(יא) וַיְהִ֗י הֵ֣מָּה הֹלְכִ֤ים הָלוֹךְ֙ וְדַבֵּ֔ר וְהִנֵּ֤ה רֶֽכֶב־אֵשׁ֙ וְס֣וּסֵי אֵ֔שׁ וַיַּפְרִ֖דוּ בֵּ֣ין שְׁנֵיהֶ֑ם וַיַּ֙עַל֙ אֵ֣לִיָּ֔הוּ בַּֽסְעָרָ֖ה הַשָּׁמָֽיִם׃ (יב) וֶאֱלִישָׁ֣ע רֹאֶ֗ה וְה֤וּא מְצַעֵק֙ אָבִ֣י ׀ אָבִ֗י רֶ֤כֶב יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ וּפָ֣רָשָׁ֔יו וְלֹ֥א רָאָ֖הוּ ע֑וֹד וַֽיַּחֲזֵק֙ בִּבְגָדָ֔יו וַיִּקְרָעֵ֖ם לִשְׁנַ֥יִם קְרָעִֽים׃
(11) As they kept on walking and talking, a fiery chariot with fiery horses suddenly appeared and separated one from the other; and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. (12) Elisha saw it, and he cried out, “Oh, father, father! Israel’s chariots and horsemen!” When he could no longer see him, he grasped his garments and rent them in two.
כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל יֵשׁ לָהֶם חֵלֶק לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (ישעיה ס) וְעַמֵּךְ כֻּלָּם צַדִּיקִים לְעוֹלָם יִירְשׁוּ אָרֶץ נֵצֶר מַטָּעַי מַעֲשֵׂה יָדַי לְהִתְפָּאֵר. וְאֵלּוּ שֶׁאֵין לָהֶם חֵלֶק לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא, הָאוֹמֵר אֵין תְּחִיַּת הַמֵּתִים מִן הַתּוֹרָה, וְאֵין תּוֹרָה מִן הַשָּׁמָיִם, וְאֶפִּיקוֹרֶס. רַבִּי עֲקִיבָא אוֹמֵר, אַף הַקּוֹרֵא בַסְּפָרִים הַחִיצוֹנִים, וְהַלּוֹחֵשׁ עַל הַמַּכָּה וְאוֹמֵר (שמות טו) כָּל הַמַּחֲלָה אֲשֶׁר שַׂמְתִּי בְמִצְרַיִם לֹא אָשִׂים עָלֶיךָ כִּי אֲנִי ה' רֹפְאֶךָ. אַבָּא שָׁאוּל אוֹמֵר, אַף הַהוֹגֶה אֶת הַשֵּׁם בְּאוֹתִיּוֹתָיו:
All Israel have a portion in the world to come, for it says, “Your people, all of them righteous, shall possess the land for ever; They are the shoot that I planted, my handiwork in which I glory” (Isaiah 60:2). And these are the ones who have no portion in the world to come: He who maintains that resurrection is not a biblical doctrine, that the torah was not divinely revealed, and an epikoros (licentious/disrespectful). Rabbi Akiva says: “Even one who reads non-canonical books and one who whispers [a charm] over a wound and says, “I will not bring upon you any of the diseases which I brought upon the Egyptians: for I the lord am you healer” (Exodus 15:26). Abba Shaul says: “Also one who pronounces the divine name as it is spelled.”
מְכַלְכֵּל חַיִּים בְּחֶסֶד. מְחַיֶּה מֵתִים בְּרַחֲמִים רַבִּים. סומֵךְ נופְלִים. וְרופֵא חולִים וּמַתִּיר אֲסוּרִים. וּמְקַיֵּם אֱמוּנָתו לִישֵׁנֵי עָפָר. מִי כָמוךָ בַּעַל גְּבוּרות וּמִי דומֶה לָּךְ. מֶלֶךְ מֵמִית וּמְחַיֶּה וּמַצְמִיחַ יְשׁוּעָה: וְנֶאֱמָן אַתָּה לְהַחֲיות מֵתִים: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים:
You sustain the living with loving kindness, You revive the dead to life with great mercy, You support the fallen and You heal the sick; You free the captives and preserve Your faith with those asleep in the dust. Who is like You, Master of mighty deeds? Who can be compared to You, O King Who causes death and restores life, and causes Your salvation to sprout. You are faithful to restore the dead to life. Blessed are You, O Lord, Who brings life to the dead.
