Rabbi Akiva was the only one of four legendary sages to survive the terrifying merkabah ascent into the Pardes intact, navigating past lethal angelic guards of the seventh heaven…

A closer look

Imagine strapping your consciousness to a cosmic rocket and launching it through seven layers of heavily guarded heavenly real estate. That was the reality for early Jewish mystics practicing Merkabah. The Talmud famously recounts four rabbis entering the 'Pardes' (the divine orchard), but the journey was so psychologically violently taxing that one died, one went insane, and one became a heretic. Only Rabbi Akiva made it out with his mind intact. To survive, practitioners had to memorize an insanely complex sequence of secret passwords and magical seals to flash at hostile angelic gatekeepers who would otherwise literally disintegrate them on the spot.