Nay, My servitors, nay, My servants, trouble Me not in this matter. This secret shall go forth from My storehouse, and mystery of prudence from My treasuries. To a beloved people I reveal, to a faithful seed I teach; for them it is laid up from the fountainhead of the world, and from the days of creation prepared for them. And I never thought to give it to any of the generations, from the days of Moses and until now. For they shall go from evil to evil, and Me shall they not know, for their understanding was obscured by exile, and the words of the Law were hard as brass and iron. It is proper for them to make use of it, to bring the Law as water in their inward parts and as oil in their bones. For Israel was in affliction from the day when Mine anger waxed hot against them, and I smote them, and because of them mountains trembled, and their carcasses were as refuse in the midst of the street.

With what shall I appease them? With what shall I comfort them? Or what good form of treasure is there on high that I should bring it forth and give it them and cause them to rejoice? For I have beheld and seen: I have gold, [but] there is gold in the world; I have silver, [but] there is silver in the world; I have precious stones and pearls, [but] there are precious stones and pearls in the world. Wheat and barley, honey and oil, I have already placed in the world. But what is lacking the world? This secret and this mystery which is not in the world. Therefore I shall give them this means of loftiness, that thereby My children shall raise themselves up.”

Said Rabbi Akiba: I heard a voice going forth from under the throne of glory, saying. And what was it saying? “I strengthened him, I took him, I commanded him (i.e. Enoch ben Jared whose name is Metatron), and I took him from among the children of men, and I made a throne for him over against my throne.” And what is the measure of that throne? Forty thousand myriads of parasangs of fire. And I gave over to him seventy angels, as against seventy peoples, and I gave into his hand all my servants in the world above and all my servants in the world below, and I explained to him all the categories of creation, and I set, as his name, The Lesser Lord [which is the numerical equivalent of ‘My Lord; and he is lesser than The Lord]. (For his name, reckoning by the numerical equivalents of the letters, is 71.) And I gave him wisdom and understanding more than all the angels and made him greater than any of the ministering angels.

Rabbi Akiva said: Every day, an angel stands in the middle of the firmament and begins and says, "The Lord is the King," and the whole celestial retinue answers after it; until it reaches, 'Barchu' (the prayer leader's invitation to the congregation to bless God). Once it reaches, "Barchu," there is a chaya (a lofty angel), whose name is Israel - with "My people is Mine" imprinted on its forehead - who stands in the middle of the firmament and and says, "Bless (Barchu) the Lord who is blessed!" And all of the ministers on high answer after it, "Blessed is the Lord who is blessed forever and ever!" Before it finishes its words, the ofanim (another group of angels) shout and shake, and shake up the whole world, saying, "Blessed is the glory of the Lord from His place!" And that chaya stands in the middle of the firmament until all of the ministers on high and the officers; and the divisions and all of the hosts shake. And each one says in its place to the chaya, "Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One" (Deuteronomy 6:4).

Said Rabbi Ishmael: Thus said Rabbi Akiba in the name of Rabbi Eliezer the Great: Our fathers did not undertake to put one stone upon another in the Temple until they compelled the King of the world and all his servants and He met with them and showed them the secret of the Law, how they should do it and how they should explain it and how they should practice it. At once the Holy Spirit appeared from the great entrance which is in the House of the Lord – since the Shekinah did not dwell in the Holy of Holies because of the decree. And when our fathers saw that the throne of glory made its way and stood between the cella and the altar – for although up to that time they had not built the building,