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Introduction by the Author

This is the delight of the Rashbi Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai—and I saw that it is good to mention in this introduction the Baraita an external Tannaitic teaching not included in the Mishnah and its interpretation regarding the seven things that preceded the world and what follows it, in order to clarify the meaning of the two commandments mentioned, for they are hints and an investigation into the arrangement of the Passover Sedarim orders of the Seder service to [those that existed] before the world, and to make known the ways that sustain the world and all its foundations. And this is the language of the Baraita:

Gehenna, the Throne of Glory, the Holy Temple, and the name of the Messiah. From where do we know Torah? As it is written: "The Lord acquired me at the beginning of His way." From where do we know Repentance? As it is written: "Before the mountains were brought forth," and it is written immediately after: "You turn man back to dust and say, 'Repent, you children of men.'" The Garden of Eden, as it is written: "And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden to the east." Gehenna, as it is written: "For Topheth is ordained of old." The Throne of Glory and the Holy Temple, as it is written: "A throne of glory, high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary." The name of the Messiah, as it is written: "His name shall endure forever; his name shall flourish before the sun." Thus says the Baraita in Pesachim a tractate of the Talmud. The Rambam Maimonides and the Ran Rabbi Nissim Gerondi, may their memory be for a blessing, wondered in truth about the interpretation of this Baraita. And upon the foundation of their words, I shall follow [with] the language of the Baraita and its explanation. It is clear and manifest that there is no actual existence or life [in these things before the world], for it is a matter that contradicts itself. For we say [there are] five creations and two [spiritual] places that precede the entire world, and anything else [that claims to exist] from the impossible and non-existent is not in reality. He says, as a ruling, that this is not contradicted by saying that before the creation of the world these [the Garden of Eden, Gehenna, etc.] were already in existence. Furthermore, there is no end to the light and the Sagan deputy/agent in general, except for the products of Torah, Repentance, and the name of the Messiah, which would exist before the creation of the world. Therefore, I said [I would] place a foundation for the words of the Master, correct for the explanation of the Baraita which preceded before His thought, blessed be He, in the creation of the world. And we have already learned from the generation of believers that the expression of "precedence" refers to the thought [of God] designed and painted in the soul of the worker, before the lamp existed, as we have discussed in Tractate Shabbat.

Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa says: Anyone whose fear of sin precedes his wisdom, his wisdom endures; and anyone whose fear of sin does not precede his wisdom, his wisdom does not endure. The interpretation [is] correct in this judgment, for anyone who learns the wisdom of the Torah for the sake of its purpose—that its endurance is the main objective of his study—how can he be one whose fear of sin precedes his wisdom? His wisdom endures, meaning he stands on the proper preparation in studying the wisdom of the Torah, and that is to fear Him, blessed be He, to serve Him with a whole heart and with all his might, and to fulfill the Torah's decrees. This is the intent of his saying: "his wisdom endures." But if the purpose of his learning wisdom is only for the attainment of prestige, lordship, and the like, he will not endure, and he will fail in another matter, certainly, because he has not yet reached the true goal in learning wisdom. For every worker acts for the sake of the true goal, and he who sustains that action and upholds it [is considered the true practitioner]. And there will not be established in these matters any other external goal that was not intended, and it will endure in his hand. We have already found in other places in the language of our Sages the terms "endurance" and "loss" according to this intent. And that which is manifest from this Baraita [is] like the path of the soul. The explanation of the Baraita in the way of the precedence of the Work [is that] seven things preceded the world as a matter of thought. For when it arose in His thought, blessed be He, to create this lowly world, its true purpose was to create the type of the celestial and the type of the terrestrial; [He] included in His thought [the desire] to create a place that would sustain the world, like the heavenly angels. Therefore they said:

