That's precisely what happened to Abraham.
The story goes that the archangel Michael, under divine command, took Abraham on a whirlwind tour high above the earth. Picture this: Abraham, riding in a chariot of the cherubim, soaring through the heavens with sixty angels as his entourage! He sees it all: adultery, theft, and even planned murder.
And Abraham, in his righteous indignation, calls down swift justice. Fire from heaven! Wild beasts from the desert! The earth opening up to swallow the wicked whole! He's dealing out punishment like a divine judge, but with perhaps a little less... patience.
But then, God intervenes. "Turn Abraham away," He tells Michael. "He has no compassion on sinners, but I do. I want them to turn, to live, to repent!" As we see in many places throughout Jewish tradition, God emphasizes the importance of teshuvah (repentance), repentance, and the chance for everyone to turn back to the right path.
So, Michael redirects the chariot to the "place of judgment of all souls," where Abraham sees two gates: one narrow, leading to Paradise, and one broad, leading to destruction. Confronted with this stark reality, Abraham weeps, worrying about his own ability to pass through the narrow gate. Michael reassures him, but the scene highlights the constant struggle between good and evil, a theme echoed throughout Jewish thought.
The story then takes an even more compassionate turn. Abraham witnesses a soul whose sins and merits are perfectly balanced. It's in limbo! And Abraham, moved with empathy, prays for the soul, and his prayer is answered. The soul is saved and taken to Paradise. According to Ginzberg's retelling of this story in Legends of the Jews, this act transforms Abraham. He realizes the power of prayer and the importance of divine mercy.
Filled with remorse, Abraham then pleads for the sinners he condemned earlier. "I know that I have sinned," he cries out. And God, in His infinite compassion, forgives Abraham and restores those he had destroyed. This section underscores a powerful message: even the most righteous can err, and forgiveness is always possible. It shows how God cherishes even the worst sinners and wants them to return to the path of righteousness.
But the story doesn't end there. When Michael returns Abraham home, tragedy strikes: Sarah, overcome with grief at his absence, has died. Even after witnessing such celestial wonders, Abraham faces profound human loss. And when Michael comes to take Abraham's soul, he refuses!
Michael then ascends to heaven and says to God, "Abraham refuses to surrender his soul to me!"
Finally, God sends Death to Abraham, but not in the terrifying form we might expect. Instead, Death appears in great beauty and glory. Death explains that he only appears this way to the righteous; to sinners, he comes in a horrifying form. Abraham asks to see Death's corruption, and when he does, even his servants are struck dead! But Abraham's prayer restores them.
In the end, God removes Abraham's soul as gently as a dream, and Michael carries it to Paradise, where Abraham is welcomed with great honor. He is placed among the righteous, including Isaac and Jacob. But it's not just eternal rest for Abraham; he continues to intercede for sinners, even in the afterlife, especially those who kept the covenant of circumcision, guarding them from the torments of hell.
What does this all mean? This story from Legends of the Jews, drawing from various traditions, paints a vivid picture of Abraham's journey, not just as a patriarch, but as a deeply compassionate and ultimately flawed human being. He learns about divine justice, the importance of mercy, and the power of prayer. It reminds us that even the most righteous figures in our tradition wrestled with complex moral questions, and that compassion and forgiveness are at the heart of the divine-human relationship. And maybe, just maybe, it offers a glimpse of what awaits us in the world to come.
