© 2008 by Robert Lepor. All rights reserved.
At times, [due to the person’s having ensured that his son had a Torah education, in addition to being saved from judgement in gehinnom, the father], as a consequence of this [Torah study of his son], merits to be counted among the righteous. [The above follows that which is taught] in “Midrash HaNe’elam” (“Zohar Chadash” – “Midrash Ruth”, the teaching [beginning with the words] “מי שמת בלי בנים” – “One who dies without children”), in the second chapter, [as follows]: “Rabbi Zmira’ah went out to the field of Unoo [and] he saw flames rising in those fissures of the Mountains of Ararat. [Thereupon, Rabbi Zmira’ah] inclined his ear and he heard voices. That Arab [then] said to him: “Come with me and I shall show you wonders that are hidden from people.” [Rav Zmira’ah] went with him behind a boulder, and he saw other fissures and flames were ascending [from those fissures. Rabbi Zmira’ah and the Arab then] heard other voices. [The Arab then said]. ‘Incline your ear over here’. He inclined his ear and he heard voices that were saying, ‘Woe, woe’. [Thereupon, Rav Zmira’ah said], ‘Definitely this place over here is one of the places of gehinnom’. The Arab then went away and [Rav Zmira’ah] remained [over there]. After a while he bent [himself his body] in another place and saw a person who was raising his voice [and] they were taking him and were taking him to the depths of another compartment [of gehinnom], and he was covered over and not see again. [Rav Zmira’ah then] went to sleep and saw that man [who he had seen in gehinnom] in a dream. [Rav Zmira’ah] said to him: ‘Who are you?’ [The man] said to him: ‘I am a Jewish sinner, for I have not left [any evils and sins in the world that I did not perform: In the midst of the dream [Rav Zmira’ah] said to him, ‘What is your name?’ [The man responded] to him: ‘I don’t know, for the sinners of gehinnom do not remember their names.’ [Rav Zmira’ah] said to him: ‘What is the name of the place [where you had lived]?’ [The man] said to him: ‘I had been a butcher in the Upper-Galilee, and due to numerous sins that I had performed over there, the judgements of that person (i.e. referring to himself) are three times during the daytime and three times during the nighttime. [Thereupon, Rabbi Zmira’ah] arose (got up) from there and went to the Upper-Galil. [Once Rabbi Zmira’ah arrived in the Upper-Galil], he heard the voice of a child who was reciting [the following pasuk from “Mishlei”]: “If you seek it out like silver and search for it like hidden-treasures, then you shall understand the fear of HaShem…” (2; 4 – 5) [Rav Zmira’ah then] went to another Beis Midrash [and] heard the voice of another child who was saying: “Seek out righteousness, seek out humility, perhaps they had been hidden”. (Tzifaniah: 2; 3) [Thereupon, Rav Zmira’ah] went and searched out for the place [where] that evil man [had lived], and he asked one child [concerning where he had lived]. The child said to him: ‘Rabbi, such-and-such should happen to that person, for he didn’t leave over any evils and sins that he did not perform. Such-and-such should befall that evil man and the baby who nurses on account of him. [Rav Zmira’ah] said to [that child]: ‘Did [that man] leave a son in the world?’ [The child] said to him: ‘Yes. He left one son, and he is an evildoer like his father, and he is the child that goes to the slaughter-house. [Thereupon, Rabbi Zmira’ah] sought out [that man’s child] and he took him with him, and he wearied him in [the study of] The Torah until he taught him Scripture (Mikrah) and tefillah, and K’rias Sh’ma. Afterwards, [Rav Zmira’ah] taught him mishna and Talmud, and halachos, and aggados, until he became wiser. [That child] is Rabbi Nachum HaPakuli. Why did [the people] call him “HaPakuli”? [The people referred to him as “HaPakuli” – “הפקולי”, for] it says [in sefer “Yishayahu”], “…removed him from judgement” – “פקו פליליה” (28; 7), for he [caused] his father to be removed from the judgement of that world (i.e. gehinnom), and numerous scholars of [their] generation who descended from him and are called “Pakuli”. [Subsequent to Rabbi Zmira’ah having taught his son Torah], that man [who Rabbi Zmira’ah had seen in gehinnom], came to him in a dream, and said to him: ‘Rabbi, you have so greatly comforted me, [to] such [an extent] should The Hold One, Blessed is He, comfort you, for from the day that my son knew one pasuk, they removed me from one of my judgements during the day [and from one judgement] during the night. Once [my son] read [Torah] in the Academy of his Rabbi, they completely removed me from my judgements. On the day that [my son] became a scholar and they called him “Rabbi”, my chair was placed in the midst of the righteous in Gan Eiden, and on every day that Torah is renewed in his name, they crown me in a supreme crown with which the righteous are crowned. On account of you, [Rabbi Zmira’ah], I merited all of this [great] honor. Praiseworthy is the portion of [the person] who left a son in this world who wearies himself in Torah [study].”
