Resurrection

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The Dual Outcome of Resurrection

TANAKH

The resurrection of the dead at the end of days is a part of Jewish eschatology. The Book of Daniel, a portion of the Tanakh that takes place in the Babylonian exile, includes an apparent reference to a future resurrection in which the resurrected are bound for two possible fates.

Many of those that sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life, others to reproaches, to everlasting abhorrence.

Daniel 12:2

Elijah and the Key to Resurrection

TALMUD

The Book of Kings tells of an episode in which Elijah the prophet revived a young boy who was dead or close to it. The Talmudic tractate Sanhedrin narrates the negotiation between God and Elijah that led to God empowering Elijah to effect the resurrection.

And it is written: “And it came to pass after these matters, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick” (I Kings 17:17). Elijah prayed for mercy, for God to give him the key to the resurrection of the dead. They said to him from Heaven: Three keys were not typically passed to an agent: The key to a woman in childbirth, the key to rainfall, and the key to the resurrection of the dead. You already have the key to rainfall…

Sanhedrin 113a:14

Jacob's Hope for Life After Death

JEWISH THOUGHT

This 17th century work by Portuguese rabbi Menasseh ben Israel gathers together sources as evidence for the fundamental belief in the resurrection of the dead in Judaism. Here, ben Israel discusses a midrash from the compilation Yalkut Shimoni, about Jacob's reaction to Joseph's dream, and what it implies about Joseph's mother Rachel, who had died.

1.2. In the Yalkut Parashat Vayera, about Yosef's dream repeated to his father in the words of Jacob in Genesis 37:
מה החלום הזה אשר חלמת הבוא נבוא אני ואמך ואחיך להשתחות לך ארצה
Are we to come, I and your mother and your brothers, and bow down before you to the ground?”
(Genesis 37:10)
They say from this:
היה יעקב אבינו סבור, שתחית המתים מגעת בימיו, שנאמר: הבא נבא אני ואמך ואחיך רחל מתה, ואת אומר אני ואמך
Our father, Jacob, imagined that the resurrection of the dead would arrive in his days…

On Resurrection of the Dead 1:2:1

Passing on the Power of Miracles

COMMENTARY

In the Book of Kings, Elisha the prophet, Elijah's protégé, miraculously revives a young boy who has died, but not before attempting to send his assistant Gehazi to perform the miracle in his stead. This contemporary study discusses the significance of this moment in the understanding of Elisha and Gehazi's relationship.

Elisha, though, does not give up hope on Geichazi. He even instructs him to take his staff and revive the dead child. Elisha still sees Geichazi as a potential successor to whom he wishes to transmit his ability to even conduct Techiyat HaMeitim!

From David to Destruction, Elisha and the Northern Kingdom, The Tragedy of Geichazi 16

The Soul and the Body

KABBALAH

Some Kabbalistic sources describe the resurrection of the dead as part of a cosmic process of repair. In the 18th-century Kabbalistic work Kalach Pitchei Chokhmah, Moses Chaim Luzzatto (Ramchal) outlines the stages the soul the body undergo.

...and according to the degree to which they were repaired, so the light progressively entered into them. For as soon as the body is rebuilt after the resurrection of the dead, the soul will immediately enter into it and start to join with it. Nevertheless, many ascents will still remain to be made before it reaches the end goal. Thus we see that the ability of the soul to enter and join with the body depends upon the degree to which the body is purified. First it must be purified from uncleanliness (through the “torment of the grave”) and afterwards from even the slightest residual…

Kalach Pitchei Chokhmah 42:7

A Song of the Future

COMMENTARY

The sages have interpreted a grammatical curiosity in the introduction to the Song of the Sea in Exodus as a hint of the resurrection of the dead. Rabbeinu Bachya’s commentary on the Torah expands on this understanding with further numerological and intertextual associations.

It is important to remember that the entire song consists of 18 verses; perhaps the number 18 is to symbolize the number of vertebrae in our backbone (Berachot 28) which will be renewed at the time of the resurrection and at which time we will recite such a song of thanksgiving for having been resurrected. This also gives even deeper meaning to the statement by our sages in Sanhedrin 91 that the reason that the Torah does not insert Moses’ song by referring to it as אז שר משה, “at that time Moses sang,” instead of writing אז ישיר משה, “then Moses will sing…

Rabbeinu Bahya, Shemot 15:18:4

Repentance and Resurrection

CHASIDUT

Repentance is not just about seeking forgiveness; it is the key to spiritual resurrection and eternal life. Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, in his early 19th-century work Likutei Moharan, teaches that through repentance, the inherent lowliness within each person is restored to life.

