Resurrection of the Dead

(1) All Jews have a share in the World to Come, as it says, (Isaiah 60:21), “Thy people are all righteous; they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.” These have no share in the World to Come: One who says that [the belief of] resurrection of the dead is not from the Torah, [one who says that] that the Torah is not from Heaven, and one who denigrates the Torah. Rabbi Akiva says: also one who reads outside books, and one who whispers [an incantation] over a wound, saying, (Exodus 15:26) “I will bring none of these diseases upon thee that I brought upon the Egyptians for I am the Lord that healeth thee.” Abba Shaul says, also one who utters the Divine Name as it is spelled.

All Jews have a share in the world to come: I have seen [fit] to speak here about many great and especially weighty fundamentals of faith. You should know that masters of Torah have had differences of opinion regarding the good that comes to a person when he does the commandments that God commanded us through Moshe, our teacher - peace be upon him - and regarding the bad that will find him if he transgresses them - very many disagreements according to the difference in their intellects. And the reasonings about them have become greatly confused to the point that you will almost not find anywhere a man for whom this matter is clear. And you will not find a definitive thing about it with any person, excepting with much confusion:...And the third group will think that the good that is hoped for is the revival of the dead, and that is that a person will come to life after his death and will come back, together with his relatives and the members of his household, and eat and drink; and that he will not die again. And [they think] that the bad is that he will not come to life after his death, together with the ones that come back to life. And they bring a proof for this from many statements that are found in the words of the sages and from many verses in Scripture, the simple meaning of which indicates what they are saying or some of it. And the fourth group will think that the intention of that which is to come to us for doing the commandments is physical rest and the attainment of worldly desires in this world, like the fat of the lands and many properties and many children and physical health and peace and security, and that the king will be from Israel and that we will rule over the ones that troubled us. And [they think] that the bad that gets to us if we deny the Torah is the opposite of these things, like that which we [experience] today during the time of the exile. And they bring a proof - according to their reasoning- from all of the verses in the Torah, from the curses and the other [sections], and from all of the stories that are written in Scripture. And the fifth group - and they are many - join all of these matters together and say that that which is anticipated is that the Messiah will come and bring the dead back to life, and they will enter the Garden of Eden, and they will eat there and drink and be healthy all the days of the world. But [about] this amazing issue - I mean, the world to come - you will find few that in any fashion bring it to their mind to think [about it] or [ponder over] this fundamental ...Rather what the entire people - the masses and the intelligentsia - ask about is how the dead will arise - naked or dressed; and whether they will arise with the same shrouds with which they were buried, with their embroidery and designs and beautiful stitchery, or with a cloak that only covers their bodies? [And they ask] when the Messiah will come whether there will be rich and poor and if there will be the strong and the weak in his days, and many question like these, all the time. And you who looks into this book, understand this parable that I am drawing for you and then prepare your heart and listen to my words about all of this....

And now I will begin to speak about that which I intended: You should know that just like the blind man does not grasp appearance of colors and the deaf man does not grasp the sound of voices and the eunuch sexual desire, so too bodies do not grasp spiritual pleasures. And just like the fish do not know the element of fire, since they are in the element of water, which is its opposite; so too, in this physical world, pleasures of the spiritual world are not known. Rather we do not have among us any of this pleasure, but only pleasures of the body and that which is grasped by the senses [regrading] food and drink and sex. And anything besides these is non-existent for us and we do not recognize it. [Neither] do we grasp it at first thought, but only after great analysis. And it is fitting that it is like this, since we are in the physical world, and that is why we only grasp the lower temporary pleasures. But the spiritual pleasures are permanent, lasting forever, without end. And there is no connection or similarity in any way between these [two types] of pleasures....

And the revival of the dead is from the main fundamental principles of Moshe, our teacher - peace be upon him. And there is no religion and no attachment to the Jewish religion for the one who does not believe [in] this. But it is [only] for the righteous, and so [too] is [this found in] the language of Bereishit Rabbah, "The power of rain is for the righteous and for the evildoers, but the revival of the dead is only for the righteous." And how should the evildoers be revived - as they are dead even in their lifetime? And so [too] did they say (Berakhot 18b), "Evildoers are called dead even in their lives, righteous people are called living even in their death." And you should know that man, per force, must die and decompose and return to what he is composed of.

