He Was Saved from the Judgment of Hell Thanks to His Son

104. A person went to the place of the mountains of darkness, and two others were with him. He saw holes and rifts of fire, and smoke coming out of the holes. He heard a man saying “Woe, woe.” He said, “Here must be one of the places in Hell.”

105. He dozed off, and saw in his dream a man, and a pile of thistles on his shoulders, and two appointees bringing fire under the pile of thistles, and he was burning. He was yelling. And two holy angels, messengers from the judge above, who sentenced him, were telling him, “You left the Creator and His angels who guarded you in this world and in the next world, and you followed the will of the thistles, the wicked ones, who are from the side of Sam and the serpent; therefore, the thistles will burn you.”

106. He said to that wicked one in Hell, “Who are you?” He said, “I am a wicked Jew, and the appointees of Hell do not mention my name to me. Three times a day they sentence me, and twice at night.” He said to him, “Do you know the name of your place?” He said to him, “Upper Galilee.” He said to him, “Did you leave a son in the world?”

107. He said, “I left that son when he was a child. I was a butcher, and from all the evil that I did before, I am sentenced for the sins I did with my mouth and for the sins I did with my legs, and for the sins I did with my hands. The angel appointed over the graves tells me when I am sentenced, ‘Woe to one who swore to observe the Torah and swore falsely. Woe to the skull that never wore Tefillin, and woe to the hands that operated in the vanities of the world, and woe to the feet that walked in the vanities of the world.

108. “When they struck me mortal blows, I said all the sins I had committed, and my soul came with the angel appointed over my soul, and they gave a writing where all that I had done was written. My soul made a testimony with the angel and they said, ‘The dead shall be put to death according to two witnesses or three witnesses.’ This is why it is written, ‘Guard the doors of your mouth from the one who lies in your bosom.’ The one who lies in your bosom is the soul that testifies about a person when he dies.”

109. That man woke from his sleep and went to Upper Galilee. He said to a person, “Have you seen a child who is the son of the butcher who died at so and so time?” He said to him, “The child you are asking about walks in the slaughterhouse and is as wicked as his father. So and so will be to him, to his father, and to the nursing woman who nursed him.” He went to the seminary and heard a child saying, “if you seek it like silver and search it out like hidden treasure.”

110. He went to the slaughterhouse and saw a child playing with the children in the slaughterhouse. He said to hm, “Son, come with me.” He clothed him and gave him to a rav [teacher] who taught him Torah until the child grew and was reading in the book. He taught him to see the Haftara [Torah portion at the end of the Shabbat reading of the Torah] in the house of assembly, and made him pray, until he read, and learned, and grew wiser until he was called a rabbi.

111. That man who died, the child’s father who was sentenced in Hell, came to that sage in a dream and said to him, “Rabbi, as you have comforted me, may the Creator comfort you. When my son said the Haftara in public, I was taken out from the judgment. When he went to the prayer and said Kadish [sanctification, part of the prayer], they tore my sentence altogether. When he grew wise, they gave me a portion in the Garden of Eden. And this is the part that they say, ‘a portion to the next world,’ a portion that each righteous has in his own, and they admitted me into their seminary with the righteous.

112. “When he grew wiser and they called him “rabbi,” they crowned me with a crown that the righteous wear and gave me food and drinks from what they enjoy from the brightness of the Shechina, similar to what he ate and drank. Thanks to you, rabbi, I have been rewarded with all this honor. Happy are you, because thanks to this, you have a higher part in this world and in the next world, and happy is he who is privileged with leaving a son in the world.”