Broken Sword 4 The Angel Of Death Pc Game
Hollie Galipeau
When a Jew is sick, the learned Rabbis diligently visit him andcomfort him. They consider doing so a precious good deed. If thenhe is deathly sick, they summon his friends, and sometimes also thelearned men to him. If he is rich, they first make arrangements forhis earthly goods; if he is poor, they do not bother with this.They solemnly exhort him to remain strong in his faith, and inparticular ask him whether he believes that the Messiah will yetcome. On his deathbed he must also make confession andacknowledgement of his sins. Here is the German translation ofthis:
This is their final comfort, that a timely and natural deathwill be an atonement for all their sins, and on account of thisdeath God will forgive their sins. Everyone can understand whatkind of good and peaceful conscience such a comfort can supply.
When he dies, and the soul departs from him, all the bystanderswhether kin or strangers, rend their garments sometimes in a placewhere it will not do great damage, a handsbreadth wide. They bewailand lament him for seven days according to the example of Joseph,Gen. 50.10 who lamented his father for seven days.About rending the garment it is written Gen. 37.34And Joseph rent his garments, and lamented his son Joseph for along time.
As soon as he is deceased and departed, they throw out all thewater in the house into the street, cover his face, and no one maysee his face any more. They bend the thumb into the hand in such away that through this bending and folding of the hand the holy nameof God Schaddai,is formed and symbolized according to the Hebrew alphabet, so thatSatan cannot touch him. Usually they tie the thumb with the threadsof the Zizis, that is to say the strands which hang fromhis prayer shawl, about which we spoke at the beginning of thisbook, otherwise would not stay bent. For a dead man always holdshis hands and fingers open, as though he would indicate that he isleaving this world and has no more place in it; whereas the youngchild when he is born has his hands clenched to indicate that Godhas given him all the good things of this world, and enclosed it inhis hands.
They put him down near the grave, and walk around the gravesaying a rather long prayer in which they praise God that he judgedhim correctly. This is called Tzidduk haddin[justification of the judgment.] Some people then come who placehim in the grave and cover it with dirt. His closest friends haveto throw the first dirt into the grave.
They turn around, and with much moaning and lamenting returnhome from the grave. Everyone stoops three times, pulls up somegrass, and throws it over his head behind him, which is a sign andindication of the resurrection of the dead who hereafter willflourish and blossom like the grass, as the Prophet says Is.66.14: Your bones shall flourish like grass. Others saythat man will consider thereby that we are dust and ashes as Davidsays Ps. 103.14: He remembers that we are dust.
When they come back to the synagogue courtyard [Ger: Vorkirche]they wash their hands, and say Is. 25.8: The Lordhas swallowed up death into eternity, the Lord will wipe away thetears from all faces. They then go into the synagogue [Ger: Kirche]and sit down, but soon they change from one place to another atleast seven times, and say a prayer for the dead which they callKaddisch [the doxology] and some words of comfort such asPs. 90.17: The amity of the Lord our God be upon us,etc.
To conduct the mourning, his children or close relatives have tosit barefoot on the ground for seven days, eat no meat, drink nowine (save that on Sabbath or festival they may do so in honor ofthe feast.) For thirty days they do not bathe, cut the hair, anointthemselves with toilet oils or waters. They let their nails grow,etc. The man eats with the men, the woman with the women. They stayunemployed, and do not work, and lead a doleful life.
On the first evening the mourner does not eat from his own food,but his friends come, and bring their food with them. Usually theysend him eggs to eat, for just as an egg is round and circular, sodoes death run around, striking one today and another tomorrow.