Rabbi Neil Gillman (Conservative Theologian), author of The Death of Death, has suggested that the reason the Amidah includes a reference to resurrection — and mentions it multiple times just in that one blessing — may be in response to those who contested this belief in the first century BCE when the prayer was being formulated.
The Reform movement, in its Pittsburgh Platform of 1885, rejected entirely the idea of resurrection, saying it was “not rooted in Judaism.” (The platform did assert a belief in the immortality of the soul.) The movement removed the Amidah resurrection blessing from their liturgy until 2007 when, with the release of its new prayer book Mishkan T’filah, it reinstated the blessing — a move some attributed to Reform’s larger turn toward traditionalism and a growing comfort with liturgical metaphor.
The phrase m'chayei hameitim ("who causes the dead to come to life") is replaced in the Reform and Reconstructionist siddurim with m'chayei hakol ("who gives life to all") and m'chayei kol chai ("who gives life to all life"), respectively. This represents a turn away from the traditional article of faith that God will resurrect the dead. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amidah#Modern_changes_by_liberal_denominations]
Among Orthodox Jews, belief in the resurrection is still generally understood as a literal prophecy that will come to fruition when the messiah comes.
כי מתער אומר אלקי נשמה שנתת בי טהורה אתה יצרתה בי אתה נפחתה בי ואתה משמרה בקרבי ואתה עתיד ליטלה ממני ולהחזירה בי לעתיד לבא כל זמן שהנשמה בקרבי מודה אני לפניך ה׳ אלקי ואלקי אבותי רבון כל העולמים אדון כל הנשמות ברוך אתה ה׳ המחזיר נשמות לפגרים מתים
When one awakens, he recites: My God, the soul You have placed within me is pure. You formed it within me, You breathed it into me, and You guard it while it is within me. One day You will take it from me and restore it within me in the time to come. As long as the soul is within me, I thank You, O Lord my God and God of my ancestors, Master of all worlds, Lord of all souls. Blessed are You, O Lord, who restores souls to lifeless bodies.
Sanhedrin 90b-91a
The Gemara relates: Queen Cleopatra asked Rabbi Meir a question. She said: I know that the dead will live, as it is written: “And may they blossom out of the city like grass of the earth” (Psalms 72:16). Just as grass grows, so too, the dead will come to life. But when they arise, will they arise naked or will they arise with their garments? Rabbi Meir said to her: It is derived a fortiori from wheat. If wheat, which is buried naked, meaning that the kernel is sown without the chaff, emerges with several garments of chaff, all the more so will the righteous, who are buried with their garments, arise with their garments.
The Roman emperor said to Rabban Gamliel: You say that the dead will live. Aren’t they dust? And does dust come to life?
The school of Rabbi Yishmael taught that resurrection of the dead a fortiori from glass vessels: If concerning glass vessels, which are fashioned by the breath of those of flesh and blood, who blow and form the vessels, and yet if they break they can be repaired, as they can be melted and subsequently blown again, then with regard to those of flesh and blood, whose souls are a product of the breath of the Holy One, Blessed be He, all the more so can God restore them to life.
The Gemara relates that a certain heretic said to Rabbi Ami: You say that the dead will live. Aren’t they dust? And does dust come to life? Rabbi Ami said to him: I will tell you a parable. To what is this matter comparable? It is comparable to a flesh-and-blood king who said to his servants: Go and construct for me a great palace [palterin] in a place where there is no water and earth available. They went and constructed it. Sometime later, the palace collapsed. The king said to them: Return to your labor and construct the palace in a place where there is earth and water available. They said to him: We are unable to do so.
The king became angry at them and said to them: If in a place where there is no water and earth available you constructed a palace, now that there is water and earth available all the more so should you be able to do so. Similarly, concerning man, whom God created ex nihilo, all the more so will God be able to resurrect him from dust. And if you do not believe that a being can be created from dust, go out to the valley and see an akhbar, a creature that today is half flesh and half earth, and tomorrow the being will develop and all of it will become flesh. Lest you say that creation of living creatures is a matter that develops over an extended period, ascend a mountain and see that today there is only one snail there; then ascend tomorrow, after rain will have fallen, and see that it will be entirely filled with snails.
