ABSTRACT
When the Master, Simeon ben Jochai, knew that the time had come for him to leave the world, he called his faithful disciples to him. They came together at his bedside and stood about the room in a hushed silencc, their eyes fixed on the face of the Master whom they ardently desired to keep with them, yet a while. The Master lay still, his eyes closed. When he opened his eyes he saw that a fire encircled the house. And he raised his hands in prayer. He was happy and smiling, and he said: “Let those who have heard me reveal the Divine Mysteries remain here with me.” And six remained, while the rest went outside. Ben Jochai said to those that remained: “We are the Seven Eyes of the Lord.” But one of the pupils said: “We are the six lamps which receive their light from the seventh!” And another one added: “The Holy Lamp is like unto the Sabbath, for the Sabbath doth bless the other six days! And the Master is holy, even as the Sabbath is holy. He is the Holy Lamp!” They saw that on the Master’s face there shone the light of a Great Joy. He said to them: “How great is the joy that awaits you this day!” And he motioned them to come nearer, and said: “The hour is propitious. I want to enter the next world without shame. And I want to reveal, in the presence of the Schechina, those Divine Mysteries that have not yet been revealed so that none may say that I have not fulfilled my task on earth, guarding these mysteries in my heart in order to take them with me into the future world. Now I shall open my heart and reveal them to you. Abba will put down my words in writing; my son will repeat all that I say; and the rest of you will sit and meditate in silence on those things which you shall hear and which shall be heard throughout all the worlds for the first time.” And his son came and placed himself in front of him, but the Master said: “Not here, my son, for another is coming to sit in your accustomed place!”
