When R. Hamnuna the Elder would come out of the river on Friday afternoon he would sit one moment, and raising his eyes in joy he would say that he sat there to see the gladness of the supernal angels, some ascending and others descending. Every Friday evening a person dwells in the world of souls (olam ha neshamot). Happy is the one who knows the secrets of his Master.

Translated by Elliot Wolfson in “Forms of Visionary Ascent and Ecstatic Experience,” in Gershom Scholem’s Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism 50 Years After 209-235. Edited by J. Dan and P. Schafer, Tubingen- J. C. B. Mohr, 1993.