The thirteenth principle The Revival of the dead and we have already elucidated it. And when a person believes in all of these principles and his faith in them is clarified, he enters into the category of Israel; and it is [then] a commandment to love him and to have mercy upon him and to act with him according to everything which God, may He be blessed, commanded about the a man towards his fellow, regarding love and brotherhood. And even if he does what is in his ability from the sins, because of desire and the overpowering of his base nature, he is punished according to his sins, but he [still] has a share in the world to come, and is [only considered to be] from the sinners of Israel. But if one of these principles becomes compromised for a person, behold, he exits the category of Israel and denies a fundamental [dogma] and is called an apostate

(1) The hidden good in store for the righteous is, life in the World to Come, which is a life connected with no death and a kind of good connected with no evil; such as is described in the Torah: "That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest prolong thy days" (Deut. 22.7), which was traditionally deducted to mean, "That it may be well with thee" in a world which is entirely good; "and that thou mayest prolong thy days"—in a world existing forever; and this is the World to Come. The reward of the just is, that they will acquire the sweetness thereof, to be in such goodness; and the punishment of the wicked is, that they will not share in such life, but will suffer excision and eternal death. And, whosoever does not earn such life, is to be dead, without coming to life forever; for he is severed from life by his iniquity and goes to oblivion like a cattle. This is the meaning of excision described in the Torah, saying: "That soul shall utterly be cut off" (Num. 15.31), which was traditionally deducted to mean, "utterly cut of," both in this world and in the World to Come.

(2) The World to Come harbors neither body nor aught of a concrete form, save only the souls of the righteous divested of body as are the ministering angels. Inasmuch as it harbors no concrete forms there is no need there for eating, drinking, or other of the bodily necessities of the sons of man in this world; neither will any of the many things which happen to bodies in this world come to pass there, as, for instance, sitting down, standing up, sleep, death, sadness, mirth or the like. Thus did the ancient sages say: "In the World to Come there is no eating, no drinking, and no family life, save that the righteous are sitting, graced with garlands upon their heads, and indulge in feasting upon the luminousness of the Shekinah". Here, it is clear to you that no body exists there, seeing that there is neither eating nor drinking. That expression of "sitting" herein employed, is figurative, as if saying that they are there without effort or fatigue, and the phrase they employed, saying: "graced with garlands upon their heads", means that they have conscious knowledge of the reason why they have merited to be in the World to Come, and this is their crown of garlands

(3) The term soul employed on this subject refers not to the breath of life necessary for the body, but the form of the soul which is the intelligence by which it attained knowledge of the Creator's Being according to its intellectual power

(6) Maybe you will consider this Good lightly, and imagine that no reward for observing the precepts and for man to be following wholly the paths of truth is of any worth save if he be eating and drinking good food, enjoying beautiful faces, dressing in garments of embroidered linen, lounging in tents of ivory, being served in dishes of gold or silver, and similar things, as these stupid, silly, licentious Arabs imagine. But scholars and sensible people should know that all such things are idle and vain, wherein there is nothing consequential, and if they are considered of the greatest good by us in this world, it is because we are owners of bodies and concrete forms, and all such things are bodily necessities, and the soul neither craves nor desires for them save because of bodily necessity, so that it may satisfy its desire and remain normal. But when there is no body, all these things are found to be completely nullified. But as to the great Good in which the soul will be in the World to Come, there is no way in this world to attain or know it, for in this world we know of no other good, save that of the body, for which we crave; but that Good is exceedingly exalted and has no estimate alongside the good of this world save as a figure of speech; but by the way of truth to draw a comparison between the Good in store for the soul in the World to Come and the good of the body by eating and drinking in this world is impossible. Forsooth, that Good is so great that by no search can it be attained, and by no form of estimate and comparison can it be comprehended, even as David said: "Oh how great is Thy goodness which Thou hast treasured up for those that fear Thee" (Ps. 31.19).

And Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Yosef said: In the future the righteous will stand up from their graves in their clothes. This is derived by an a fortiori inference from the example of wheat: Just as wheat, which is buried naked, i.e., the seed alone is planted, and yet it emerges from the ground with several layers of garb, including straw and chaff, in the case of the righteous, who are buried fully clothed, all the more so do they come out of the ground properly dressed.

The World to Come harbors neither body nor aught of a concrete form etc. This man's words are in my eyes nigh to such who assert that there is no resurrection to body but the souls alone. But, by the life of my head, this was not the opinion of our sages, may their memory be blessed! Behold, they have said: "The righteous are prepared to rise up in their garments, deduct major from minor, by comparison of a grain of wheat" (Ketubot, 111b); and they left instructions to their children, saying: "Bury us not in either white or black garments, lest I be meritorious and be resurrected" (Shabbat, 114b); and they have again said: "The righteous will never again return unto dust, but remain standing in their concrete form" (Sanhedrin, 92a); and yet again they said: "They will rise in their deformities, but will be healed" (Ibid. 91b). All of which is conclusive proof that the dead will arise with their bodies and remain alive. Nevertheless, it is possible that the Creator will set them in strong, healthy forms as are the forms of angels, and as is the form of Elijah, of good memory!, when the garlands, too, will be literally and naturally, not in similitude". ^*Evidently the RABD erred in placing the World to Come instead of resurrection. RAB (Berakot, 17a) is authority for the contents of this paragraph in the Maimoni text, in so far as the World to Come is concerned. Of course, the RABD's words are true with respect to resurrection, but Maimonides herein speaks of the World to Come, and not of resurrection. C. G.