443. Rabbi Yehuda said, We have learned that the purpose of the punishments of Gehenom is to judge the wicked there. HE QUESTIONS, Why are they sentenced to the punishment of Gehenom? HE ANSWERS, Gehenom is fire that burns days and nights, just like the wicked who warm themselves with the fire of the Evil Inclination to transgress the words of Torah. For every warmth that they warm themselves with the Evil Inclination, so does the fire of Gehenom burn in them.
444. At one time the Evil Inclination was not present in the world, because they put it into a ring of iron in the hole of the great deep. All that time, the fire of Gehenom was extinguished and did not burn at all. When the Evil Inclination returned to its place and the wicked of the world started to warm up by it, the fire of Gehenom also started to burn. The Gehenom burns only with the strength of the heat of the Evil Inclination of the wicked and, with that heat, the fire of Gehenom burns days and nights and is not quiet.
445. There are seven entrances into Gehenom and there are seven chambers there. There are seven types of wicked people, evil, scoundrel, sinner, wicked, destroyer, buffoon, and arrogant. They all have corresponding chambers in Gehenom, each one as proper for him. They give him a chamber in Gehenom according to the level at which the wicked one sinned.
446. There is an angel appointed over that place under Dumah in every single chamber. Many thousands and tens of thousands OF ANGELS with him punish the wicked, each one according to what is proper for him in that chamber where he is.
447. The fire of lower Gehenom comes from the fire of upper Gehenom, NAMELY FROM NAHAR DINUR (ENG. 'RIVER OF FIRE'), and comes to the lower Gehenom to burn with the heat produced by the wicked who warm themselves with the Evil Inclination. And all these chambers are burning there.
448. There is a place in Gehenom in which the levels are called 'boiling excrement.' There is the filth of those souls that have become soiled by all the filth of this world, and they become cleansed and rise and the filth remains there. These bad levels that are called 'boiling excrement' are appointed over that filth, and the fire of Gehenom dominates over the remaining filth.
449. There are wicked ones who soil themselves by their sins constantly and are not cleansed of them, who died without repenting and sinned and caused others to sin, were always stiff-necked, and were not broken before their Master in this world. They are judged there with that filth and with that boiling excrement and they remain there forever. All these who destroyed their way on earth and do not care about the honor of the Master in this world are judged there for generations and generations and do not leave from there.
450. On Shabbat, the first day of the month, festivals and holy days, the fire in that place abates and they are not punished. But they do not go out from there like the other wicked ones who have rest. All those who desecrate Shabbat and Festivals and do not care about the honor of their Master at all, to observe them, but rather desecrate them publicly, OPENLY, just as they do not keep Shabbat and Festivals in this world, so they are not kept in that world and have no rest.
451. Rabbi Yosi said, Do not speak so. They do observe Shabbat and Festivals there in Gehenom by force, AGAINST THEIR WILL. Rabbi Yehuda said, That refers to idol worshippers, who were not commanded and do not observe Shabbat in this world, but do observe it there by force. BUT WICKED ONES WHO DESECRATE SHABBAT DO NOT HAVE REST THERE.
452. At every commencement of Shabbat when the day is sanctified, announcements are made in all these chambers of Gehenom, Remove the punishments of the wicked, because the Holy King has come and the day is sanctified and He protects everyone. Immediately, the punishments depart and the wicked have rest, but the fire of Gehenom does not depart from those who never keep the Shabbat. All the wicked ones in Gehenom ask about them, Why are these different from all the wicked ones that are here, for they have no rest? The administrators of Judgment answer, They are the wicked ones who denied the Holy One, blessed be He, and they transgressed the whole Torah, because they did not observe the Shabbat IN THIS WORLD. AND ONE WHO DOES NOT OBSERVE THE SHABBAT IS AS THOUGH HE TRANSGRESSES OVER THE WHOLE TORAH; therefore, they never have rest.