At the gate of Gehinnom, two walls of angels do not whisper. They cry, "Give! Give!" Otzar Midrashim's Book of Gehinnom opens with Rabbi Zeira reading the leech's daughters in (Proverbs 30:15) as the voice of judgment itself. Every soul brought near the fire has to answer for a life that can no longer be edited.
The text gives the place many names. Gehinnom groans from one end of the world to the other. Tofteh is the pit reached through the yetzer hara, the evil inclination that lured a person step by step. Rabbi Yochanan reads (Psalms 84:7) as the confession of the wicked passing through the valley of weeping, naming themselves, their father's house, and the sin that brought them there.
Then the vision turns physical. The angel Dumah receives the soul. Angels of destruction beat it, expose its deeds, and lead it through chambers of fire, snow, darkness, and shame. Gehinnom is not random cruelty in this midrash. It is memory made unbearable. The soul sees what it did, feels what it damaged, and cannot pretend innocence.
Even here, the text leaves a crack of mercy. The point of confession is not spectacle. It is truth. Gehinnom forces the soul to say aloud what it hid in life, and the first step out of judgment is no longer lying.
The Book of Gehinnom [Reishit Chochmah: Gate of Fear: Chapter 12; Beit haMidrash: Section 1] It is written: "Who can stand before His wrath? Who can resist His fury?" (Nahum 1:6). Rabbi Zeira opened [the discussion of Gehinnom with the verse]: "The leech has two daughters, 'Give!' and 'Give!'" (Proverbs 30:15). Said Rabbi Eliezer: Two walls of angels stand at the entrance of Gehinnom, and they say "Give! Give! Bring! Bring!" And why is its name Gehinnom? Because the sound of its groaning (from the Hebrew root NHM) goes from one end of the world to its other end. And why is its name Taphteh? Because all enter there through the temptation (from the Hebrew root PTH) of the evil inclination. Chapter 1: Rabbi Yochanan opened: "Those who pass through the valley of weeping (alluding to Gehinnom) turn it into a water spring; moreover, the early rain covers it with blessings." (Psalms 84:7). This teaches that the evil person confesses like the leper (who has to cover his upper lip) confesses, and says "I am so-and-so, son of so-and-so. I committed such-and-such sin in such-and-such place on such-and-such day in front of so-and-so in such-and-such and such-and-such gathering. There are three gates (reading שערים as per mss.) in Gehinnom, one in the sea, one in the wilderness, and one in settled land. From where is the one in the sea? As it is said: "From the belly of Sheol (another name for Gehinnom) I cried out, And You heard my voice." (Jonah 2:3). From where is the one in the wilderness? As it is said: "They went down [with all that belonged to them] alive into Sheol..." (Numbers 16:33). From where is the one in settled land? As it is said: "Declares the LORD, who has a fire in Zion, Who has an oven in Jerusalem." (Isaiah 31:9). There are five types of fire in Gehinnom: Fire that eats and drinks, that drinks and doesn't eat, that eats and doesn't drink, that doesn't eat and doesn't drink, and there is fire that eats fire. There are burning coals the size of mountains in it, and there are burning coals the size of hills in it. There are burning coals the size of the Dead Sea in it, and there are burning coals the size of large stones in it. There are rivers of pitch and sulfur in it, dragging and boiling hot coals of broom-wood. The sentence of an evil person: Angels of destruction push him so that he falls on his face and others receive him from them and push him in front of the fire of Gehinnom, and it opens its mouth wide and swallows him, as it is said: "Assuredly, Sheol has opened wide its gullet And parted its jaws in a measureless gape; And down into it shall go, That splendor and tumult, That din and revelry." (ibid. 5:14), to the one who doesn't have a single positive action that tilts him to the side of merit, but one who has in his hand Torah and good deeds and great afflictions come upon him is saved from the judgement of Gehinnom, as it is said: "Though I walk through a valley of deepest darkness, I fear no harm... Your rod and Your staff—they comfort me." (Psalms 23:4). "Your rod," those are the afflictions, "and Your staff," that is the Torah. Chapter 2: Rabbi Yochanan opened: "But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall have no way to flee, and their hope shall be the drooping of the soul." (Job 11:20), a body that isn't destroyed and its soul leaves in a fire that doesn't extinguish, and about them the scripture says: "For their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched." (Isaiah 66:24). Said Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi: One time, I walked on the road and I found Elijah the Prophet, his memory for blessing. He said to me: Is it your desire that I place you at the gate of