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 undefined 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.