The writer opposes the Rambam’s position, which claims, following Aristotle, that the sense of touch is disgraceful (The Guide for the Perplexed, part 2 Chapter 33), and attempts to counter it with a more positive outlook on sexuality. Throughout the work, this affirmative stance develops to such a point that one might say that by the end, not only are sexual relations viewed as holy, but through them one can empower the highest mystical experiences. The writer presents several theses to counter the view of the human body as loathsome. He argues that if God in his wisdom created physical beings with defined limbs, then physicality must be considered part of the divine plan. “The matter is not as Rabbi Moses of blessed memory thought and believed in his Guide to the Perplexed, when he praised Aristotle’s statements. … Heaven forbid! Matters are not as the Greek work states, since this work contains subtle traces of heresy. If that heretic Greek had believed that the world is renewed by intent, he would not have said that. But we, who possess the holy Torah, believe that the blessed God created everything as His wisdom decreed and created nothing shameful or ugly. For if we say that copulation is shameful, then the sexual organs are contemptible. But God, blessed be He, created them according to His word: ‘And you established them….” ( p.323)
When a man unites with his wife, if his imagination and thoughts concentrate on matters of wisdom and understanding, good and worthy qualities, those thoughts have the power to create an image in the drop of sperm. … This is the secret of [the verse]: Jacob then got fresh shoots of poplar, and of almond and plane, and peeled white stripes in them, laying bare the white of the shoots, etc.
In an extraordinary interpretation, the writer explains the sages’ statement “God considers good intention as if it were deed” (BT Kiddushin 40a) to mean that intention can actually create deeds. This is a subversion of the common interpretation of the sages’ statement.
The Disputation of Barcelona (July 20–24, 1263) was a formal ordered medieval debate between representatives of Christianity and Judaism regarding whether or not Jesus was the Messiah. It was held at the royal palace of King James I of Aragon in the presence of the King, his court, and many prominent ecclesiastical dignitaries and knights, between Dominican Friar Pablo Christiani, a convert from Judaism to Christianity, and Nachmanides (Moshe Ben Nahman, also called Ramban), a leading medieval Jewish scholar, philosopher, physician, kabbalist, and biblical commentator.
1.whether the Messiah had appeared or not?
2.whether, according to Scripture, the Messiah is a divine or a human being?
"[... it seems most strange that... ] the Creator of Heaven and Earth resorted to the womb of a certain Jewish lady, grew there for nine months and was born as an infant, and afterwards grew up and was betrayed into the hands of his enemies who sentenced him to death and executed him, and that afterwards... he came to life and returned to his original place. The mind of a Jew, or any other person, simply cannot tolerate these assertions. If you have listened all your life to the priests who have filled your brain and the marrow of your bones with this doctrine, and it has settled into you because of that accustomed habit. [I would argue that if you were hearing these ideas for the first time, now, as a grown adult], you would never have accepted them."
From my father's sichot: When Mashiach will come (speedily in our time, amein), then we shall really long for the days of the exile. Then we will truly feel distress at our having neglected working at avoda; then will we indeed feel the deep pain caused by our lack of avoda. These days of exile are the days of avoda, to prepare ourselves for the coming of Mashiach, speedily in our time, amein.
(34) No longer will they need to teach one another and say to one another, “Heed the L-RD”; for all of them, from the least of them to the greatest, shall heed Me—declares the L-RD. For I will forgive their iniquities, And remember their sins no more.
(3) And the many peoples shall go and say: “Come, Let us go up to the Mount of the L-RD, To the House of the G-d of Jacob; That He may instruct us in His ways, And that we may walk in His paths.” For instruction shall come forth from Zion, The word of the L-RD from Jerusalem. (4) Thus He will judge among the nations And arbitrate for the many peoples, And they shall beat their swords into plowshares And their spears into pruning hooks: Nation shall not take up Sword against nation; They shall never again know war.