The archangel Michael went down, and took Abraham upon a chariot of the cherubim, and lifted him up into the air of heaven, and led him upon the cloud, together with sixty angels, and Abraham ascended upon the chariot over all the earth, and saw all things that are below on the earth, both good and bad. Looking down upon the earth, he saw a man committing adultery with a wedded woman, and turning to Michael he said, "Send fire from heaven to consume them." Straightway there came down fire and consumed them, for God had commanded Michael to do whatsoever Abraham should ask him to do. He looked again, and he saw thieves digging through a house, and Abraham said, "Let wild beasts come out of the desert, and tear them in pieces," and immediately wild beasts came out of the desert and devoured them. Again he looked down, and he saw people preparing to commit murder, and he said, "Let the earth open and swallow them," and, as he spoke, the earth swallowed them alive. Then God spoke to Michael: "Turn away Abraham to his own house and let him not go round the whole earth, because he has no compassion on sinners, but I have compassion on sinners, that they may turn and live and repent of their sins, and be saved." So Michael turned the chariot, and brought Abraham to the place of judgment of all souls. Here he saw two gates, the one broad and the other narrow, the narrow gate that of the just, which leads to life, they that enter through it go into Paradise. The broad gate is that of sinners, which leads to destruction and eternal punishment. Then Abraham wept, saying, "Woe is me, what shall I do? for I am a man big of body, and how shall I be able to enter by the narrow gate?" Michael answered, and said to Abraham, "Fear not, nor grieve, for thou shalt enter by it unhindered, and all they who are like thee." Abraham, perceiving that a soul was adjudged to be set in the midst, asked Michael the reason for it, and Michael answered, "Because the judge found its sins and its righteousness equal, he neither committed it to judgment nor to be saved." Abraham said to Michael, "Let us pray for this soul, and see whether God will hear us," and when they rose up from their prayer, Michael informed Abraham that the soul was saved by the prayer, and was taken by an angel and carried up to Paradise. Abraham said to Michael, "Let us yet call upon the Lord and supplicate His compassion and entreat His mercy for the souls of the sinners whom I formerly, in my anger, cursed and destroyed, whom the earth devoured, and the wild beasts tore in pieces, and the fire consumed, through my words. Now I know that I have sinned before the Lord our God." After the joint prayer of the archangel and Abraham, there came a voice from heaven, saying, "Abraham, Abraham, I have hearkened to thy voice and thy prayer, and I forgive thee thy sin, and those whom thou thinkest that I destroyed, I have called up and brought them into life by My exceeding kindness, because for a season I have requited them in judgment, and those whom I destroy living upon earth, I will not requite in death." When Michael brought Abraham back to his house, they found Sarah dead. Not seeing what had become of Abraham, she was consumed with grief and gave up her soul. Though Michael had fulfilled Abraham's wish, and had shown him all the earth and the judgment and recompense, he still refused to surrender his soul to Michael, and the archangel again ascended to heaven, and said unto the Lord: "Thus speaks Abraham, I will not go with thee, and I refrain from laying my hands on him, because from the beginning he was Thy friend, and he has done all things pleasing in Thy sight. There is no man like him on earth, not even Job, the wondrous man." But when the day of the death of Abraham drew nigh, God commanded Michael to adorn Death with great beauty and send him thus to Abraham, that he might see him with his eyes. While sitting under the oak of Mamre, Abraham perceived a flashing of light and a smell of sweet odor, and turning around he saw Death coming toward him in great glory and beauty. And Death said unto Abraham: "Think not, Abraham, that this beauty is mine, or that I come thus to every man. Nay, but if any one is righteous like thee, I thus take a crown and come to him, but if he is a sinner, I come in great corruption, and out of their sins I make a crown for my head, and I shake them with great fear, so that they are dismayed." Abraham said to him, "And art thou, indeed, he that is called Death?" He answered, and said, "I am the bitter name," but Abraham answered, "I will not go with thee." And Abraham said to Death, "Show us thy corruption." And Death revealed his corruption, showing two heads, the one had the face of a serpent, the other head was like a sword. All the servants of Abraham, looking at the fierce mien of Death, died, but Abraham prayed to the Lord, and he raised them up. As the looks of Death were not able to cause Abraham's soul to depart from him, God removed the soul of Abraham as in a dream, and the archangel Michael took it up into heaven. After great praise and glory had been given to the Lord by the angels who brought Abraham's soul, and after Abraham bowed down to worship, then came the voice of God, saying thus: "Take My friend Abraham into Paradise, where are the tabernacles of My righteous ones and the abodes of My saints Isaac and Jacob in his bosom, where there is no trouble, nor grief, nor sighing, but peace and rejoicing and life unending." Abraham's activity did not cease with his death, and as he interceded in this world for the sinners, so will he intercede for them in the world to come. On the day of judgment he will sit at the gate of hell, and he will not suffer those who kept the law of circumcision to enter therein.
