Tree of Souls
Page 106
Sources:
B. Sanhedrin 97a; Sihot ha-Ran 126; Sihot Moharan, Avodat ha-Shem 81 (31a).
633. THE END OF DAYS
In the world we know, men walk in the light of the sun by day and in the light of the moon at night. But in the End of Days, No longer shall you need the sun for light by day, nor the shining of the moon for radiance by night (Isa. 60:19). In what light, then, will men walk? Yahweh shall be your light everlasting (Isa. 60:19).
In the coming era there will not be any eating or drinking, or procreation, or trade, nor will there be jealousy or hatred. Instead, the righteous will sit with crowns on their head, and feed on the splendor of the Shekhinah.
The messianic era, known as the End of Days, is described as a kind of heaven on earth. Or it might be viewed as a return to the Garden of Eden. Indeed, all of Jewish history can be encapsulated between the exile from Eden and the messianic era with its return to a prelapsarian era like that of the Garden of Eden. Or the messianic era might be seen as a kind of eternal Sabbath, a permanent state of rest.
Sources:
B. Berakhot 17a; Pesikta de-Rav Kahana 21:5; Gan Eden ve-Gehinnom in Beit ha-Midrash 5:42-48.
634. THE END OF THE WORLD
In the generation when the Messiah comes, fiery seraphim will be sent into the Temple, and stars will appear like fire in every place. The glory of the Shekhinah will fill the Temple, and God will bring down His throne and set it in the Valley of Jehoshaphat. At that time God will clothe the Messiah with a diadem, and He will place a helmet of salvation on his head, and gird him with brilliance and splendor. He will also adorn him with glorious garments and place him on a high mountain, and the Messiah will announce, “Salvation is near!” Then the Messiah will proclaim the news to the patriarchs and to Adam, who sleeps in the cave of Machpelah. And Adam will immediately stand up along with his generation, as well as the patriarchs and all the generations from the beginning of time to the last day.
The age of the Messiah will last 400 years, and after that the Messiah shall die, along with all in whom there is human breath. Then the world will be turned back to primeval silence for seven days, as it was at the beginning of Creation, as it is said, The heavens shall melt away like smoke, and the earth shall wear out like a garment (Isa. 51:6).
This is a supernatural portrayal of the End of Days, where the transformation of the world will be evident to everyone and the presence of divine figures, including God, the Messiah, and angels (in the form of fiery seraphim), will be experienced in this world. It includes the rebirth of the great figures of the past, such as Adam and the patriarchs, which is one of the requirements of the Messiah. This, then, is an ultimate fantasy of redemption, when the messianic era that was awaited so long finally arrives.
Of interest, however, is the 400-year time limit associated with this description of the messianic age. After that, it is said that the world will come to an end, to be followed by resurrection and judgment.
Sources:
4 Ezra 7:27-30; Sefer Eliyahu in Beit ha-Midrash 3:68-78.
Studies:
“The Place of the End of Days: Eschatological Geography in Jerusalem” by Ora Limor.
635. HOW THE END OF THE WORLD WILL COME
On the day of the end of the world, happy and joyous people will come out of the earth. They will beat drums and play flutes and all other musical instruments. They will travel from east to west, toward the Holy Land. The mountains before them will turn into a blooming garden. Every tree will bear fruit, and the stones will turn to meat and rice, and the people will eat to their hearts’ content. After this the Messiah will come, and he will separate those who are believers from those who are not. The nonbelievers will go to Gehenna, and the believers will journey with the Messiah to Jerusalem. That is how the end of the world will come.
This a folk version of the onset of the messianic era. It follows the essential mythic pattern in which the dead are restored to life—these are the people who climb out of the earth, the righteous are gathered to the Holy Land, and the arrival of the Messiah takes place. The details about every tree bearing fruit and stones turning into food demonstrate that the folk understanding of the messianic era is one in which people will still retain the desire to eat, and there will not be any shortages of food.
