294. "And I will lie with my fathers" (Beresheet 47:30). Happy is the portion of the patriarchs, for the Holy One, blessed be He, made them into a Holy Chariot, and desired to be crowned with them. Hence it is written, "Only in your fathers Hashem took delight..." (Devarim 10:15). Rabbi Elazar said, Jacob knew that he was to be crowned by his fathers for they would be crowned with him, and he with them. We learned regarding the engraved letters THAT SHIN HAS three knots, two knots on both sides, RIGHT AND LEFT, and one knot that binds them together, THE MIDDLE ONE. This we learned from the verse, "And the middle bar in the midst of the boards shall reach from end to end" (Shemot 26:28), that the knot in the middle is attached to the RIGHT side and the LEFT side. Hence it says, "And I will lie with my fathers."
295. "And I will lie with my fathers." Rabbi Yehuda opened the discussion with the verse, "Hear, O deaf; and look, O blind, that you may see" (Yeshayah 42:18). "Hear, O deaf" refers to the men who neither listen to the words of the Torah, nor open their ears to hearken the precepts of their Master. The blind are those who do not look to know why they live. For every day, a crier comes and proclaims, yet no one pays attention.
296. We have learned that those days already exist from the day man was born into the world, FOR THEY ARE REAL ILLUMINATIONS, FROM WHICH MAN'S DAYS ARE DRAWN. They go about the world and descend to warn man, each day in its turn. When the day comes to warn the man, yet the man commits a sin on that day before his Master, it ascends shamefacedly and bears testimony on him, and stands outside alone.
297. We have learned that after it was put to stand alone OUTSIDE, it sits and waits for the man to repent HIS SIN. If the man repented, the day returns to its place; but if he did not merit AND ATONES, the day descends, joins the spirit outside and comes back to his house, putting on the same appearance as the man to bring evil upon him. THE DAY sits with him in his house, and if he has the merit TO REPENT, it brings him good, but if not, it brings him evil.
298. In either case, when that man's days are accounted they are in want, and those are not numbered because of the sins. Woe to the man who diminished the number of his days before the Holy King, and has no days above with which to be crowned in that world, to approach the Holy King.
299. Come and see, When those days come before the Holy King, if the man who passed away from the world be righteous, he ascends and comes in with these days that are the raiments of glory in which his soul is clothed. For he merited these days, by not committing any sin therein.
300. Woe to the man who reduced the number of his days above. For when he is to don his days, the days he spoilt by his sins are missing from that garment, and he wears a defective costume. All the more so if THE DAYS WHICH WERE SPOILT are many, and that man has nothing with which to be clad in that world. Woe to him, woe to his soul, for he is sentenced to Gehenom on account of these days, days upon days; HE IS PUNISHED TWO days for every SINGLE day. When he departs from the world he finds no day in which to be clad, and has no garment or covering. Happy are the righteous, whose days are all stored with the Holy King, and made into raiments of glory to don in the World to Come.
301. We have studied according to the secret of the Mishnah, the words, "And they knew that they were naked" (Beresheet 3:7). They knew exactly that the raiment of glory made of the days was impaired, and no day was left in which to be clad. Hence it says, "Your eyes did see my unformed flesh; for in Your book all things are written, the days also in which they are to be fashioned" (Tehilim 139:16), WHICH ALLUDES TO ADAM. "The days ...to be fashioned" FOR HIM TO WEAR, "and for it too there was one of them" (Ibid.), for he had none left in which to be clad. Then, Adam strove to repent and the Holy One, blessed be He, accepted his repentance and formed for him another vessel and garment, not made from his days BECAUSE HE DID NOT COMPLETELY REPAIR BY HIS ATONEMENT THE SIN OF THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL. Hence it says, "For the man also and for his wife did Hashem Elohim make coats of skins, and clothed them" (Beresheet 3:21).
302. Come and see the merit of Abraham. It is written, "And Abraham... came with days" (Beresheet 24:1). Since he had the merit, when he departed from this world, he came with his own days and wore them. Nothing was lacking in that raiment of glory, as it says "came with days." Of Job it says, "Naked I came out of my mother's womb and naked I shall return there" (Iyov 1:21), for nothing was left for him to wear.
303. We learned that happy are the righteous, whose days are clean FROM SINS and remain for the World to Come. Upon leaving THIS WORLD, they all join together and turn into a raiment of glory to be clothed in. In this raiment, they can be delighted with the pleasure of the World to Come. Through the garment, they will rise into the world AT THE RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD. All those with a raiment will rise, as it says, "And they stand as a garment" (Iyov 38:14). Woe to the wicked in the world, whose days were diminished through sins, and nothing is left from them to be covered with when they leave this world.