Children mourn a full year for father and mother, and when a sonis left he must recite the prayer called Kaddisch foreleven months every day. The write and hold that by this means helooses the father from hellfire. The Reschaim, the wicked,stay twelve months in hellfire, those who are more pious come outearlier. So the children pray only eleven months for their father,since they do not believe him to be a wicked man.The fact thatthrough this prayer the father can be released they learn from theTalmud (the Autor [author] of the book Brandspiegel quotesit from the tractate Calah) with the following story andfable. Rabbi Akibha once went for a walk, and met up witha man with a large burden of wood which no ass or horse would havebeen able to carry. R. Akibha asked him whether he was aman or a ghost. He answered that he was once a man, but now haddied and was obliged to carry a big load like this to hellfire,where he was wretchedly burned on account of his sins which he haddone in this world. Rabbi asked him whether he had not left a son,what were the names of his wife and son, and in what city theylived. When he had obtained all this information from him, he wentto that place and found his son, and taught him theKaddesch, and instructed him to pray for his father daily,whereby he would be released from hell. When he had learned it, andprayed for a certain time, the same man appeared to the rabbi in adream by night, and thanked him. He informed him that he had beenreleased from hell, and had entered Gan eden, paradise.The rabbi wrote this story to all the Jewish shuls, with a commandand order that every son should pray thus for his father. So afather rejoices on his deathbed when he has left a son. On sabbathsand festivals the entire shul prays for those who left no son. Themost wise rabbis plant the Jewish faith in the youth with suchfables. In this way the pious and devoted Jews display their wisdomand holiness before all peoples. And I don't think.
The fact that they throw out the water is a sign that someonehas died in the house. Other say it is in memory of the prophetessMiriam, of whom it was written Num. 20.1-2:And Miriam died there, and Israel had no more water. Themost wise rabbis say that it is on account of the fact that theAngel of Death, who kills men, washes his knife or sword in thewater than is in the house and poisons it. Then they write in theTalmud that Satan or the Angel of Death stands at the head of thebed with a naked sword in his hand on which hang three drops ofbitter gall. As soon as the sick man sees the sword, he is afraid,and opens his mouth. The three drops fall into the man's mouth.From the first he dies immediately. From the second he becomesyellow and pale, and from the third he putrifies. As soon as theman is dead, he runs and cleans his sword in the water, andtherefore they throw it out into the street. Once again, this is agood fundamental of the Jewish faith.
Anton Margarita writes that you can read in the tractate on theBooths that the old pious rabbis begged God that the Angel of Deathshould not appear to them on their deathbed in such a dreadfulform, and they obtained this favor from God. Also, by means of theholy name they abjured and tied up Satan, and blinded his left eye,etc.
They also write in the Talmud that everyone should be warned tohonor the dead, for they know everything that is done on earth. Thesoul does not return to heaven from which it came, but it travelsaround in this world for twelve months, then comes back to thegrave, and must suffer greatly in hellfire. After twelve months itenters heaven, and reposes there.
In the book Schebhet jehudah, there is a disputationbetween a Christian and a Jew. The Christian asks why the dead knoweverything that happens on earth. He is answered: The soul does notenter heaven until the body is buried and turns to dust. Since itstays so long on earth, it knows what is happening on earth. Hegathers that the soul does not go immediately to heaven from thepreacher Solomon, for it is written Ecclesiastes12.7: The dust (that is, the body) must come back to theearth as it was, and the spirit (or the soul) back to God who gaveit. Here, says the Jew, is the proof that the body must firstbecause dust and earth, and then the spirit comes comes back toGod. So Solomon says: The spirit must come back to God, and thedust to the earth.
The outstanding Grammaticus [grammarian] Elijah writes in hisDictionarius [dictionary] called Tischbi,glossing the word Chabat: it refers in Rabbinic [Hebrew]to the time when a Jew is taken away from this world. The Angel ofDeath comes and sits on the grave. Then the soul comes back to thebody, and is judged. Then the angel takes an iron chain, one halfcold and one half red-hot, makes two stripes on the body. All thelimbs of the body fall apart at the first blow and at the secondthe bones are scattered. When the third stripe comes, he becomesdust and ashes. Then the good angels come, and put the bonestogether again bury them. They call this punishment Chibbuthakkebher. [the beating of the grave] You can read about thisin a prayer-book called Benschen [blessings] under theprayers which are recited on the Day of Atonement. We read also inthe Book of the Chasidim Num. 32 that ifone gives alms generously, loves reproof and truth, and does goodfrom his heart, feeds strangers and prays attentively, even thoughhe lives outside the Land of Canaan, he will not see the punishmentof the grave, and will be protected from Chibbuthakkebher. It should be noted that those who die in the Landof Canaan are exempt from these punishments. Also, those who die inforeign lands must roll and wander through hidden holes and hollowsin the earth, until they come to the praiseworthy Land. Otherwisethey will not participate in the resurrection of the dead, as isexplained in the first chapter of this book.
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