Sources:
IFA 10919.
636. THE VISION OF THE VALLEY OF DRY BONES
The hand of the Lord came upon me. He took me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the valley. It was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very many of them spread over the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, “O mortal, can these bones live again?” I replied, “O Lord God, only You know.” And He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! Thus said the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live again. I will lay sinews upon you, and cover you with flesh, and form skin over you. And I will put breath into you, and you shall live again. And you shall know that I am the Lord!”
I prophesied as I had been commanded. And while I was prophesying, suddenly there was a sound of rattling, and the bones came together, bone to matching bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had grown, and skin had formed over them; but there was no breath in them. Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, O mortal! Say to the breath: Thus said the Lord God: Come, O breath, from the four winds, and breathe into these slain, that they may live again.” I prophesied as He commanded me. The breath entered them, and they came to life and stood up on their feet, a vast multitude.
And He said to me, “O mortal, these bones are the whole House of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, our hope is gone; we are doomed.’ Prophesy, therefore, and say to them: Thus said the Lord God: I am going to open your graves and lift you out of the graves, O My people, and bring you to the Land of Israel. You shall know, O My people, that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves and lifted you out of your graves. I will put My breath into you and you shall live again, and I will set you upon your own soil. Then you shall know that I the Lord have spoken and have acted”—declares the Lord.
The belief in the bodily resurrection of the dead can be traced to this powerful biblical myth of Ezekiel, in which God compels him to resurrect, with his prophesying, the bones in the valley of the dry bones. Here God’s intention to bring the people of Israel back to life is presented as an explicit promise, with a powerful demonstration of God’s ability to fulfill it. In messianic myth, the resurrection of the dead becomes one of the three primary requirements that must be fulfilled to initiate the messianic era. The others are the Ingathering of the Exiles and the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem.
Ezekiel’s vision of resurrection was taken by later Jewish sources as a scriptural basis for a literal belief in resurrection. In the Talmud, for example, it is stated that “in the future the pious will sprout up and emerge in Jerusalem, and they will rise up in their garments” (B. Ketubot 111b). And chapter 34 of Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer, an important midrashic text, states that “God opens the graves and opens the storehouses of the souls and puts back each soul into its own body.”
Still another version of the resurrection of the dead is found in the Responsum of Hai Gaon 60a-b: “And God will stretch sinews upon them and cover them with flesh and envelop them with skin, but there will be no spirit in them. And then God will cause the dew of life to descend from heaven, in which there is the light of the life of the soul. And they will recognize that they had lived and died and then risen to life.”
There is a debate in B. Sanhedrin 92b as to whether the resurrection of the dead as described in Ezekiel should be understood literally or taken as a parable: “Rabbi Eliezer said, ‘The dead who were resurrected by Ezekiel stood up and sang songs of praise to God and immediately died.’ Rabbi Judah said the story is a true event that served as a parable. Rabbi Eliezer ben Yose said, ‘The dead who were resurrecte
d by Ezekiel went up to the Land of Israel, married and begat sons and daughters.’ Hearing this, Rabbi Judah stood up and said, ‘I am one of their descendants. You see these tefillin? They were given to me by my grandfather and once belonged to them!’” It seems likely that we are to understand Rabbi Judah’s comments as a sarcastic response to Rabbi Eliezer ben Yose’s literalism. However, this debate also serves as evidence of belief in the resurrection in Judaism, where it is listed as the last of the Thirteen Principles of Maimonides.
Sources:
Ezekiel 37:1-14.
637. HOW THE DEAD WILL COME TO LIFE
How will the dead come to life? God will take the Great Shofar in His hand and blow on it seven times, and its sound will go forth from one end of the world to the other.
At the first blast, the whole world will shake and suffer the pangs of the Messiah.
At the second blast, dust will be scattered over the face of the earth and the graves will open.
At the third, the bones will gather together.
At the fourth, the limbs will stretch out.
At the fifth, skin will be stretched over them.