The Gemara relates that a certain heretic said to Geviha ben Pesisa: Woe unto you, the wicked, as you say: The dead will come to life. The way of the world is that those who are alive die. How can you say that the dead will come to life? Geviha ben Pesisa said to him: Woe unto you, the wicked, as you say: The dead will not come to life. If those who were not in existence come to life, is it not reasonable all the more so that those who were once alive will come to life again? The heretic said to Geviha ben Pesisa angrily: You called me wicked? If I stand, I will kick you and flatten your hump, as Geviha ben Pesisa was a hunchback. Geviha ben Pesisa said to him jocularly: If you do so, you will be called an expert doctor and will take high wages for your services.
וא"ר חייא בר יוסף עתידים צדיקים שיעמדו במלבושיהן ק"ו מחטה מה חטה שנקברה ערומה יוצאה בכמה לבושין צדיקים שנקברו בלבושיהן על אחת כמה וכמה
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.
בֹּא וּרְאֵה, שֶׁהֲרֵי אָבֵל הִתִּירָה לוֹ הַתּוֹרָה לַעֲשׂוֹת מְלַאכְתּוֹ וּלְהִתְנַחֵם אַחַר שְׁלֹשָׁה יָמִים. וְיַעֲקֹב אָבִינוּ לֹא קִבֵּל תַּנְחוּמִים עַל יוֹסֵף, דִּכְתִיב: וַיָּקֻמוּ כָל בָּנָיו וְכָל בְּנֹתָיו לְנַחֲמוֹ וְגוֹ' (בראשית לז, לה). וְכָל כָּךְ לָמָּה, שֶׁהֶעְלִים הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לְקַיֵּם גְּזֵרַת יָדֹעַ תֵּדַע. אִלּוּלֵי כֵן, לֹא הָיָה נָבִיא יִצְחָק אָבִיו, וְהָיָה קַיָּם אוֹתָהּ שָׁעָה וְהָיָה יוֹדֵעַ שֶׁיּוֹסֵף חַי, וְהָיָה אוֹמֵר, הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא הֶעְלִים מִמֶּנּוּ, אֲנִי אוֹדִיעֶנּוּ. כֵּיוָן שֶׁנִּצְנְצָה בוֹ רוּחַ הַקֹּדֶשׁ, הָיוּ הַשְּׁבָטִים מְהַלְּכִין בַּשּׁוּק וְלֹא הָיוּ יוֹדְעִין וְלֹא הָיוּ שׁוֹמְעִין, וְיַעֲקֹב אָבִינוּ יוֹשֵׁב בְּתוֹךְ הַבַּיִת וְיוֹדֵעַ מַה בְּמִצְרַיִם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: וַיַּרְא יַעֲקֹב כִּי יֶשׁ שֶׁבֶר בְּמִצְרָיִם.
Now Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt (Gen. 42:1). May it please our master to teach us the number of days during which a mourner is forbidden to work. Thus did our master teach us: A mourner is forbidden to work during the seven days following the burial. However, if he is an extremely poor man, he may return to his labors after the third day to obtain sustenance for himself and the members of his household.2Why is one permitted to return to work after three days? R. Kahana said: After three days, the flesh becomes putrid, the countenance changes, and the soul pleads for itself, as is said: But his flesh grieveth for him, and his soul mourneth over him (Job 14:22).3Observe that though the law permits a mourner to return to his work and be comforted after three days, our patriarch Jacob refused to be comforted over the loss of Joseph, as is written: And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted (Gen. 37:35). Why was that? Because the Holy One, blessed be He, concealed the fact of Joseph’s survival in order to fulfill the decree Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger (Gen. 15:13). If that had not been so, would not Isaac his father, a prophet, who was still alive and aware that Joseph still lived have disclosed it to him? He had said to himself: If the Holy One, blessed be He, concealed it from him, shall I tell him? When the prophetic spirit bubbled up in Jacob, the tribes were wandering about the marketplace, neither understanding nor hearing what was transpiring there, while Jacob our patriarch, sitting at home, knew what was happening in Egypt, as it is said: And now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt.