(6) The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard lie down with the kid; The calf, the beast of prey, and the fatling together, With a little boy to herd them. (7) The cow and the bear shall graze, Their young shall lie down together; And the lion, like the ox, shall eat straw. (8) A babe shall play Over a viper’s hole, And an infant pass his hand Over an adder’s den. (9) In all of My sacred mount Nothing evil or vile shall be done; For the land shall be filled with devotion to the L-RD As water covers the sea.
(ד) לֹא נִתְאַוּוּ הַחֲכָמִים וְהַנְּבִיאִים יְמוֹת הַמָּשִׁיחַ. לֹא כְּדֵי שֶׁיִּשְׁלְטוּ עַל כָּל הָעוֹלָם. וְלֹא כְּדֵי שֶׁיִּרְדּוּ בָּעַכּוּ''ם. וְלֹא כְּדֵי שֶׁיְּנַשְּׂאוּ אוֹתָם הָעַמִּים. וְלֹא כְּדֵי לֶאֱכל וְלִשְׁתּוֹת וְלִשְׂמֹחַ. אֶלָּא כְּדֵי שֶׁיִּהְיוּ פְּנוּיִין בַּתּוֹרָה וְחָכְמָתָהּ. וְלֹא יִהְיֶה לָהֶם נוֹגֵשׂ וּמְבַטֵּל. כְּדֵי שֶׁיִּזְכּוּ לְחַיֵּי הָעוֹלָם הַבָּא. כְּמוֹ שֶׁבֵּאַרְנוּ בְּהִלְכוֹת תְּשׁוּבָה:
(4) The Sages and the Prophets did not long for the days of the Messiah because they wanted to rule the world or because they wanted to have dominion over the non-Jews or because they wanted the nations to exalt them or because they wanted to eat, drink and be merry. Rather, they desired this so that they would have time for Torah and its Wisdom. And there would be no one who would oppress them or force them to be idle (from Torah). This, in order that they may merit the World to Come, as we have explained regarding the Laws of Repentance.
(ה) וּבְאוֹתוֹ הַזְּמַן לֹא יִהְיֶה שָׁם לֹא רָעָב וְלֹא מִלְחָמָה. וְלֹא קִנְאָה וְתַחֲרוּת. שֶׁהַטּוֹבָה תִּהְיֶה מֻשְׁפַּעַת הַרְבֵּה. וְכָל הַמַּעֲדַנִּים מְצוּיִין כֶּעָפָר. וְלֹא יִהְיֶה עֵסֶק כָּל הָעוֹלָם אֶלָּא לָדַעַת אֶת ה' בִּלְבַד. וּלְפִיכָךְ יִהְיוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל חֲכָמִים גְּדוֹלִים וְיוֹדְעִים דְּבָרִים הַסְּתוּמִים וְיַשִּׂיגוּ דַּעַת בּוֹרְאָם כְּפִי כֹּחַ הָאָדָם. שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (ישעיה יא, ט) "כִּי מָלְאָה הָאָרֶץ דֵּעָה אֶת ה' כַּמַּיִם לַיָּם מְכַסִּים":
(5) At that time there will be no famines and no wars, no envy and no competition. For the Good will be very pervasive All the delicacies will be as readily available as is dust. The world will only be engaged in knowing G-d. Then, there will be very wise people who will understand the deep, sealed matters. They will then achieve knowledge of the Creator to as high a degree as humanly possible, as it says, “For the Earth shall be filled of knowledge of the L-rd, as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9).
Blessed be Hashem who helped me.
Since the Dominicans claimed victory, Nachmanides left Aragon never to return again and in 1267 he settled in Palestine. There he founded a synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem, the Ramban Synagogue. It is the oldest synagogue in Jerusalem.
In August 1263, James I ordered the removal of passages deemed offensive from the Talmud. The committee assigned to carry out this censorship consisted of Bishop of Barcelona Arnoldo de Guerbo, Raymond de Penyafort, and the Dominicans Arnoldo de Legarra, Pedro de Janua and Ramón Martí (author of Pugio Fidei).
