ever, he came up and said, "Rabbi, I'm not a living man,
but a dead one." "If thou art a dead man," said I, "what is this wood
for?" He replied, "When I was alive upon earth, I and an associate of
mine committed a certain sin in my shop, and when we were taken thence,
we were sentenced to the punishment of mutual burning; so I gather wood
to burn him, and he does the same to burn me." I then asked him, "How
long are you to be punished thus?" He replied, "When I came here my wife
was _enceinte_, and I know she gave birth to a boy. May I beg thee,
therefore, to see that the child is instructed by a teacher, for as soon
as he is able to repeat, 'Bless ye the blessed Lord!' I shall be brought
up hence and be free from this punishment in hell."

_Tanu d'by Eliyahu._

Rabbi Berachia saith, "In order that the Minim, apostates, and wicked
Israelites might not escape hell on account of their circumcision, the
Holy One--blessed be He!--sends an angel to undo the effects of it, and
they straightway descend to their doom. When Gehenna sees this, she
opens her mouth and licks them." This is the purport of (Isa. v. 14),
"And she opened her mouth to those without law" (i.e., to those without
the sign of the covenant).

_Midrash Rabbath Shemoth_, chap. 19.

"God hath also set the one over against the other" (Eccles. vii. 14),
i.e., the righteous and the wicked, in order that the one should atone
for the other. God created the poor and the rich, in order that the one
should be maintained by the other. He created Paradise and Gehenna, in
order that those in the one should deliver those in the other. And what
is the distance between them? Rabbi Chanina saith the width of the wall
(between Paradise and Gehenna) is a handbreadth.

_Yalkut Koheleth._

"Those passing through the valley of weeping make it a well; also
blessings shall cover the teacher" (Ps. lxxxiv. 6, A.V.). "The valley of
weeping" is Gehenna. "Make it a well," for their tears are like a well
or spring. "Also blessings shall cover the teacher." Rabbi Yochanan
saith, "The praises of God that ascend from Gehenna are more than those
that ascend from Paradise, for each one that is a step higher than his
neighbor praises God, and says, 'Happy am I that I am a step higher than
the one below me.' 'Also blessings shall cover the teacher,' for they
will acknowledge and say, 'Ye have taught well, and ye have instructed
well, but we have not obeyed.'"

_Yalkut Tehillim_, 84.

T