The Garden of Eden is not a meadow. It is a city of palaces. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, there are nine palaces in the Garden, each stretching sixty myriads of miles. Every palace contains canopies woven from rose and myrtle, and sixty myriads of ministering angels preside over each one. The righteous are led to their assigned places based on their deeds.
Rabbi SAFE0 ben Levi claimed to have toured these mansions personally. The first house, built of white glass and cedar, belongs to the converts who embraced Judaism out of love. Obadiah—himself a convert—presides over them. The second house, built of silver, shelters the penitent, with Manasseh as their guardian. The third is gold and silver, where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, David, Solomon, and the twelve tribes dwell together. Every generation is there except those of Absalom and Korah.
The fourth house is built of olive-wood for those whose lives were bitter but who never rebelled against Providence. The fifth is the most extraordinary. Built of onyx and precious stones, perfumed with balsam, it houses the Messiah and Elijah the Tishbite. There sits the Messiah in a palanquin of Lebanese wood that Moses built in the wilderness. Elijah cradles the Messiah's head and whispers, "Bear the judgment, my master, for the end is near."
Every Monday, Thursday, Sabbath, and holy day, the patriarchs come weeping to the Messiah, urging him to endure. Even Korah and Absalom visit on Thursdays, asking, "When will you bring us back to life?" The Messiah tells them to ask their ancestors. They are too ashamed to do it. When Rabbi Joshua appeared before the Messiah and told him that Israel still awaited him in captivity among the nations, the Messiah lifted his voice and wept.
XX. (1) There are nine palaces in the Garden of Eden,
*and all of them consist of well-built houses with upper
chambers, and the length of the houses is sixty myriads of
miles. Each one of them is presided over by sixty myriads
of ministering angels, and in each of these houses there are
well-arranged canopies made of species of rose and myrtle
trees. Every pious man has his place allotted to him
according to his deeds, and to their appointed places the
ministering angels lead them. There the angels of mercy
dance and sing praises before him, as it is mentioned above.
(2) In the midst of the Garden of Eden there are sixty
myriads of species of trees, the fruit of which the pupils of the
sages eat. There the light of the righteous is as the light of
the sun, and sixty myriads of ministering angels attend them
and feed them, while sixty myriads of angels of mercy sing
and dance before them, and they bring spiced wine and the
juice of the pomegranates, which they drink with delight.
(3) E. Joshua ben Levi said, ' I saw in the Garden of Eden
ten companies and (well) built houses, each one of which
was twelve myriads of miles in length, one hundred and
ten myriads of miles in breadth, and one hundred myriads
of miles in height. (4) The first house was opposite the
first entrance of the Garden of Eden, wherein there dwelt
those proselytes who had converted themselves (to the
Jewish religion) from love. The beams thereof were of
white glass, and the walls thereof of cedar-wood. When I
went to measure it, all the proselytes stood up and tried to
prevent me, when Obadiah immediately rose and said to
them, " Happy would ye be if you should be deemed ^Yorthy
to dwell with such a righteous man." They thereupon
allowed me to measure it. (5) The second house, corre-
sponding with the second gate, is built of silver and its walls
of cedar; therein do the penitent dwell, presided over by
Manasseh. (6) The third house is built of gold and
silver, wherein are to be found all the good things of
heaven and earth, and wherein every kind of food and
drink is arranged. In this house Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob dwell, as well as those who died in the wilderness —
the generation of the wilderness, all the sons of Jacob, and
the twelve tribes, with Moses and Aaron presiding over all
of them. There also are David and Solomon and Caleb,
who is alive, and every generation except those of Absalom
and Korah. (7) I saw there precious stones, beds of gold
and of precious stones, and couches and prepared lights.
David exclaimed, " These are prepared for my children, who
dwell in the world from which I have come." I then said
to him, " Are not all the Israelites here ?" At this our
ancestor Jacob interposed and said, " All Israel are my
children, and they are not like the other nations of the
world, nor are they like the children of Abraham, my
(grand)father, nor like the children of Esau, my brother;
for whosoever of these performs good deeds in the world
from which thou comest is rewarded there, and afterwards
descends to Gehinnom; but my children, even the wicked
among them, though they are punished, it is only during
their lifetime, but after death they inherit the Garden of
Eden." (8j The fourth house is built corresponding to the
first man (Adam): its walls are of olive-wood, and those who
dwell there are those who, though they have been punished
in this world, have not rebelled against Providence. Why
is this house built of olive-wood ? Because their life had
been bitter to them as olive-wood. (9) The fifth house is
built of onyx stones and of precious stones. Its walls are
of gold, and of fine gold, and it is perfumed with balsam.
Thence the river Gihon flows forth and illumines the
upper world; a fragrance breathes through it, which is
44 [XX. 9
more exquisite than the perfume of Lebanon. There
are couches of gold and silver, covered with blue, purple,
and vermilion covers woven together. In this place dwells
the Messiah, the son of David and Elijah the Tishbite,
and there is a palanquin of the wood of Lebanon, which
Moses made in the wilderness [i.e., the Tabernacle],
covered (overlaid) with silver. Its floor is of gold and
its seat of purple, and in the midst of this palanquin
sits the Messiah, the son of David, the beloved one
of the daughters of Jerusalem. Elijah takes him by his
head, and placing him in his bosom, holds him and says,
"Bear the judgment, 0 my master, for the end is near."
(10) And every Monday and Thursday and every Sabbath
and holy -day the patriarchs and the pious and the tribes,
Moses and Aaron, David and Solomon, and all the kings of
the house of David, come to him, and, weeping, take hold of
him and say, " Oh, bear thou the judgment of thy Master,
for the end is near." Korah and his company and Absalom
come also to him every Thursday, and ask, " When is the
end to come? When wilt thou return and bring us to
life ?" To which he replies, " Go ye to your ancestors and
ask them." They are then abashed, and do not go to ask
them. When I came before the Messiah, the son of David,
he asked and said, " What are my children doing in the
captivity ?" And I answered, " Every day they await
thee in their captivity among the nations of the world,
which oppress them." He then lifted up his voice and
wept.