It should not occur to you that during the days of the Messiah a single thing from the “ways of the world”I.e. Nature. will be canceled nor will there be something novel in the Creation. Rather, the world will continue in its customary way. Now, that which is said in Isaiah, “And the wolf will live with the sheep and the leopard shall lie down with the kid” (Isaiah 11:6) is a parable and riddle. The substance of the matter is that Israel will dwell in safety with the wicked of the world who are compared to wolves and tigers, as it says, “a wolf of the deserts spoil them, a leopard watches over their cities” (Jeremiah 5:6). But, they will all return to the true religion and they will not steal and not destroy. Rather, they will eat of the permissible foods comfortably136I.e. in peace. like Israel, as it says, “and the lion will eat straw as does the ox” (Isaiah 11:7). And so similar matters written about the Messiah are parables. In the days of the King Messiah everyone will understand these parables and to what these matters were compared and to what was hinted.
ברורה היתה לו בזה שלא יהיה לו הזרע אבל הענין סוד גדול מסודות התורה בתולדת האדם ונכר הוא לעיני רואים אשר נתן להם השם עינים לראות ואזנים לשמוע והיו החכמים הקדמונים קודם התורה יודעים כי יש תועלת גדולה ביבום האח והוא הראוי להיות קודם בו ואחריו הקרוב במשפחה כי כל שארו הקרוב אליו ממשפחתו אשר הוא יורש נחלה יגיע ממנו תועלת והיו נוהגים לישא אשת המת האח או האב או הקרוב מן המשפחה ולא ידענו אם היה המנהג קדמון לפני יהודה
והנה ראינו כי זכי הנפש קיום גופם בדברים הדקים והזכים מהם בדקים מן הדקים כי אנשי המן נתקיימו במן הנבלע באברים שהוא מתולדות האור העליון המתגשם ברצון הבורא יתברך וזכו בדבר משעה שנתעלית נפשם במה שהשיגו בנפלאות כמו שאמרו (מכילתא בשלח) "ראתה שפחה על הים מה שלא ראה יחזקאל הנביא" ומשה שנתעלית נפשו ונתיחדה יותר מהם בידיעת בוראו לא הוצרך לדבר ההוא שנתגשם ונתקיים גופו בזיו השכינה ובהשגת העליונים ....ועל כן נאמין אנחנו במה שאמרו (סנהדרין צב א') מתים שעתיד הקדוש ברוך הוא להחיות שוב אינן חוזרין לעפרם ואם תאמר אותן אלף שנים שעתיד הקדוש ברוך הוא לחדש עולמו מה הן עושין הקדוש ברוך הוא עושה להם כנפים והם שטים על פני המים ופירוש "כנפים" לבישת הנפש מלאכות ותתלבש הגוף עמה ושלא תתבטל בבטול היסודות וזה עניין מורגל מאוד ושגור בפיהם זיכרונם לברכה כמו שאמרו בכל המדרשות ובתלמוד "למען ייטב לך" לעולם שכולו טוב "והארכת ימים" לעולם שכולו ארוך רוצה לומר שכל הזוכים לו ארוכי הימים הם שאין בו המות ומפורש אמרו בשלהי חולין אין לך כל מצוה ומצוה שכתובה בתורה שמתן שכרה בצדה שאין תחיית המתים תלויה בה שנאמר "למען ייטב לך והארכת ימים" "למען ייטב לך" לעולם שכולו טוב "והארכת ימים" לעולם שכולו ארוך כלומר שאינן חוזרין לעפרן לעדי עד וכבר כתבתיה לזו.