However, through repentance, which is the eternal life of the World to Come, each person’s lowliness will be restored to life. This is because the Resurrection will essentially be of the lowliness; the lowliness will be restored to life and resurrected, as mentioned above. Through this, Moshe’s lowliness, which is rooted in every limb of every single Jew, is restored to life. Previously, this lowliness lay dormant, concealed and covered in him, in the aspect of death. But now, through repentance, which is the eternal life of the World to Come, that lowliness reawakens and returns to life…

Likutei Moharan, Part II 72:8:11

The Dew of Resurrection

MIDRASH

Dew has been traditionally identified as a vehicle for resurrection by God. Aggadat Bereshit, a medieval midrashic text, explores that connection and questions of martyrdom, through homiletic interpretations of verses from Song of Songs and works of the prophets.

[4] Another explanation: "And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples like dew from the Lord." Two things that Israel requested unfairly: they said, "Set me as a seal upon your heart" (Song of Songs 8:6), and it has already been written in Pesikta until "I will be like dew to Israel" (Hosea 14:6). Why is dew a good symbol for the resurrection of the dead? Because it says, "Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise" (Isaiah 26:19). Rabbi Berechiah said that Isaiah cried out before the Holy One, blessed be He, "Your dead shall live, their bodies shall rise…

Aggadat Bereshit 44:4

The Revival of the Dry Bones

TARGUM

Ezekiel's vision in which he revives the dry bones filling a valley has inspired many different interpretations. The Targum Jonathan, an Aramaic translation and midrashic expansion of the Hebrew Bible, identifies those bones as belonging to a particular group of Israelites from the tribe of Ephraim who had tried to escape Egypt early and died in the process.

AND it was when Pharoh had released the people, that the Lord did not conduct them by the way of the land of the Phelishtaee though that was the near one; for the Lord said, Lest the people be affrighted in seeing their brethren who were killed in war, two hundred thousand men of strength of the tribe of Ephraim, who took shields, and lances, and weapons of war, and went down to Gath to carry off the flocks of the Phelishtaee; and because they transgressed against the statute of the Word of the Lord, and went forth from Mizraim three years before the (appointed) end of their servitude…

Targum Jonathan on Exodus 13:17

Life After Death in Hallel

TALMUD

The concept of life after death is considered a key idea in Jewish tradition, on par with the exodus from Egypt and the giving of the Torah. The Gemara includes the resurrection of the dead as an essential component of the celebratory songs of the Hallel service.

The Gemara asks: And since there is the great hallel, which contains the special praise of “Who gives food to all flesh” (Psalms 136:25), as explained above, what is the reason that one also recites this hallel of Psalms 113–118, the section recited on every joyous occasion? The Gemara answers: The reason is because the regular hallel contains these five matters: The remembrance of the exodus from Egypt, the splitting of the Red Sea, the giving of the Torah, the resurrection of the dead, and the pangs of the Messiah…

Pesachim 118a:14-15

Principle of Faith

LITURGY

The belief in the resurrection of the dead is one of Maimonides' thirteen principles of faith. Those thirteen principles are included in many prayerbooks and some have a practice of reciting them.

13. I believe with complete faith that there will be a resurrection of the dead at a time that pleases the Creator, blessed is His Name, and His Name will be exalted forever and to all eternity.

Siddur Sefard, Additional Prayers , Thirteen Principles 14

A Blessing for the Deceased

TOSEFTA

The blessing recited in a cemetery reflects the Jewish belief in divine judgment and the future revival of the deceased. The Tosefta, in tractate Berakhot, provides the text of this blessing, acknowledging God's omniscience and justice.

[A person] that was walking in the cemetery says [the following Beracha (blessing):] Baruch [Ata Hashem Eloheinu Melech Haolam] Yodeah Mispar Kulchem. Hu Atid Ladun Etchem Vehu Atid Lehakimchem Badin. Baruch [Ata Hashem] Neeman Bidvaro Mechayeh Hametim (Blessed are You Hashem, our God, King of the world, Who knows the number of all of you. He will judge you and He will raise you up in judgment. Blessed are You Hashem, Who is trustworthy in His word [and] Who revives the dead).

Tosefta Berakhot 6:9

Resurrection, Aharon Kahana. Stamps of Israel - 1972

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