אמר ליה דאקרייך קהלת לא אקרייך משלי דכתיב ורקב עצמות קנאה כל מי שיש לו קנאה בלבו עצמותיו מרקיבים כל שאין לו קנאה בלבו אין עצמותיו מרקיבים גששיה חזייה דאית ביה מששא אמר ליה ליקום מר לגוויה דביתא אמר ליה גלית אדעתך דאפילו נביאי לא קרית דכתיב וידעתם כי אני ה׳ בפתחי את קברותיכם אמר ליה והכתיב כי עפר אתה ואל עפר תשוב אמר ליה ההוא שעה אחת קודם תחיית המתים אמר ליה ההוא מינא לרבי אבהו אמריתו נשמתן של צדיקים גנוזות תחת כסא הכבוד אובא טמיא היכא אסקיה לשמואל בנגידא אמר ליה התם בתוך שנים עשר חדש הוה דתניא כל שנים עשר חדש גופו קיים ונשמתו עולה ויורדת לאחר שנים עשר חדש הגוף בטל ונשמתו עולה ושוב אינה יורדת אמר רב יהודה בריה דרב שמואל בר שילת משמיה דרב מהספדו של אדם ניכר אם בן העולם הבא הוא אם לאו איני והאמר ליה רב לרב שמואל בר שילת אחים בהספידא דהתם קאימנא לא קשיא הא דמחמו ליה ואחים הא דמחמו ליה ולא אחים
Rav Aḥai said to him: Whoever taught you the book of Ecclesiastes did not teach you the book of Proverbs, for it is written in Proverbs: “A tranquil heart is the life of the flesh, but envy is the rotting of the bones” (Proverbs 14:30). This means that anyone who has envy in his heart during his lifetime, his bones rot in the grave, and anyone who does not have envy in his heart, his bones do not rot. Rav Naḥman touched him and saw that he had substance. Rav Naḥman said to him: Let the Master arise and come into my house. Rav Aḥai said to him: You have revealed that you have not even studied Prophets, and it is not just the Writings of which you are ignorant, for it is written: “And you shall know that I am the Lord when I open up your graves and lift you up from your graves, My nation” (Ezekiel 37:13). As long as the dead have not been instructed to leave their graves, leaving of their own accord is prohibited. Rav Naḥman once again asked Rav Aḥai about the preservation of the flesh, and he said: But it is written: “For you are dust and you shall return to dust” (Genesis 3:19), so why has your body not turned into dust? He said to him: That verse applies to the righteous only one hour before the resurrection of the dead, so that they, too, may be created anew (Maharsha). A certain apostate once said to Rabbi Abbahu: You say that the souls of the righteous are stored beneath the Throne of Glory, but if so, how did the oracle woman raise up Samuel using necromancy if his soul was no longer in this world? Rabbi Abbahu said to him: There, it was within twelve months of his death, as it was taught in a baraita: For a full twelve months a deceased person’s body remains and his soul ascends and descends, such that it is sometimes in this world with its body. After twelve months, the body ceases to exist and his soul ascends to its place beneath the Throne of Glory, and does not descend anymore. Rav Yehuda, son of Rav Shmuel bar Sheilat, said in the name of Rav: From a person’s eulogy it is apparent whether or not he has a share in the World-to-Come. If the listeners are pained and brought to tears during the eulogy, it is clear that the person was righteous. The Gemara asks: Is that so? Didn’t Rav say to Rav Shmuel bar Sheilat: Stir the hearts of those gathered during my eulogy, for I will be standing there and listening to your words? Even a person as great as Rav needed to give instructions about his eulogy. The Gemara answers: This is not difficult, for this statement, which maintains that those who merit a share in the World-to-Come can be identified by their eulogies, is referring to a situation in which they attempt to stir the listener and he is stirred; while that statement is referring to a situation in which they attempt to stir the listener and he is not stirred. That is an indication that the deceased person was not righteous.
Theories of reincarnation or metempsychosis are found in many religions and cultures, ancient and modern, but there are no references to the idea in the Bible or the Talmud , and it was unknown in Judaism until the eighth century CE, when it began to be adopted by the Karaites [a sectarian Jewish group] (possibly, it has been suggested, under the influence of Islamic mysticism).
Three Kinds of Reincarnation
In the kabbalistic literature three types of reincarnation are mentioned:
1. gilgul, transmigration proper, in which a soul that had previously inhabited one body is sent back to earth to inhabit another body.
2. ibbur, “impregnation,” in which a soul descends from heaven in order to assist another soul in the body.
