of paradise. On the joys of the four different ages, which the pious experience, see Zohar I, 140a, where it is explained allegorically.
82 Instead of מכין read מבין (“fanning”, from נבה “blew”); the variant מנשבין seems to be an explanation of the difficult מבין, which, as a lectio difficilior, deserves preference. On the seven clouds of glory see vol. II, p. 374.
83 Comp. vol. IV, p. 205, with reference to the fragrance of paradise. Concerning the “canopies”, see note 78.
84 Concerning these worlds see note 30. According to Zohar I, 125a, Eden is situated in the seventh heaven (according to another view, even above the seventh heaven), and paradise is situated on earth directly opposite to it. Comp. Berakot 34b; Sanhedrin 99a; No eye has ever seen Eden,… Adam dwelt in the garden (=paradise) of Eden; comp. note 17, end.
85 The divisions of the dwellers in paradise (or Eden?) into seven classes is very frequently met with (Sifre D., 10 and 47; Midrash Tannaim 6; Tehillim 11, 10, and 16, 128; WR 30.20; PK 28, 197b; PRK, Schonblum’s edition, 36a). In one passage only is the number reduced to three (ARN 43, 120; comp. also note 97). Perhaps the difference of opinion on this point is in some way related to various opinions about the number of the heavens (comp. note 21); each heaven having a separate class of dwellers, the more pious one is, the higher the heaven in which he dwells. It is said in Shir 6.8 that sixty groups of the pious study the Torah under the shades of the tree of life, while eighty groups of the average men study the Torah within a short distance from that tree. Mention is often made of the habitations, or rather worlds, which every pious man receives according to his merit; comp. Shabbat 152a; Ruth R. 1, 16; PK 4, 75a; Tehillim 34 (end); ShR 42.2; Koheleth 12.5; Baba Batra 75a (שכל אכד ואכד); 2 Enoch 61.2; John 14.2. This view does not conflict with the division of the pious into classes, since the individual, though being one of a class, does not forfeit his independence.–The honor conferred upon R. Akiba and his colleagues as members of the first, i.e., the foremost division, is already mentioned in Baba Batra 10b.
86 I.e., as martyrs during the religious persecutions; comp. Gittin 57b.
87 Comp. Hagigah 14b where this Rabbi describes his disciples as belonging to the “third division”.
88 Under these, the descendants of Moses (comp. vol. IV, p. 317) are to be understood.
30
