9d.
I will now proceed to tell of the wonderful things that were done by R. Hananeel.
He had a cousin, named Papoleon, who died very young. On the day of his death, the brothers of R. Hananeel were away at Beneventum on business. So, he delayed burying him in the tomb of his fathers, waiting for his brothers to come and weep over their dead kinsman and to give him proper burial. To prevent the body from decomposing and becoming putrid, he wrote upon a piece of parchment the Name of God, his Master, and placed the parchment under the dead man’s tongue. The Name brought him to life, and raised him, and he sat up in bed. He repeated the Name, and gazed at it. During the night preceding the day on which the brothers returned, they had an astonishing dream: an angel of God seemed to come in a vision and speak the mysterious words, “Why do you vex the Lord God, and do things that are not right? God putteth to death and you bring to life. You should not do so. You should not do so. You should not tempt the Lord your God.” But they did not know what R. Hananeel had done. When they reached their house, he came out to meet them; they went in to see their cousin and found him sitting on his bed; they knew nothing of what had occurred, of the Name (that was) under his tongue. When they heard what had been done, they wept bitterly and said to their brother, “Thou wast able to bring him to life, and thou canst put him to death.” In sadness and anguish R. Hananeel then approached his cousin and said, “Raise thy mouth, that I may kiss thee.” The boy opened his mouth. R. Hananeel, kissing him, put his hand under his tongue, and took therefrom the Name written on the parchment. As soon as the Name was taken from him, his body fell back upon the bed. So, the body returned to dust and decay, and the soul returned to God who gave it.