At the sixth, spirits and souls will enter the bodies.
At the seventh, God Himself will raise and resuscitate them and make them stand on their feet.
The Great Shofar is the second horn of the ram that Abraham slew at Mount Moriah. The first ram’s horn was blown by Moses at Mount Sinai. In most messianic traditions, it is said that Elijah will blow the second horn. Here, however, it is God who blows on it to initiate the End of Days. It is also said that God will blow this shofar when He leads the exiles of Israel into their land. See Isaiah 27:13.
The portrayal of the stage-by-stage resurrection of the dead is strongly influenced by Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones (Ezek. 37:1-14). Both take place in stages, but in the present myth these stages, delineated by the blast of the Great Shofar, are similar to the creation of Adam in Genesis.
An alternate version of the resurrection in Pesikta Hadta states that “God will bring dust of the earth and dust of the dead, and mix them together, and put into it skin and flesh and sinews and bones. And the angel in charge of souls will come and infuse souls into the bodies. Then they will enter the House of Study where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sit before God, the kings of Israel and Judah sit behind Him, and David sits at the head.”
Sources:
Pesikta Hadta in Beit ha-Midrash 6:47, 6:58; Midrash Alpha Beta de-Rabbi Akiva in Beit ha-Midrash 3:31; Tanna de-vei Eliyahu Zuta 22.
Studies:
“Some Aspects of After Life in Early Rabbinic Literature” by Saul Lieberman.
638. THE DEW OF RESURRECTION
From where does the dew of resurrection descend? From the head of God, as it is said, “For My head is drenched with dew, My locks with the damp of night” (S. of S. 5:2). When the time comes to resurrect the dead, God will shake His locks and bring down the dew of resurrection, and by means of that dew, all the righteous dead will rise from the dust.
Others say that after the reviving dew descends, God will seat each person between His knees, and embrace them and kiss them and bring them to life in the World to Come.
This myth finds its source in the verse For your dew is like the dew on fresh growth (Isa. 26:19). In these myths, God takes a most active role in the resurrection. In other myths, the resurrection happens as the final stage of a process, or there is an angel who is charged with raising the dead. But here God is the source of the dew that brings about the resurrection. He even takes each person, one by one, to Himself, and brings him or her back to life.
Note that the World to Come is identified here with the messianic era, although they usually refer to separate traditions, where the World to Come is the world of rewards for the souls of the righteous when they leave this world, and the messianic era refers to this world after its transformation at the End of Days. Maimonides defines the World to Come as follows: “The life after which there is no death is the life of the World to Come, in which there is no body, for the World to Come consists of souls with no bodies, like the angels” (Maimonides, Ma’amar Tehiyat ha-Metim). As for the messianic era, it will bring about a great transformation in which this world will become a paradise on earth. In effect, it will restore the whole world to the kind of pristine purity found in the Garden of Eden before the Fall.
What is the dew of God? In Zohar 3:128a, Idra Rabbah, this dew is described as “the light of the pale glow of the Ancient One. And from that dew exist the supernal saints, and it is the manna which they grind for the righteous in the World to Come.”
Sources:
Yalkut Shim’oni, Shir ha-Shirim no. 988; Zohar 1:130b, 3:128a, Idra Rabbah; Seder Eliyahu Rabbah 5:22; Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 34; Midrash Tehillim 68:5.
639. THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD
God keeps the souls of the dead alive, and the dead wait, their eyes fixed upon the resurrection.
The patriarchs sought to be buried in the Land of Israel, because the dead in the Land of Israel will be the first to come to life. Not only Abraham and Sarah are buried there, but also Isaac and Rebecca and Jacob and Leah. So too are Adam and Eve said to be buried nearby.
In the days preceding the coming of the Messiah, great events will befall the world. Ten territories will be swallowed up, ten territories will be overturned, and ten territories will have their inhabitants put to death.