Shimon the Righteous, etc., used to say: The world stands upon three things: upon the Torah, upon the service, and upon deeds of loving-kindness. And they are corners [resting] upon the foundations of the holy fathers, Isaac and Jacob, and the throne of the kingdom. Our Sages, may their memory be for a blessing, [say] the thought of Israel preceded everything, and their assurance for their comfort [was] to purify Israel through rebuke and trials, because through study and contemplation of them, they could be in the "wars of the order" A reference to the intense dialectic study of the Talmud.. This agrees with many statements appearing in the books: "For the sake of Israel and for the sake of the Torah." If so, after it was noted in another place that the thought of Israel preceded everything, the purpose of their being is for the purification of the people of Israel, so they will be like angels, as He desired, to remove the soul from the path it walks. And this ultimate purpose would have no existence for the world except by upholding it through other things that are like pillars sustaining this purpose. [They] suggest the voice of Repentance is to be near to preventing [failure], for the Torah would not endure without it, for there is no righteous man on earth who does good and does not sin. And because of this, it arose in His thought, blessed be He, to create Repentance, [to act as] the instruction of the Torah, and to be a way to avoid the [consequences] of words, so that it will be a shield for them above, for the Torah preceded the world as an intention in this thought: Torah and commandments, and Repentance is the existence of the Torah. There is no place here at all for this question [of contradiction], because the matter of the Torah is upon the "perfect" person, meaning one who desires to listen to the voice of the Torah, and not upon the sinner before whom is an abomination. This He decreed in the Holy One, blessed be He, to be revealed in His primordial thought in the creation of the world: a way for the righteous who desire to hear the voice of the Torah, and another way for the sinner who is lacking and has stumbled, for he has a remedy through Repentance. And these two pillars sustain and uphold the main purpose mentioned above. He placed the Garden of Eden and Gehenna to be a great and superior pleasure for the souls of the righteous, [for] their purification and their levels in the Garden of Eden at the time of their departure [from life], and when the body is released to ascend to the assembly on high; and also the purification of the wicked from the Svara logic/theory of their not standing in Gehenna, and from their sins for their evil to be removed from them, which they carried on their wings in this world. For the Holy One, blessed be He, is good and does good, and there is no need to fear that it is Gehenna in the way of vengeance like one who is punished for the actions of the evil [person] in the matters of his people. This is from His way, blessed be He, as the Ran, may his memory be for a blessing, explained in the interpretation of the verse: "For as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you." But the truth is that all the sufferings that come from Him, blessed be He, are for the purpose of moral correction, to turn the bad into good, for this is the intent of the father who disciplines his son. And through this, the Holy One, blessed be He, created Gehenna so that the soul of the sinner would be cleansed there and his darkness would be removed from him, as we learned from the words of the Sages who mention Gehenna in every place as a place of correction, [addressing] those who object to the way [by saying] that the soul of the wicked that has sinned has no place to remove its filth except by bringing it into the fire, and there it will be refined and cleansed. So, the soul of the sinner that has taken from the filth [needs] a place of entry for its cleansing. This is the "river of fire" that flows and issues from before Him. And our Sages hinted that it is under the Throne of Glory, from which the souls of Israel are purified. And the completion of this matter will be after contemplation of the books of the holy writers, such as the Sha'ar Ha-Gemul The Gate of Reward by the Ramban Nachmanides, may his memory be for a blessing, for he discusses at length the explanation of the Garden of Eden and Gehenna, and also in the book Ha-Maskil The Enlightened One, authored by the Rabbi, Rabbi Moses of Lyon, may his memory be for a blessing. I have known this [before] in the secret of the tradition, and I have known that this is the house and the essence of these worlds.

[My] particulars and Gehenna Hell/Purgatory were close to preventing me from editing all the seals of the books, had not the Siyata Dishmaya Heavenly assistance brought me to this place. And if it were not for the multitude of books, to divide them generally into the King's storehouse, and [that] there is no foundation for the two commandments, I would have burned [the draft]. Rather, I established their secrets and their openness before [me]. And [I] will set the souls in the house of the King, the King of the world, and they will be supported by me for many days. Skilled scribes, writing in a clear script, [copied] all the books of the [Rabbinic] literature and the Talmud many times. He who has finished its [the work's] form and its action before him, testifies and aids the masses. And [I, the author] am the one who has [the books] here, and his study is in his hand. But there is the scholar mentioned, the son of the respected [Rabbi], who has a pure heart, and this is the one [who helped] the books be gathered in a vessel, in a clear vessel, and study with the commentary of Rashi Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki once and twice. The books of the Ramban, the Rashba, the Rivan, and the like, [I] gathered them in the house of God. And [I] said: "The son of so-and-so, my son, [is] a holy building, may he add exaltation." His merit will be that his house will be a house full of books, a house of meeting for the Sages and students to read, and to study, and to contemplate them. And every day, [he] brings many students in their writing and in the fixing of the books. And I finished all that was good, to do for me every book that I needed, and [I] refined it as is proper to do, for every time that remains, [it] brings a blessing. And I still have not fulfilled my obligation to be finished with this work, until I gave my heart to drag and to search what to write, to hasten and to hide all the statements, and to put in them markers, [so that] the subject [will have] the supreme orders, and to divide the purpose between all the subjects, and they are divided into types, details, and groups under the heading that includes them. And according to the generations, this creation is close to preventing [me], and the writings of the book are the details of the book as they are written in the Talmud, as the earlier Sages did before us, such as the author of Menorat Ha-Maor Candelabrum of Light. And the Sages were guided [by] this to the right path. I will make a decision [that] the book [be] correct according to [your] request, until the time of my study [allows me] to say to proceed as much as possible with every statement, and what will be written on the [subject of the] book, that which our Sages, the earlier ones, wrote, and the order of the arrangers of the Talmud, [in] every tractate and every chapter that they arranged there according to the order of the arrangement that was written. Therefore, my lips will support and [they] will be our mercy, [to] not write on the general and on the book [only], but to write it [in a way] that is not wonderful to you, and not [too] difficult to search in all the statements of our Sages, may their memory be for a blessing, in the Talmud, [as] statements that are [positioned] like pegs and pillars, and supreme orders, [that] will stand and establish all the [books] of the Talmud according to their [proper] order. And to do this, I have strived with all my strength as much as possible, [so] that every statement of every tractate [would be] divided into parts according to the flow of the subject, and [we] would be [able to] know [the] number of all the statements of the tractate. And in the opening of this book, I will place a guide for every statement and [for] which page it is found. And with this, it will be easy for the researcher to find his request and all that his sign [searches for]. And also I have gathered and counted in the Mishnah and Baraita thirteen general subjects worthy of being established as foundations for these subjects that are gathered in this book. There is [a list] waiting in one chapter of Tractate Pesachim, and [these are] subjects worthy [of the fact that] each one of them should be general pillars to support all the statements that are [about] the subject mentioned. And it is worthy to write in my opening [about the] two commandments and one Baraita, for there will be ten pages contained in them, and we will remember in the commentary; [these] are in the sections of the book.