Pardes (legend)

Pardes (Hebrew: פרדס orchard) is the subject of a Jewish aggadah ("legend") about four rabbis of the Mishnaic period (1st century CE) who visited the pardes (the "orchard" of esoteric Torah knowledge), only one of whom succeeded in leaving the pardes unharmed.

The basic story goes as follows:

Four entered the pardes — Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma, Elisha ben Abuyah, and Rabbi Akiva. One looked and died; one looked and went mad; Elisha ben Abuyah looked and apostatized; Akiva entered in peace and departed in peace.^[1]

Sources differ with regard to which sage died and which became demented; the Tosefta and Bavli say ben-Azai died and ben-Zoma became demented, but the Yerushalmi, Shir HaShirim Rabbah, and Hekhalot literature record the inverse.

Etymology[]

The Hebrew word פַּרְדֵּס (pardes 'orchard') is of Persian origin (cf Avestan WIKI