והנה נתבררה אמונת הרב זכרונו לברכה בפירוש העולם הבא וכוונתנו אנחנו בו ובאמת תמצא למקצת חכמי ספרד בחבורי חכמותיהם ובתפלותיהם שהם מסכימים לדעת ההוא שהעולם הבא הוא עולם הנשמות .... ומכל מקום אין בינינו רק בשינוי השמות והכל מודים בתחיית המתים ובקיום הזמן ההוא בכלליו ופרטיו כמו שפירשתי זולתי דעת הרב רבי משה זכרונו לברכה שנותנת קצבה לזמן התחיה ומחזיר הכל לעולם הנשמות כמו שנזכר למעלה ואנחנו מקיימין אנשי התחיה לעדי עד מימות תחיית המתים לעולם הבא שהוא עולם שכולו ארוך ואדון הרחמים יזכנו לטוב אשר צפון ליראיו ופעל לעבדיו למען רחמיו וחסדיו אמן ואמן.
(א) הַטוֹבָה הַצְּפוּנָה לַצַּדִּיקִים הִיא חַיֵּי הָעוֹלָם הַבָּא וְהִיא הַחַיִּים שֶׁאֵין מָוֶת עִמָּהֶן וְהַטּוֹבָה שֶׁאֵין עִמָּהּ רָעָה. הוּא שֶׁכָּתוּב בַּתּוֹרָה (דברים כב ז) "לְמַעַן יִיטַב לָךְ וְהַאֲרַכְתָּ יָמִים". מִפִּי הַשְּׁמוּעָה לָמְדוּ לְמַעַן יִיטַב לָךְ לְעוֹלָם שֶׁכֻּלּוֹ טוֹב וְהַאֲרַכְתָּ יָמִים לְעוֹלָם שֶׁכֻּלּוֹ אָרֹךְ. וְזֶה הוּא הָעוֹלָם הַבָּא. שְׂכַר הַצַּדִּיקִים הוּא שֶׁיִּזְכּוּ לְנֹעַם זֶה וְיִהְיוּ בְּטוֹבָה זוֹ. וּפִרְעוֹן הָרְשָׁעִים הוּא שֶׁלֹּא יִזְכּוּ לְחַיִּים אֵלּוּ אֶלָּא יִכָּרְתוּ וְיָמוּתוּ. וְכָל מִי שֶׁאֵינוֹ זוֹכֶה לְחַיִּים אֵלּוּ הוּא הַמֵּת שֶׁאֵינוֹ חַי לָעוֹלָם אֶלָּא נִכְרַת בְּרִשְׁעוֹ וְאָבֵד כִּבְהֵמָה. וְזֶהוּ כָּרֵת הַכְּתוּבָה בַּתּוֹרָה שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (במדבר טו לא) "הִכָּרֵת תִּכָּרֵת הַנֶּפֶשׁ הַהִיא". מִפִּי הַשְּׁמוּעָה לָמְדוּ הִכָּרֵת בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה תִּכָּרֵת לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא. כְּלוֹמַר שֶׁאוֹתָהּ הַנֶּפֶשׁ שֶׁפֵּרְשָׁה מִן הַגּוּף בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה אֵינָהּ זוֹכָה לְחַיֵּי הָעוֹלָם הַבָּא אֶלָּא גַּם מִן הָעוֹלָם הַבָּא נִכְרֶתֶת:
(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.1The translation here can not be literally given on account of the English text of the quotation. “Utterly”, stands for the Hebrew word “Hikorat” and “cut off”, for “Tikorat”. The Talmud (Sanhedrin, 64b) defines “Hikorat” literally, being cut off of itself, to refer to this world; and “Tikorat”, literally, being cut off by another, refers to the World to Come. G. as if saying: "That soul which was separated from the body in this world shares not in the life of the World to Come, for even from the World to Come is it cut off".2Baba Mezi’a, 58b-59a; Kiddushin, 39b-40a; Hullin, 142a. C.
The World-to-Come is not like this world.
In the World-to-Come there is no eating, no drinking,
no procreation, no business negotiations,
no jealousy, no hatred, and no competition.
Rather, the righteous sit with their crowns upon their heads, enjoying the splendor of the Divine Presence, as it is stated:
“And they beheld God, and they ate and drank” (Exodus 24:11), meaning that beholding God’s countenance is tantamount to eating and drinking.