When the Messiah comes, all mankind, the quick and those who were dead, will be one in the worship of God. In those days the dead of the Land of Israel will be the first to come back to life. The angel Michael will blow a great blast on the shofar, and the tombs of the dead will burst open in Jerusalem, and God will revive them. When the resurrection comes, those who arise from the dead will see the Eternal Spirit returning to Zion through the Gate of Mercy. This gate has been blocked for many generations. Therefore it is said of this gate that it will not be opened until the eyes of Israel are opened at the End of Days.
In the days of the Messiah, God will rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem and Israel will go up in pilgrimage not three times a year, but on every New Moon and Sabbath. How will it be possible for all flesh to come to Jerusalem? In those days Jerusalem is destined to be as large as the Land of Israel, and the Land of Israel as large as the whole world. And how can they come from the ends of the earth? Clouds will carry the children of Israel to Jerusalem, where they will say their prayers, and then the clouds will carry them back to their homes, as it is said, Who are these that float like a cloud? (Isa. 60:8).
Then the walls of Jerusalem will disappear, and the Messiah will rebuild them with precious stones and pearls. The resurrected dead will inhabit this new Jerusalem, and they will be like Adam before he sinned.
After that, the bones of the righteous outside the Land will roll through underground caves until they reach the Mount of Olives in the city of Jerusalem. There God will restore their souls to them, and they will arise and enjoy the days of the Messiah along with those who have already come alive in the Land. And those who are resurrected will not die again and return to dust. But just as God endures forever, so they will live forever. God will give them wings and they will float in the air and fly like angels to the Garden of Eden, where they will learn Torah from God.
Based on Isaiah 26:19: Oh, let Your dead revive! Let corpses arise! Awake and shout for joy, you who dwell in the dust!—For Your dew is like the dew on fresh growth; You make the land of the shades come to life. Belief in the resurrection of the dead is the thirteenth of Maimonides’ Thirteen Principles. One of the key requirements of the messianic era is the Ingathering of the Exiles, while another is the resurrection of the dead. This key myth describes how that resurrection will take place in the End of Days, along with the ingathering of the righteous dead from where they are buried around the world.
Here it is understood that in the days of the Messiah the dead of the Land of Israel will rejoin the living, and the righteous dead ou
tside the Land will return to the Land and come to life again.
The three patriarchs and their wives are believed to be buried in the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron. Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 20 reports that Adam and Eve are also buried there.
In the days of the Temple, there were three pilgrimages a year, at the time of the agricultural festivals of Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot. Here it is imagined that in the messianic era these pilgrimages will take place much more often, on every new moon and Sabbath, with the people being carried to Jerusalem on clouds. This last detail demonstrates that although the dead will be brought to life, the nature of existence in the messianic era will be markedly different from what it was before the End of Days.
The question of whether the dead can be resurrected at all is raised and answered in Pesikta Rabbati 48:2: “Successive generations have asked: ‘Can we believe that a dead man can be brought back to life?’ God replied: ‘Why do you have doubts as to whether I shall be able to quicken the dead? Have I not already quickened the dead by the hand of Elijah, by the hand of Elisha, and by the hand of Ezekiel? That which is to
be in the time to come has already been in this world.’” This demonstrates that even among believers, there was some doubt about the resurrection of the dead. But it also provides a convincing reply from God, who points out that such resurrection is reported three times in the Bible.
Sources:
Genesis Rabbah 96:5; Pesikta Rabbati 1:1, 1:4, 1:6, 1:7, 48:2; Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:1; B. Sanhedrin 92a-b; Midrash Tehillim 104:23; Zohar 1:12b; Otot ha-Mashiah in Beit ha-Midrash 2:58-63; Otzar ha-Ma’asiyot; Hilkhot Melakhim 11:1; Hilkhot Teshuvah 8:1; Ma’amar Tehiyat ha-Metim; Hesed le-Avraham 33b; Sefer ha-Hezyonot 2:5; Sefer Eliyahu in Beit ha-Midrash 3:68-78.