Rabbi Schimeon spake and said: “Surely now is the time of benevolence, and I desire to enter without confusion into the world to come.
“And verily these sacred things, which hereunto have never been revealed, I desire to reveal before the Schekhinah;
“Lest they should say that I have kept back anything, and that I have been taken away from the world; for even until now these things have been concealed in my heart, so that having entered into these very matters I may be with them in the world to come.
“But this is my arrangement of you; let Rabbi Abba write, and let Rabbi Eleazar my son speak openly; but let the rest of the Companions in silence meditate in their heart.”
Rabbi Abba arose from his seat behind him, and Rabbi Eleazar his son sat down.
He said unto him, “Arise, O my son, for another shall sit in that seat”; and Rabbi Eleazar arose.
Rabbi Schimeon covered himself and sat down; and he commenced, and said, Ps. cxv. 17: “ ‘The dead shall not praise IH, Yah, nor all they who go down into silence!’
“ ‘The dead shall not praise Yah;’ so it is certain that it is assuredly those who are called dead; for He, God, the most Holy One—may He be blessed!—is called the Living One, and is Himself commemorated among those who are called living, and not with those who are called dead.
“And the end of this text runneth thus: ‘Nor all they who go down into silence;’ for all they who go down into silence remain in Gehenna.
“There is another reason appertaining to those who are called living, for God the most Holy One—may He be blessed!—desireth their glory.”