1as it is for a knotted rope [ tzippori ] to pass through an eye [ veshet ] in a ship’s rigging. Rabbi Yoḥanan said: It is as difficult as it is for a halyard [ pitirei ] to pass through an eye [ veshet ].
2And Rabbi Levi bar Ḥayyata said: One who departs from the deceased should not say to him: Go to peace, but rather he should say: Go in peace. One who departs from the living should not say to him: Go in peace, but rather he should say: Go to peace.
3One who departs from the deceased should not say to him: Go to peace, but rather: Go in peace, as it is stated: “And you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age” (Genesis 15:15).
4One who departs from the living should not say to him: Go in peace, but rather: Go to peace, as David said to Absalom: “Go in peace” (II Samuel 15:9), and he subsequently went and was hanged; whereas Jethro said to Moses: “Go to peace” (Exodus 4:18), and he went and was successful.
5And Rabbi Levi said: Anyone who leaves from the synagogue and goes to the study hall or goes from the study hall to the synagogue, i.e., he goes from the mitzva of prayer to the mitzva of Torah study or vice versa, merits to receive the Divine Presence, as it is stated: “They go from strength to strength, every one of them appears before God in Zion” (Psalms 84:8).
6With regard to the same verse, Rav Ḥiyya bar Ashi said that Rav said: Torah scholars have no rest, even in the World-to-Come, as even there they remain in constant movement and ascent, as it is stated: “They go from strength to strength, every one of them appears before God in Zion.” Even when they are in the World-to-Come, they continue to go from strength to strength, until the final redemption will arrive in the end of days and God will appear in Zion.