Ghost Stories: Around the Rabbinic Campfire

Rabbi Hiyya and Rabbi Yonatan were once walking around in acemetery, and the blue fringe of Rabbi Yonatan was trailing on the ground. Rabbi Hiyya said to him:Lift it up, so that they [the dead] do not say: Tomorrow they are coming to join us and now theyare insulting us. He replied: Do they know so much? Is it not written, "But the dead know notanything (Kohelet 9:5)?" He replied to him: If you have learned once, you have not repeated it; if you have repeated it, youhave not gone over it a third time; if you have gone it over a third time, they have not explained it to you. For the living know that they will die: these are the righteous who in their death are calledliving (Kohelet 9:5)...

Has it not been taught: It is related that a certain righteous man gave a dinar to a poor man on the eve of the New Yearin a year of drought, and his wife scolded him, and he went and slept in thecemetery, and he heard two spirits speaking to one another. Said one to her companion: My friend, comeand let us wander around the world and let us hear from behind the curtain what suffering iscoming upon the world. Her friend replied to her: I am not able, because I am buried in a mat of reeds. But you go, and whatever you hear, tell me. She went and wandered around andreturned. Her companion said to her: My friend, what have you heard from behind the curtain? Shereplied: I heard that whoever plants after the first rainfall will have his crop killed by hail. So theman went and did not sow till after the second rainfall. Everyone else's cropwas killed, and his was not killed. The next year he again went and slept in thecemetery, and heard the two spirits speaking to one another. One said to her friend: Come and let uswander around the world and hear from behind the curtain what suffering is coming upon the world.Her friend replied: My friend, didn't I tell you that I am not able because I am buried in amat of reeds? But you go, and whatever you hear, come and tell me. So the other one wentand wandered around the world and came back. She said to her: My friend, what have you heard frombehind the curtain? She replied: I heard that whoever plants after the second rain will have hiscrop killed by blight. So the man went and planted after the first rain with the result that everyoneelse's crop was blighted and his was not blighted. His wife to him: Why is it that last yeareveryone else's crop was killed and yours was not killed, and this year everyone else's crop isblighted and yours is not blighted? So he related to her all his experiences. They say that not long afterwards an argument broke out between

the wife of that righteous man and the mother of the child, and the former said to the latter: Come and I will show you that your daughter is buried in a mat of reeds.The next year the man again went and spent the night in the cemetery and heard those two speaking together. One said: My friend, come and let

us wander about the world and hear from behind the curtainwhat suffering is coming upon the world. The other one said: My friend, leave me alone! Our private conversation has already been heard among the living. This would prove that they know! Perhaps someother man after his decease went and told them.

Our Rabbis taught: When Rebbi was about to die, he said: I need my sons. His sons entered, and he instructed them: Be careful to show respect to your mother. The light will continue to burn in its usual place, the table will be set in its usual place, [and my] bed will bemade in its usual place. Joseph of Haifa and Shimon of Efrat who were my attendants in my lifetime will continue to be my attendants when I am dead.

..."The light shallcontinue to burn in its usual place, the table will be set in its usual place[and my] bed will be made in its usual place." Why? Because he used to come home again at twilight every Shabbat evening. On a certain Friday night aneighbor came to the door and called out, and his maidservant said: "Be quiet, because Rebbi is sitting!" When he heard this he did not come again, so as not to cast aspersions on the earlier righteous ones.

There is a night when the souls come out of their graves, like on the eve of Hoshana Rabba, when they come out and pray. And two people already went and hid themselves in the graveyard and heard that one was calling to her friend: Let us go and pray together! All of the souls came out and prayed and asked for mercy so that death would not be decreed upon the living, and those who will die that they return from their evil ways, and that they die through minor illness, and about every matter of the living and the dead; and about themselves, to quickly remove judgement from upon them and from upon others - and they told their congregation. The next year on the eve of Hoshana Rabba, two others went and only one virgin came out of the grave, who had died last week. They said: Come out! She said: I cannot, because my father was rich and lost his possessions and buried me without clothing. And they heard that some of the souls said we will not gather together because two have already revealed us to many. Rather, each one of us will pray in the grave, so that the living will not hear and tell the nation. And they became angry at the father and took clothing and clothed that virgin...