Vision of Adam

As her life ebbs away the dying woman sees her relatives and friends who died before her and now inhabit the future world. The Zohar explains: “It has been taught: While a man is dying he is allowed to see, and he sees close to him his relatives and friends from that world, and he recognizes them, and they are all shaped in the form that they had in this world.”

If the dying woman is righteous, all these dead visitors rejoice with her, and greet her happily. But, if she is wicked, only the wicked among them appear before her, and they are grief-stricken and lament the bitter punishment that is in store for her after death. When the soul departs the spirits of her relatives and companions accompany it and lead it to the upper realms and show it the place where it is either to enjoy bliss or to suffer punishment.

The dying person is granted another vision, denied her during her lifetime, and this is the Vision of Adam, and they converse together. The Zohar explains: “Come and see. No man leaves the world without first seeing Adam. He asks the man the reason for his departure from the world, and he replies, ‘Alas, it is all your fault that I have to leave the world.’ And [Adam] says, ‘My son, I transgressed just one commandment and was punished because of it. Consider how many sins you have committed and how many of your Master’s commandments you have transgressed.”

The reason for this confrontation is to rid man/woman of the delusion that his/her death is caused by the sin of Adam. It is true that death came into the world as a result of the serpent’s machinations, but eat person stumbles through his/her own iniquities, and is infected by the serpent because his/her own evil deeds. Therefore he/her is not permitted to shrug off the responsibility for her/her death onto Adam.

Abigail Sarah Bagraim, Email info@abigailsarah.co.za

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