3. dybbuk, a generally late concept, in which a guilt‑laden soul pursued by devils enters a human body in order to find rest and has to be exorcised.
The philosophical difficulty in the whole doctrine of reincarnation lies in the problem of what possible meaning can be given to the identity of the soul that has been reincarnated, since the experiences of the body determine the character of the soul. How can the soul that has been in two or more bodies be the “same” soul?
[Gershom] Scholem has suggested that it was this difficulty which led the Zohar to postulate the existence of the tzelem (“image”), a kind of “astral body” which does not migrate from body to body and which therefore preserves individual identity. We are here in the realm of the occult, as, indeed, we are in the whole area of reincarnation.
Some modern Jews are attracted to the occult and believe in reincarnation. Otherwise the doctrine has had its day, and is believed in by very few modern Jews, although hardly any Orthodox Jew today will positively denounce the doctrine. This doctrine of reincarnation shows how precarious it is to attempt to see Judaism in monolithic terms. Here is a doctrine rejected as a foreign importation by a notable thinker such as Saadiah, and upon which other thinkers, including Maimonides, are silent, and yet, for the kabbalists, it is revealed truth.
In Jewish folklore, a golem (/ˈɡoʊləm/ GOH-ləm; Hebrew: גולם) is an animated anthropomorphic being that is magically created entirely from inanimate matter (usually clay or mud). The word was used to mean an amorphous, unformed material in Psalms and medieval writing.
The most famous golem narrative involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the late-16th-century rabbi of Prague. Many tales are differing on how the golem was brought to life and afterward controlled. According to Moment Magazine, "the golem is a highly mutable metaphor with seemingly limitless symbolism. It can be a victim or villain, Jew or non-Jew, man or woman—or sometimes both. Over the centuries it has been used to connote war, community, isolation, hope, and despair.”
Etymology
The word golem occurs once in the Bible in Psalm 139:16, which uses the word גלמי (golmi; my golem), that means "my light form", "raw" material, connoting the unfinished human being before God's eyes. The Mishnah uses the term for an uncultivated person: "Seven characteristics are in an uncultivated person, and seven in a learned one," (שבעה דברים בגולם) (Pirkei Avot 5:6 in the Hebrew text; English translations vary). In Modern Hebrew, golem is used to mean "dumb" or "helpless". Similarly, it is often used today as a metaphor for a mindless lunk or entity who serves a man under controlled conditions but is hostile to him under others. "Golem" passed into Yiddish as goylem to mean someone who is lethargic or beneath a stupor.
The classic narrative: The Golem of Prague
The most famous golem narrative involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the late 16th century rabbi of Prague, also known as the Maharal, who reportedly "created a golem out of clay from the banks of the Vltava River and brought it to life through rituals and Hebrew incantations to defend the Prague ghetto from anti-Semitic attacks" and pogroms. Depending on the version of the legend, the Jews in Prague were to be either expelled or killed under the rule of Rudolf II, the Holy Roman Emperor. The Golem was called Josef and was known as Yossele. It was said that he could make himself invisible and summon spirits from the dead. Rabbi Loew deactivated the Golem on Friday evenings by removing the shem before the Sabbath (Saturday) began, so as to let it rest on Sabbath. One Friday evening Rabbi Loew forgot to remove the shem, and feared that the Golem would desecrate the Sabbath. A different story tells of a golem that fell in love, and when rejected, became the violent monster seen in most accounts. Some versions have the golem eventually going on a murderous rampage.
The rabbi then managed to pull the shem from his mouth and immobilize him] in front of the synagogue, whereupon the golem fell in pieces. The Golem's body was stored in the attic genizah of the Old New Synagogue, where it would be restored to life again if needed.
According to legend, the body of Rabbi Loew's Golem still lies in the synagogue's attic. When the attic was renovated in 1883, no evidence of the Golem was found. Some versions of the tale state that the Golem was stolen from the genizah and entombed in a graveyard in Prague's Žižkov district, where the Žižkov Television Tower now stands. A recent legend tells of a Nazi agent ascending to the synagogue attic during World War II and trying to stab the Golem, but he died instead. The attic is not open to the general public.
Some Orthodox Jews believe that the Maharal did actually create a golem. The evidence for this belief has been analyzed from an Orthodox Jewish perspective by Shnayer Z. Leiman.