: Salvation has drawn near.

Israel says, "Who are you?" He says, "I am Ephraim." Israel says, "Are you the one whom the Holy One, blessed be He, called Ephraim, My firstborn, the dear son Ephraim?" He says to them, "Yes." Israel says to him, "Go and bring good news to those sleeping in Machpelah, so they may rise first."

At that hour he goes up and brings good news to those sleeping in Machpelah, and says to them, "Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, rise. Enough sleep." They answer and say, "Who is this uncovering the dust from over us?" He says to them, "I am the Messiah of the LORD. Salvation has drawn near. The hour has drawn near." They answer, "If this is truly so, go and bring good news to Adam the first man, so he may rise first."

At that hour they say to Adam the first man, "Enough sleep." He says, "Who is this driving sleep from my eyes?" He says, "I am the Messiah of the LORD, from among your descendants." Immediately Adam and all his generation stand, along with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, all the righteous, all the tribes, and all generations from one end of the world to the other. They raise the sound of song and singing, as it says, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the one who brings good news" (Isaiah 52:7).

Why "upon the mountains"? How beautiful are Moses and his generation, who come from the wilderness. Another interpretation of "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the one who brings good news": it is like a king who had two sons, and one of them died, and all the people of the province wore black. The king said, "You wore black at the death of my first son. I will clothe you in white at the joy of my second son." So the Holy One, blessed be He, said to all the mountains, "Since you wept over My children when they were exiled from their land, as it says, 'For the mountains I will lift up weeping and wailing' (Jeremiah 9:10), so I will bring the joy of My children upon the mountains," as it says, "How beautiful upon the mountains" (Isaiah 52:7).

Beautiful is the King Messiah bringing good news to Israel. The mountains will dance like calves before him, and the trees of the field will clap hand to hand, rejoicing in Israel's salvation, as it says, "For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth in peace" (Isaiah 55:12). How beautiful are the mountains of Israel, drawing milk and honey like flowing streams, and also rivers of wine, as it says, "In that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and a spring shall come out from the house of the LORD and water the Valley of Shittim" (Joel 4:18).

What is the spring like as it comes out from the Holy of Holies to the threshold of the Temple? At first it is like a warp thread; by the sanctuary, like a woof thread; by the courtyard, like horns and trumpets; by the altar, like locust horns; by the Temple court, like a small flask, as it says, "Behold, water trickled" (Ezekiel 47:2). From there it descends like a flowing river, and it is fit for a burnt offering, for purification from menstrual impurity, and for a sin offering. The Angel of Death cannot cross it, as it says, "No mighty ship shall pass through it" (Isaiah 33:21). Even a boat cannot cross it. It descends to the Sea of the Arabah to multiply fish for Israel, and they have salt from that place, as it is written, "Its swamps and marshes shall not be healed; they shall be given over to salt" (Ezekiel 47:11).

Upon it grow all the desired trees of Lebanon, as it says, "By the river, upon its bank, on this side and on that side, shall grow every tree," and "each month it shall bring forth" (Ezekiel 47:12). This is the etrog, which in the future will ripen each and every month, and it is a tree whose leaf is eaten like its fruit, as it says, "Its fruit shall be for food, and its leaf for healing" (Ezekiel 47:12). How beautiful is the Temple, descending and being built on its own mound, as it says, "The city shall be built upon its mound" (Jeremiah 30:18).

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Otzar Midrashim, The Garden of Eden; Gehinnom, Seder Gan Eden 5Otzar Midrashim, Seder Gan Eden

The second wall is made of green and red fire, and the angel Paniel is appointed over them. Inside that wall are all those who gave their children to learn Torah though they themselves did not merit it, but they made the effort with them. There too are people of deeds who, for a moment, when they heard words of Torah or words of rebuke, acted.

There the light from the pleasantness of the righteous rests over them for a moment and is immediately hidden away. All those who wait for the Messiah see the Messiah from there once each day, on the sixth day, from the time Israel begins preparing for Shabbat.

All the palaces in the garden tremble, and the inner palace in which the Messiah is found, called the Bird's Nest, trembles. The Messiah comes out from there, and all the righteous come out with him. He dresses in the garments of vengeance that are destined for him for the salvation of Israel, and all of them enter with him, together with the patriarchs.

He comes out from there and stands in the middle of the garden, at the place of the pillar in the center. He holds the four rings at the four corners of the garden and gives forth his voice, and the firmament over the garden trembles.

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