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Back to Question of the Week Back to Archives Q: In the Introduction to his commentary on Perek Chelek, Maimonides states that "The resurrection of the dead is one of the fundamental principles of the Torah taught by Moses." What (and where) does the Torah teach about an afterlife? Judith |
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A: First, let's clarify some terms. Many of my readers will be familiar with Maimonides. He's one of the Jewish greats: a twelfth century rabbi, philosopher, physician, and community leader. Perek is a Hebrew word for "chapter." So Perek Chelek is a chapter of Mishnah, (a book of rabbinic teaching from about the year 200 C.E.), that has to do with "chelek." Namely, it starts out with the the statement that "All Israel have a share [Hebrew: "chelek"] in the world to come." Now come the hard ones: "resurrection" and "afterlife." Usually, when people speak of "resurrection," I think that they mean that the dead will return to physical life. (The Hebrew term is "tekhiyat hametim," the vivification of the dead.) It is fairly clear from what Maimonides says in the commentary referred to, as well as in other places, that he actually didn't believe in resurrection in that sense. (That's partly why he was accused of being a heretic and had his books burned by fellow Jews.) He did believe that a part of us, the part that had come to know some of the truth of God's being, continues to live and to delight in its platonic knowledge after our physical death. Now as to what the Torah teaches about an afterlife, that's a good question. The chapter of Mishnah called Perek Chelek says that those who deny that resurrection is a biblical doctrine do not have a share in the world to come (i.e. You don't believe in resurrection? Fine -- don't get resurrected!) The later rabbis of the Talmud, though, in commenting on this chapter, have a somewhat difficult time deciding what the appropriate biblical proof text for resurrection is. They start with the not-very-plausible suggestion that the doctrine is derived from Numbers 18:28: "And you shall give thereof the Eternal's heave offering to Aaron the priest." But since Aaron did not live forever, and did not even enter the land of Israel, the text must imply that he would be resurrected for the Israelites to give him their offerings. They offer several other suggestions, including the more plausible Deuteronomy 32:39: "I cause to die and I cause to live, I wound and I heal." Finally, they have to turn to a book outside the Torah for a really clear proof-text. The book of Daniel (a quite late book with a markedly different theology than any part of the Torah) chapter 12, verse 2, says: "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." The question of Jewish views of life after death could take up a whole book and it has. One such well-received book is: Jewish Views of the Afterlife by Simcha Paull Raphael. written by Rabbi Jeremy Schwartz |
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