Pardes (legend)

Pardes (Hebrew: פַּרְדֵּס‎ pardēs, "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 orchard: Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma, Acher (i.e., Elisha ben Avuya), and Rabbi Akiva. One looked and died. One looked and was harmed. One looked and cut down the trees. And one went up in peace and went down in peace.

— Babylonian Talmud, Tosefta Hagigah 2.2^[1]

Sources differ concerning which sage died and which became demented; the Tosefta and the Babylonian Talmud say ben Azzai died and ben Zoma became demented, but the Jerusalem Talmud, Shir HaShirim Rabbah, and the hekhalot literature record the reverse.