and lectured: And it was the day of the summer solstice. The heavens were wrapped in clouds, and there appeared the form of a bow in the cloud, and the angels were assembling and coming to hearken, as the men assemble and come to look at the festivities of bridegroom and bride. R. Jose the priest went forward and related the whole occurrence to Rabban Johanan b. Zakkai, who said: Blessed are ye, and blessed is she that bare you. Blessed are mine eyes, that they have thus seen. And also in my dream I and ye were resting upon Mount Sinai, and a heavenly voice was heard, which said: Come up hither, come up hither. Large banqueting chambers are prepared and fair coverlets are spread for you, you and your disciples and your disciples' disciples, as fitted to attain to the third degree of blessedness.
Is it so? Have we not learned in a Boraitha: R. Jose in the name of R. Jehudah said: There were three consecutive expositions. R. Joshua explained things before R. Johanan b. Zakkai; R. Agiba explained things before R. Joshua; Hananiah b. Hachinai explained before R. Aqiba. Hence we see that R. Elazar b. Arakh was not mentioned. (This presents no difficulty:) He who teaches and before whom others teach is mentioned, while he who teaches and before whom others do not teach is not mentioned. But was not Hananiah b. Hachinai one who taught and before whom others did not teach? And still he was mentioned? Yea, for he taught at least in the presence of one who taught others.
The rabbis taught: Four men went up into the heavenly garden,[1] and they were: Ben Azzai and Ben Zoma, A'her and R. Aqiba. Ben Azzai gazed and died;[2] to him the scriptural passage may be applied [Ps. cxvi. 15]: "Grievous in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his pious ones." Ben Zoma gazed and went mad; to him the scriptural passage may be applied [Prov. xxv. 16]: "Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou consume too much of it, and have to vomit it forth." A'her cut the plants.[3] R. Aqiba departed
- ↑ The Hebrew term is Pardes, meaning "a garden"; the commentaries explain it to mean "heavenly." Tosaphoth states: "They did not go up literally, but it appeared to them as if they went up." See Streane's "Hagigah," p. 83.
- ↑ In the Palestinian Talmud it reads: Ben Zoma gazed and died; Ben Azzai gazed and was injured. This seems to be the more correct, as can be seen from many other places in the Babylonian Talmud and Tosephtha. See our "Eben Harosha," at the end.
- ↑ These terms are used because he speaks of a garden; i.e., in some way made bad use of his learning.
