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AND NOAH BEGAT THREE SONS.1This paragraph is out of place. It should properly follow ‘begat three sons” on p. 196. Said R. Hiya to R. Judah: ‘Let me tell you what I have heard regarding this text. A man once entered the recesses of a cavern, and there issued two or three children together, who differed from one another in their character and conduct: one was virtuous, a second vicious, and a third average. Similarly we find three strands of spirit which flit about and are taken up into three different worlds.
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The neshamah (spiritual soul) emerges and enters between the gorges of the mountains, where it is joined by the ruah (intellectual spirit). It descends then below where the nefesh (vital spirit) joins the ruah, and all three form a unity.’ R. Judah said: ‘The nefesh and the ruah are intertwined together, whereas the neshamah resides in a man’s character-an abode which cannot be discovered or located.
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Should a man strive towards purity of life, he is aided thereto by a holy neshamah, whereby he is purified and sanctified and attains the title of “saint”. But should he not strive for righteousness and purity of life, he is animated only by the two grades, nefesh and ruah, and is devoid of a holy neshamah. What is more, he who commences to defile himself is led further into defilement, and heavenly help is withdrawn from him. Thus each is led along the path which he chooses.’
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Tosefta: We are the high ties of the greatest of fortresses. (Ties corresponds to Nefesh, Ruach and Neshamah). Therefore, the eyes and the ears are open (Chochmah and Binah). A voice from the voices descends from above and smashes mountains and rocks. Those who see, yet do not see, and who have become hard of hearing and have difficulty seeing; who do not see, do not hear, and do not know how to understand the one located and included between the two, they are pushed out.
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They cling to these two (Chochman and Binah). While the one, the best of craftsmen, (on who all Mochin depend) does not reside among them, they do not enter among the holy books. Because all those who do not have residing among them are not written in the 'Books of Memories.' Therefore, they are erased from the 'Book of Life' and have no share in it. As it is written: "Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous" (Tehilim 69:28).
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Woe to those when they leave this world. Who shall ask about them and plead for them when they are turned over to hands of (the Angel) Dumah, and are in the burning fire, which they can leave only on the first day of the month and on the days of Shabbat? As it is written: "And it shall come to pass, that every new moon and every Shabbat, shall all flesh come to bow down to the ground before Me, says Hashem" (Yeshayah 66:23). When (they) are over, an announcer from the north says, "The wicked shall be turned back to Sheol" (Tehilim 9:18), many angels of destruction then gather and attack them. From four sides, fire is burning in the valley of Ben Hinnom. (They do so to punish the wicked who spoiled the four aspects of Chochmah, Binah, Tiferet and Malchut).
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They are visited three times a day. Not only that, but when Yisrael say aloud, 'Amen, may the great name of Hashem be praised,' during the Kadish, the Holy One, blessed be He, is filled with compassion and mercy and forgives all. Then He signals to the angel appointed over the gates of Gehenom, whose name is Samariel סמריאל and who has three keys with which he opens the three gates to the side of the desert. And then they see the light of this world, and a fiery smoke comes and conceals the ways (of light).
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Then the three in charge, who have trowels in their hands, use them to fan the smoke and blow it back to its place. Then, they are at ease for an hour and a half, after which they return to the fire. They are also at ease three times a day, as well as each and every time Yisrael answer 'Amen, may the great name of Hashem be praised.' Happy are the righteous whose paths and ways illuminate and shine to all directions in the World to Come. As it is written: "But the path of just men is like the gleam of sunlight that shines ever more brightly until the height of noonday" (Mishlei 4:18). End of Tosefta