Gehinnom? I said to him: Yes. He showed me humans that were hanging by their noses and humans that were hanging by their hands and humans that were hanging by their tongues and humans that were hanging by their legs, and he showed me women that were hanging by their chests, and he showed me humans that were hanging by their eyes, and he showed me humans to whom they were feeding their flesh and humans to whom they were feeding hot coals of broom-wood and humans sitting alive and worms were eating them. He said to me: These are the ones that about them it is written "For their worm shall not die." (ibid.). And he showed me humans to whom they were feeding fine sand, and they were feeding them against their will and their teeth were breaking, and the Holy One Blessed Is He was saying to them: Evil ones, when you ate stolen [food], it was sweet in your mouths, and now there isn't within you the strength to eat, to fulfill that which is said: "You break the teeth of the wicked." (Psalms 3:8). And he showed me humans whom they were casting from the fire to the snow and from the snow to the fire like this shepherd who shepherds his sheep from mountain to mountain, and about them the scripture says: "Sheeplike they head for Sheol, with Death as their shepherd. The upright shall rule over them at daybreak, and their form shall waste away in Sheol till its nobility be gone." (ibid. 49:15). Said Rabbi Yochanan: Each individual angel is appointed to exact the punishment of one sin. This one comes and judges him and goes on his way, and so the second one and so the third one and so all of them until they recompense for all the sins that are in his hand. To what is the matter similar? To a debtor who had many creditors and they brought him before the king. Said to them the king: What should I do for you? Go and split it (his money) between yourselves. [So too] at that time, his soul is passed in Gehinnom to cruel angels and they split it between themselves. Chapter 3: It is stated: Three go down to Gehinnom and don't go up: The one who has an affair with someone's wife and the one who whitens the face (embarrasses) of his friend in public and the one who swears falsely in the name of God, and some say even the one who is honored through the dishonor of his friend and the one who causes friction between a man and his wife to bring strife between them. On every Sabbath eve, they bring them to two snowy mountains and leave them there, and at the Sabbath's departure, they return them to their places, and an angel goes out and pushes them and returns them to their places in Gehinnom. And from them (the mountains) they take snow and put it beneath their underarms in order to cool them during the six weekdays, and the Holy One Blessed Is He says to them: Evil ones, Woe to you that even in Gehinnom you are stealing, as it is said: "May drought and heat snatch away their snow waters, And Sheol, those who have sinned." (Job 24:19, read homiletically as they will snatch away snow waters), as if to say: even in Sheol they sinned. Chapter 4: Every twelve months they (the evil ones) are made into ashes and the wind scatters them under the feet of the righteous, as it is written: "And you shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet." (Malachi 3:21), and after that, their souls return into them and they go out from Gehinnom and their faces are black like the bottom of a pot and they affirm the righteousness of the judgement over them and say: You have sentenced us properly, You have judged us properly. Lord, righteousness is Yours, but we are shamefaced, as of this day. But the nations of the world, the worshipers of foreign worship, they judge them in seven pyres of fire and in every individual pyre [they are judged for] twelve months. And the River of Fire goes out from under the Throne of Glory and descends on them and goes from one end of the world to its other end. And there are seven pyres in Gehinnom (reading בגיהנם as per mss.) (In the Midrash Rut HaNe'elam they detailed the seven pyres. See Zohar Chadash: 33, and see also Zohar: Terumah: 150b that there is a place in Gehinnom that is called boiling excrement..., also in Midrash Tehillim 11:6), and in each individual pyre there are six thousand houses, and in each individual house there are six thousand windows, and in each individual window there are six thousand jugs of bitterness, and all of them are prepared for the scribes and for the judges that did not act reasonably, and concerning that time Solomon said: "And in the end you roar, When your flesh and body are consumed..." (Proverbs 5:11), and not one of them escapes, unless there is Torah and good deeds in him. After all of this, the Holy One Blessed Is He has mercy on His creations, as it is said: "For I will not always contend, I will not be angry forever: Nay, I who make spirits flag, Also create the breath of life." (Isaiah 57:16). Completed is the Book of Gehinnom
