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— between them appears to the person in the form of a yellowish flame filled with eyes of blue fire, holding in its hand an unsheathed sword directed at him; and when he sees it thus, he recoils from it and his soul departs from his body.
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When I examined Scripture I found the situation described there as our forebears informed us — for during the plague it says: 'He lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, with his drawn sword in his hand stretched over Jerusalem' (1 Chr 21:16).
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And when he prayed and approached, Scripture says after: 'The Lord commanded the angel, and he returned his sword to its sheath' (1 Chr 21:27).
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And I inferred that the body of angels is of yellow fire, from the verse: 'The appearance of the living beings was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches' (Ezek 1:13).
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And that they are entirely filled with eyes — as He said: 'Their entire bodies, their backs, their hands, their wings, and the wheels were full of eyes all around' (Ezek 10:12).
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And that the light of the eyes is blue — for had it been yellow like the body, they would not be distinguishable as eyes; they are distinguishable by their changed color, and the blue is the ʿayin ha-ḥashmal — the 'eye of the electrum' mentioned in the text.
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We know that our ancestors nearly died from merely seeing a great fire — as they said: 'Why should we die?' (Deut 5:22) — so how much more when such a being approaches a person with a drawn sword!
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We know that King David, peace be upon him, when he saw that angel — even though it was not directly aimed at him — was seized with fear and dread and trembling, as it says: 'For I was terrified by the sword of the angel of the Lord' (1 Chr 21:30); and he did not stop trembling from that day until he died — as it says:
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'They covered him with garments and he could not get warm' (1 Kgs 1:1) — so how much more the one directly targeted by it!
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If one asks: 'We do not see the soul when it departs from the body' — we say: because of its purity and its resemblance to air in its tenuousness; just as we do not see the spheres because of the purity and transparency of their bodies.
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As is my practice to use analogies: if a person were to take ten pure glass lanterns and place each inside the other and put a candle inside them — someone viewing from a distance would not know there are ten lanterns inside, because light passes through their bodies and sight passes through the light. This is clear.
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Then I ask: what is the soul's condition after departing from the body? I answer with what I mentioned earlier — it is preserved until the time of recompense, as He said: 'And He who guards your soul — He knows, and He will repay each person according to his deeds' (Prov 24:12).
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The pure souls are preserved in a place of height, and the clouded ones in a lower place — as I indicated from the verse 'like the brightness of the firmament,' and from the verse 'the one that ascends goes upward.'
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And as the early sages said: 'The souls of the righteous are hidden beneath the Throne of Glory; the souls of the wicked roam the world' — this and the like mark the distinction between them.
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At the beginning of the period of separation the soul remains for a while without settling its location, until the body decomposes — meaning until its parts separate.
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During this period it is distressed by what it knows of what the body goes through — the worms and decay and the like — just as a person is distressed to know that a house he inhabited has been ruined and brambles and thorns have grown in it.
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This distress falls on the soul more or less according to its merit — just as its station in the lower place is more or less, and thus it suffers
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— according to its merit; and of this our early sages said: 'The worm is as painful to the dead as a needle to living flesh' — basing this on the verse: 'His flesh upon him is painful, and his soul mourns within him' (Job 14:22).
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This is what I understand by what is called 'the judgment of the grave' or 'the beating of the grave.'
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I then say: the duration of its separate dwelling will be until all the souls whose creation God's wisdom has required are gathered — and that will be at the end of the world's existence. When their number is complete and they are assembled,
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He will reunite the souls with their bodies, as I will explain in the maamar that follows, and reward them according to what they deserve.
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This, together with what I explained above, is also confirmed by the sage's statement — for after saying 'the spirit returns to God who gave it' (Qoh 12:7), we know the final outcome is judgment, from what he says afterward: 'The end of the matter, all is heard... for God will bring every deed to judgment' (Qoh 12:13–14).
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'Every deed' means soul and body together; 'everything hidden' refers to what was concealed from us by way of deception and blackening of the soul — it will be revealed.
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At that time He will bring the soul from heaven and the body from the earth and judge them both — as He said: 'He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, to judge His people' (Ps 50:4).
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Praised and blessed be the Wise One — and we ask Him to lead us to the good.
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As for the nature of reward and punishment — I will explain it in the Ninth Maamar, with the help of the Merciful One.