BUT THE DEAD KNOW NOTHING.

We do know that the dead converse with the living.
The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: Say to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob:
The oath which I swore to you I have already carried out for your descendants.


A curtain before our time separated the living and the dead.

‘But the dead know nothing’: They observe everything. These are the poor of the world.

These are the wicked who in their lifetime are called dead, as it says. And thou, O wicked one, thou art slain. He is still alive! What it means is, he is already counted as dead.


Has it not been taught: It is related that a certain pious man gave a denar to a poor man on the eve of New Year in a year of drought, and his wife scolded him, and he went and passed the night in the cemetery, and he heard two spirits conversing with one another.

Said one to her companion: My dear, come and let us wander about the world and
             let us hear from behind the curtain what suffering is coming on the world.

Said her companion to her: I am not able, because I am buried in a matting of reeds.
But do you go, and whatever you hear tell me.

So the other went and wandered about and returned.
Said her companion to her: My dear, what have you heard from behind the curtain?

She replied: I heard that whoever sows after the first rainfall will have his crop smitten by hail.

So the man went and did not sow till after the second rainfall, with the result that everyone else's crop was smitten and his was not smitten.

The next year he again went and passed the night in the cemetery, and heard the two spirits conversing with one another.

Said one to her companion: Come and let us wander about the world and hear from behind the curtain what punishment is coming upon the world.

Said the other to her: My dear, did I not tell you that I am not able because I am buried in a matting of reeds? But do you go, and whatever you hear, come and tell me.

So the other one went and wandered about the world and returned.

She said to her: My dear, what have you heard from behind the curtain?
She replied: I heard that whoever sows after the later rain will have his crop smitten with blight.


So the man went and sowed after the first rain with the result that everyone else's crop was blighted and his was not blighted.


Said his wife to him: How is it that last year everyone else's crop was smitten and yours
was not smitten, and this year everyone else's crop is blighted and yours is not blighted?
So he related to her all his experiences.

The story goes that shortly afterwards a quarrel broke out between the wife of that pious man and the mother of a child, and the former said to the latter, Come and I will show you your daughter buried in a matting of reeds.

The next year the man again went and spent the night in the cemetery and heard those conversing together.

One said: My dear, come and let us wander about the world and hear from behind the curtain what suffering is coming upon the world.

Said the other: My dear, leave me alone; our conversation has already been heard among the living.

This would prove that they know? The spirits now know we can tap their knowledge. The curtain was torn into two. No barrier between both worlds. The unrighteous jinn at great peril. There lies a choice now to belong to either worlds. No limitations of time in both heaven & hell. There is eternal living in one; There’s neither dying or living in another.

Recompense.
The father of Samuel had some money belonging to orphans deposited with him. When he died, Samuel was not with him, and they called him, ‘The son who consumes the money of orphans’

So he went after his father to the cemetery, and said to them [the dead]. I am looking for Abba.

They said to him: There are many Abbas here.
He then said to them: I want Abba the father of Samuel; where is he?
They replied: He has gone up to the Academy of the Sky.

Meanwhile he saw Levi sitting outside.

He said to him: Why are you sitting outside? Why have you not gone up [to heaven]?


Before the answer came, his father came. Samuel observed that he was both weeping and laughing.
He said to him: Why are you weeping? He replied: Because you are coming here soon.
And why are you laughing? Because you are highly esteemed in this world.
He thereupon said to him: If I am esteemed, let them take up Levi; and they did take up Levi.

He then said to him: Where is the money of the orphans?

He replied: Go and you will find it in the coffers of Equity bank gaining interest.

He said to him: Why did you do like that?

He replied: So that if thieves came, they should neither take mine nor theirs.

And if the earth should destroy the banking institution, both funds are insured.




It is a man’s duty; To cleanse himself of pollution in order to study the Torah in cleanliness.


They absconded. Their learning grew heavy for them. Being by now strong enough to resist.


Derogatory remarks about the rabbinical dead are highly discouraged.
A man made such remarks against Rabbi Samuel and a log fell from the sky breaking his skull.
Because the Holy One, blessed be He, avenges his insult.

It was taught in the school of Rabbi Ishmael: If you see a scholar who has committed an offence by night, do not cavil at him by day, for perhaps he has done penance.

A Tanna taught: Michael [reaches his goal] in one [flight], Gabriel (Jesus) in two [in tandem with both worlds of the living & the dead, simultaneously], Elijah in four, going to all four quarters of heaven first, and the Angel of Death in eight. In the time of plague, however, [the Angel of Death, too, reaches his goal] in one.

for Ze'iri deposited some money with his landlady, and while he was away visiting Rab she died. So he went after her to the cemetery and said to her, Where is my money? She replied to him: Go and take it from under the ground, in the hole of the doorpost, in such and such a place, and tell my mother to send me my comb and my tube of eye-paint by the hand of So-and-so who is coming here tomorrow.



Alas for the generation of which you are the leader, seeing that you know nothing of the troubles of the scholars, their struggles to support and sustain themselves!

have we done anything except out of regard for your honour? THEY ASK OF GOD.

the former is an obligation that will soon lapse while the other is an obligation that will not lapse. keeping the faith....