Pardes (the Orchard)פרדס

Chagigah 14b. The four who entered: Ben Azzai gazed and died; Ben Zoma gazed and was stricken; Elisha ben Abuyah cut the shoots; Rabbi Akiva entered in peace and left in peace. Later read as an acronym — Peshat, Remez, Derash, Sod: the four depths of every verse, with mysticism as the S-level of reading itself.

⭐ The story does not open with the four. It opens with Akiva's instruction at the threshold — do not say: water, water — which is about speech, not sight, and is the sharpest thing in the passage. See water-water.

⚠ This app's primary mode is named after this story, and for a long time the story had no source node. It has one now: text-chagigah.