55. What is meant by the phrase, "You are a mighty prince (or: a prince of Elohim)" (Beresheet 23:5)? Rabbi Pinchas responded that, before the righteous leave the world, a divine voice echoes every day among the righteous in the Garden of Eden to 'prepare a place for so-and-so who will come here.' Therefore, they say, from Elohim above, "You are a prince" every day among us, "in the choicest of our graves" (Ibid.), among the choicest company of the righteous he should be counted. No one will prevent fulfillment of the quorum, for we all rejoice in him and hasten to greet him.
56. Rabbi Yosi ben Pazi said, Come and behold, after the soul meets them, it is sentenced. It meets the angel appointed over them, the angel in charge of the graveyards, named Dumah. He announces among them, every day, the names of the righteous who are about to come among them. It immediately entreats him to lodge the body in tranquillity, safety, rest, and pleasure. This is the meaning of, "And he spoke to Efron" (Yeshayah 57:11).
57. Rabbi Yesa asks, Why is the angel Dumah called Efron? He responded, Because he is in charge over the dwellers of dust (Heb. afar). All the lists of the righteous and companies of the pious that dwell in the dust were given to him, and he will bring them out according to the reckoning.
58. Rabbi Elazar said, When the Holy One, blessed be He, comes to raise the dead in the future, He shall call the angel named Dumah, who is appointed over the graves. He will ask him for an enumeration of all the dead, the righteous and the pious, and all the sincere proselytes killed for the sake of His name. He will bring them out according to the reckoning, the same as he put them into it. This is the meaning of the verse, "That brings out their host by number...not one is missing" (Yeshayah 40:26).
59. In the name of Rabbi Ya'akov, Rabbi Shmuel said that the souls of the evil are in the hands of the angel Dumah, who will send them to Gehenom to be sentenced. Once they are put in Dumah's hands, they do not return again before going to Gehenom. This is what David feared when he committed that sin, as it is written, "Unless Hashem had been my help, my soul had soon dwelt in Dumah" (Tehilim 94:17). Rabbi Yesa said, The soul entreats him to put the body with the bodies of the other righteous and be enumerated in their numbers. This is the meaning of, "And he spoke to Efron..."
60. Rabbi Tanchum added that the angel first addresses him. Look at what was written before the verse. It is, "And Efron dwelt among the children of Chet" (Beresheet 23:9), who were afraid of dwelling in the dust. He hastens to instruct Dumah to put that body in the reckoning of the righteous. Then the verse reads, "And Efron the Hittite answered Abraham in the ear of the children of Chet, even of all that went in at the gate of his city" (Ibid.). Who went in at the gate of his city? Rabbi Nachman said, Those who were written in the list. As Rabbi Nachman said, and so is was decreed, by the reckoning made by Dumah, they enter, the cemeteries. And by the reckoning he will take them out. And he is in charge of the dwellers of dust.
61. What is meant by, "The field I give you, and the cave, that is in it" (Beresheet 5:10)? Rabbi Yosi said that it is a treasure of peace and great rest. Rabbi Shalom ben Manyumi said, There is not one righteous man among those who are occupied in Torah, who has not 200 bright worlds for the sake of Torah. It is written, "And those that keep its fruit 200" (Shir Hashirim 8:12), for they renounce themselves daily, as if they are killed to sanctify His name and His eternity. Whoever surrenders his soul to sanctify His name, the scripture says it is as if he were killed daily for His sake, as it is written, "But for your sake are we killed all the day long" (Tehilim 44:23). Rabbi Nachman said that whoever surrenders his soul according to this verse inherits 400 worlds in the World to Come. Rabbi Yosef said, We were taught that there are 200. According to Rabbi Nachman, it is 200 for Torah and 200 for surrendering every day for the sake of the holiness of His name. End of Midrash Hane'elam (homiletical interpretations on the obscure).