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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Abraham, Testament of

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Abraham in the field, and is received with cus tomary hospitality and invited to Aljoiliam's house. On their way home, Abraham, who understands the language of trees) as did .Tolmnan ben Zaklvai. Sukka. 28fl). hears the huge tamarisk-tree with its three hundred and thirty one branches (=^ C'N; Gen. ..i. :!;i) singing a song wliieh .seems to be the foreljoding of some misfortune (Zohar, Wa-

words" Ab. v. 1 is a later rabbinical view; see Mek., Shirah, x., ed. Weiss, .52A. end) before his death. The Lord consents, and orders Michael to take a cloud of light, 'anan knlxxi (the rab-

Tears spring to his eyes yera. Gen. xviii. 1, end). as he washes the feet of the archangel; and Michael weeps also, his tears turning into pearls wliidi Abraham catlbes quickly, hiding them under his cloak. Michael, before sitting dowu at the table, departs for a few moments, as it is sunset, the time when the ministering angels sing the prai.se of the Lord in heaven, and Jlicliael, their chief, must lead them (Yalk., Gen. i^ 133). But. in addition to this, Michael .slirinks from bringing the tidings of approaching death to Abraham, wlio.se eiiual for goodness of heart is not to be found in the world. When God reassures him by the promise that He will send a prophetic dream to Isaac, announcing to him the death of his father, another difficulty presents itself in reentering Abraham's house- How can he. a celestial beiug. partake of the meal spread before him? God tells him to sit down at the table, and that He will send over him "a devouring spirit that shall eat upeverytliing out of his hands and mouth." Compare Justin Martyr, "Dial, cum Tryph." Ivii., where the eating of the angels is compared with the eating of fire, a view which dilTers from the Docctic one, which regards the eating of the angels as merely apparent, not real (Tobit. .ii 19; Josephus, "Ant." i. 11, J; 2;

him (compare II Kings, ii. 11. and Tanna debe Eliyahu R. v.) to heaven, whence he would l)c able to survey the whole universe. His ride begins with the Great Sea (mistranslated in the .pocr. "ocean"; but compare Slavonic Book of Enoch, iii. 3, and "the waters above the firmament." Gen. While surveying all the world with its joys i. 6). and W(H-s, its beautiful and evil things, he is filled with indignation at the sight of the awful crimes committed; and he asks the archangel to smite all malefactors with instant death which he did. But a voice resounds from heaven, crying: "O Arch-

to

Philo. "De Abrahamo." S 23. ed. Mangey, ii. 18; B. M. 866; Gen. R. xlviii. U. and most of the Church Fathers), and differs also from the ingenuous one in the Targum on Gen. xviii. 8, and Tanua debe Eli yahu R. 12. Immediately after midnight (the time of divine favor, Ber. 3?/) Isaac dreams of his father's death. Having related the dream to Abraham, son and father begin to weep, thus rousing Sarah, who recognizes Michael as one of the three angels (Gen. xviii. 1-10) According to recension A, Michael had been the speaker of the three; while, according to recension B. he had gone to rescue Lot (see Gen. U. 1. 2, and Abraham confirms Sarah's observation B. M. 86A). saying that, when washing Michael's feet, he .saw that the stranger was one of the angels ("for their feet were straight feet and the sole of their foot like the sole of a calf's foot." I^zek. i. 7; compare Gen. R..



Michael had also appeared to Isaac, in his dream, as a man of gigantic size, shining more than seven suns (see Isa. xxx. 26), or, according to /?, "like the father of light" (see also Apoc. Mosis. § 36 " father of lights "). He introduces himself to Abraham as the archangel who stands before the face of the Lord (Sar ha-Pauira. " Prince of the PresIxv. 21)

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ence."

is

Michael's original

title

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before

lie is

trans-

formed into the Jletatron Tanhuma, Genesis, ed. Buber. p. IT. and Slavonic Book of Enoch, xxii 6), and reveals to him the meaning of the dream. But

Abraham

refuses to give him his soul. Jlichael returns to the Lord, who orders him to plead with Abraham, and to tell him that all the descendants of Adam and Eve must die, but that, as an especial token of divine favor, he will be transferred to a better world without ])ain or the pangs of death. Finally Abraham yields; but at the same time he rotjuests Michael to intercede with the Lord and to ask that he (Abraham) may be permitted to see the Tvhole world created by one word (the "ten creative

Abraham's Visit to

Heaven,

binical 'amuriu dentira, Ket. 17n, 62A).

and

angels of the chariot {mfiknhili). and to place Abraham in the chariot of the cherubim and to carry

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angel Michael, order the chariot to stop, and turn Abraham away, lest, seeing that all live in wickedFor behold Abraham, ness, he destroy all creation. not having sinned himself, has no pity for sinners but I, who made the world, take no delight in destroying any, but await the death of the .sinner, that he may be converted and live." Michael directs the heavenly chariot eastward toward paradise (B. B. 84«; Ethiopic Book of Enoch, xxxii. and Slavonic Book of Enoch, xlii. 3), near which Gehenna lies, separated only by a handbreadth (Yalk,, Eccl. ^ 976). At this point an interesting picture of the Judgment of the .Souls is presented: Two gates, one narrow and one wide, lead into heaven; and before them sits upon a golden throne a

man whose appearance

is terrible like that of the the image of the Lord (B. B, 'ySfi); and all the souls pass by him the just through the narrow gate and the wicked through the wide gate, each by his own merit or demerit, but none encumbered by Adam's sin (Tan.. Num.,ed. Buber, p. 124; Zohar, Gen. vii. 6). .Vbraham is allowed to watch the procedure of judgment within the wide gate. He sees the scourging angels called mnlnke httMiitlnh (Eccl. R. iv. 3), riidhike sntiin (Tosef., Shab, 'xvii. 3), "fierce of appearance, pitiless of mind, lashing the souls with fiery tongues." On a table is spread a book ten cubits in breadth and five cubits in thickness (a combination of Ezekiel, ii. 9. and Zechariah, v. 1. 2; see 'Erubin, 'iln), in which all the good and all the bad actions of man are recorded by two angels. As to the many parallels in the apocrvphal literature, compare Harnack's notes to his edition of " Henna; Pastor "i. 3, § 2, and Baraita, R, H. 164; also Slavonic Book of Enoch, xix. 5. While the two angels officiate temporarily as recorders dru'ing the judgment (Hag. 16") the permanent recorder is Enoch (see Book of Enoch and Targ. Yer. Gen. v. 24). "the teacher of heaven and earth, the scribe of righteousness." But the actions of the man are also weighed in the scales, to find out whether the good outweigh the bad. enabling the .soul to enter paradise, or whether the bad prevail, resulting in the consignment of the soul to Gehenna. In case, however, his good and evil deeds are equal in weight, the sold has to undergo the process of purification by fire, remaining in an intermediate state (Benoni) corresponding to the purgatory of the Church (compare Tosef,, Sanh. xiii. 3; 'Er, 19a; Hag, 27*/; Origen, in Psalm xxxvii. hom. 3; Ambrose, enarrnlio But the weighing of the in f'sixlm xxxvii. No. 26). sins is also done for the purpose of ascertaining their quality, .since there are light and heavy ones, sins such as advdtery being compensated for only by

Lord.

It is

Adam,

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