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' demons. There are more of them than of us: they stand about us, as a fence flung up out of 'ditches, about land in a garden. Every rabbi ' has a thousand on his left, and ten thousand on his right side. The thronging and squeezing on

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a sabbath in our synagogues, where one would 'think there is room enough, yet each imagines he 'sits too close to another, is occasioned by them;

for they come to hear the sermon.' To any person desirous of seeing these ghostly personages in his dwelling house, the Talmud, in the same page, prescribes the following method, no doubt a most efficacious one, of sharpening his corporeal vision. Let him who wishes to discover them (demons)

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take clear ashes, and pass them through a sieve at his bedside; and in the morning he will per'ceive the tracings, as it were, of the feet of cocks.

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Let him who desires to see them take of the 'secundine of a black cat, which is of the first litter ' of a black cat, which was of the first litter of the mother; and, having burnt the same in the fire, 'beat it to powder, and put a little of it in his eyes; and then he will see them.'-The reader will remember that these passages are to be found in a book which the rabbies have pronounced far more valuable than the writings of Moses and the Prophets.*

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* See pages 35, 36.

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CHAPTER X.

Traditions concerning Paradise.—Paradise twofold, Upper and Lower.-Lower, when created,-where situated.— Both called by seven Names.-Communication between them.- Lower, the first Abode of the disembodied Righteous:-1ts Light,-and Sustenance.-Residents in the Upper revisit the Lower.-Both divided into seven Districts.-Occupied by Seven Orders of Righteous Spirits :-Their Stations,-Clothing-Stratagem of a cunning Rabbi to force himself into Paradise.— Traditions concerning Hell. Hell twofold:-Creation, -Names,- Extent, - Divisions, Punishments :Their Duration,-Intermissions.

THE pretensions of the rabbies to an extensive acquaintance with Paradise have been alluded to in a former chapter.* They profess to have obtained an equal knowledge of Hell. The present chapter will exhibit an abstract of their multifarious traditions concerning those abodes of happiness and misery.

Paradise is asserted to be twofold.

Menasseh

Ben Israel says, 'that the experienced in the 'Cabbala unanimously declare, that one paradise 'is above, and another here below and they

speak the truth.-There is a paradise above in 'heaven, and a paradise here below upon earth.'†

Some authorities say, that 'paradise was created on the second day of the creation.' One affirms,

* Page 134.

+ Nishmath Chajim, f. 25. c. 2. cit. in Stehelin, vol. ii. p. 2, 3.

that the lower paradise was created 1365 years 'before the creation of the world.'*

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A rabbinical geographer of the fifteenth century tells us where this lower paradise is situated. 'It is clear from the words of the scribes, that on a certain portion of this earth there is a paradise; ' and that thence issue four rivers, one of which is Euphrates that encompasses the land of Israel.— It is likewise asserted by the knowing, that para'dise is situated under the middle line of the world, where the days are always of equal length.'—Another authority says, in one place, 'Paradise and Hell are close to one another, being only parted by a wall;' and in another place, The distance between paradise and hell is but 'the thickness of a thread.' I

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In their descriptions of both the upper and lower paradise they have followed their usual custom of referring or alluding, on every possible occasion, to some passages of scripture which they wish to be considered as supporting their whimsical traditions. Behold,' says Menasseh, the upper paradise is called by seven names :-The bundle ' of life;-The tabernacle of the Lord;-The holy 'hill;-The courts of the Lord;-The house of 'the 'Lord;-The hill of the Lord;-and The holy place. In like manner as there is a para'dise above, so there is one here below and I have discovered that this lower paradise passes

* Jalkut Shimoni, f. 5. c. 4. Bereshith Rabba, f. 21. c. 1. Jalkut Reubeni, f. 41. c. 2. ibid. p. 3.

+ Sepher Hamunoth, f. 65. c. 1. ibid. p. 4.

Zijoni, f. 11. c. 2. f. 69. c. 3. ibid. p. 21, 22.

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under seven appellations. It is called-The garden of Eden, that is, the garden of delight ;'The palace of the Lord ;—The land of the living; '—The sanctuary of God;-The city of God;'The dwelling of the Lord;-lands, in the plural ' number, The lands of the living."

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On the communication between the lower and upper paradise, one authority says: There is an upper and a lower paradise; and between them, upright, is fixed a pillar: by this they are joined 'together, and it is called the strength of the hill ' of Zion. By this pillar, on every sabbath and festival, the righteous climb up, and feed them'selves with a glance of the divine majesty, till 'the end of the sabbath or festival; when they 'slide down and return to the lower paradise.'t— Access to the upper paradise is represented as a privilege not granted to the spirits of the righteous immediately on their being disembodied: it would seem, they are first to pass a kind of noviciate in the lower paradise. 'The soul does not presently, ' and as soon as she is out of the body, ascend into 'the upper paradise. Having been habituated to 'the dulness and obscurity of the body to which 'she was allied, she is not able to bear the mighty 'light above, which is infinite; till by degrees she 'is accustomed to it in the lower paradise: and 'this lower paradise is the middle state between this corporeal world and that spiritual pure and 'illustrious world: it is made of the matter of

Nishmath Chajim, f. 26. c. 1. f. 27. c. 1. ibid. p. 5-8. + Jalkut Chadash, f. 57. c. 2. ibid. p. 25.

'them both, and contains such things as are found ' in both.'*

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Another rabbi describes the perpetual light which illuminates paradise, and the sustenance of its inhabitants. 'Our sages have committed this ' oral tradition to writing;—that that place (Para'dise) is of a mighty compass, and that therein 'stands a vast laver, which is filled with the dew of the highest heaven, the mystery of the name of the holy and blessed God, :-that there is a light which is never eclipsed or obscured, derived 'from that upper light by which the first men could 'view the world from one end to the other; and that this is that acceptable light wherewith the righteous are crowned :-that the ground is paved 'with precious stones, the lustre of which may be 'compared to the light of burning torches :-also 'that all round on the sides of this laver grow ' various trees and herbs, of great fragrancy and ' medicinal virtues.-All this glory and excellency and delight for the souls of the righteous, is 'prepared in the lower paradise. For twice every day the dew of life flows upon them: and with 'this dew the holy and blessed God will hereafter ' awake the dead: and with this dew the righteous ' are nourished, in the same manner as the angels

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are subsisted through the glory of the divine 'majesty and through this they know and comprehend all things, past, present, and to come, 'till the resurrection of the dead: and after all 'this glory and excellency they are made worthy

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* Avodath Hakkodesh, f. 44. c. 4. ibid. p. 25.

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