291. Rabbi Shimon was cleansing the marketplaces of Tiberias. He dug out all the dead that were there, and cleansed the land. We have learned that it is written, "But when you entered, you defiled My land" (Yirmeyah 2:7). Rabbi Yehuda said: Fortunate is the portion of he who deserves during his lifetime to make his dwelling in the Holy Land. All who merit it will cause the dew of the heaven above to continue to descend upon the earth, so all who deserve the Holy Land in this lifetime will later deserve the higher Holy Land, MALCHUT.
292. About all those who did not merit during their lifetime TO BE IN THE HOLY LAND and are brought there later to be buried, it is written, "And made My heritage an abomination" (Ibid.). His spirit expired under another, strange dominion and his body came under the dominion of the Holy Land, so he made, so to speak, the sacred profane and the profane sacred. Those who deserve that their souls expire in the Holy Land will have their sins forgiven and will merit to be bound under the wings of the Shechinah, as it is written, "And will forgive His land" (Devarim 32:43). Moreover, if he merits during his lifetime TO BE IN THE HOLY LAND, he will merit to have drawn upon him consistently the Holy Spirit. Those who dwell under another dominion, MEANING OUTSIDE THE HOLY LAND, will have drawn upon them a foreign spirit.
293. We have learned that when Rav Hamnuna Saba (the elder) ascended there, THE HOLY LAND, he had with him twelve members of his Yeshiva students. He said to them: If I go this way, it is not for my own sake that I do so but to return the pledge to its owner. We have learned that all those who did not merit this, TO LIVE IN THE HOLY LAND, during their lifetime must return the Master's pledge to another, NAMELY THE SOUL THAT WAS GIVEN TO THEM, TO THE OTHER SIDE.
294. Rabbi Yitzchak said: Because of this, whoever brings into the land any of the evil beings or other domains defiles the land. Woe is to him, woe to his soul, as the Holy Land will not receive him after that. Of him, it is written, "The sinners will be consumed out of the earth" (Tehilim 104:35) in this world and the World to Come. Then, "the wicked will be no more" (Ibid.) during the resurrection of the dead. Then "Bless you Hashem, my soul, Haleluyah" (Ibid.).