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Maamar VII: On the Resurrection of the Dead in This World.
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Chapter 1. The Seventh Maamar: On the Resurrection of the Dead in This World.
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The author of the book says: As for the resurrection of the dead that our Lord has made known to us will occur in the World to Come for the purpose of retribution —
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— that is something our community is unanimous about, and the basis of their unanimity is the principle set out earlier in the preceding maamarim:
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for the purpose of all creation is the human being; the reason for his distinction is obedience; and the fruit of obedience is everlasting life in the World of Recompense.
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Before that, He wills to separate soul from body until the time when all souls are complete, and then to gather them all together, as I have explained.
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We know of no Jew who disputes this belief, nor does any Jew find it rationally difficult to understand how God revives the dead —
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since it has been established for him that God created something from nothing; it cannot therefore be difficult for Him to restore something that has become scattered or dissolved.
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He has further decreed for us the resurrection of the dead at the time of Redemption, and His prophets have established for us the proofs of it.
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It is on this point that I found disagreement of opinion occurring — regarding the resurrection of the dead in this world. The majority of our community hold that it will occur at the time of Redemption,
and they interpret every verse they find in Scripture bearing on
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...the resurrection of the dead according to its plain meaning, and they fix its time as the time of Redemption without exception.
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I have seen a minority within the community who allegorize every verse speaking of resurrection at the time of Redemption as referring to the revival of national sovereignty and the renewal of the community,
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and whatever cannot be anchored to the time of Redemption they redirect to the World to Come. I have devoted this maamar to this topic.
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I say in it: I have investigated and deliberated carefully, and what the majority of the community hold — that the resurrection of the dead will occur at the time of Redemption — has become established for me.
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I have decided to establish it so that it may serve as guidance and direction, as the preceding discussions did.
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I say first: it is a known principle about the nature of things that every statement found in Scripture is to be taken according to its plain meaning,
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— except when the plain sense cannot be accepted for one of four reasons.
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Either sense-perception contradicts it — as with: 'The man called his wife's name Ḥavva, for she was the mother of all life' [Gen. 3:20] —
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since we see that the ox and the lion are not among the offspring of women, so we must understand that statement as referring to human beings only.
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Or else reason refutes it — as with: 'For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God' [Deut. 4:24] —
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since fire is created, dependent, and may go out, which cannot rationally apply to God — so we must understand the verse as meaning: His punishment is like consuming fire,
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in accordance with: 'By the fire of my jealousy all the earth shall be consumed' [Zeph. 3:8].
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Or an explicit text contradicts it — so the non-explicit one must be interpreted to harmonize with the explicit,
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as with: 'Do not test the Lord your God as you tested at Massah' [Deut. 6:16], and: 'Test me now in this, says the Lord of Hosts — see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you' [Mal. 3:10].
The way to reconcile these two statements is: we may not test our Lord to determine whether He can do such-and-such or not —
as those did who 'tested God in their heart by demanding food for their appetite; and they spoke against God, saying: Can God [set a table in the wilderness]' [Ps. 78:18–19] —
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...to set a table in the wilderness' — and God's rebuke of them was: 'as you tested at Massah' [Deut. 6:16].
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But for a servant to test his Lord's power — whether He can produce a miraculous sign — is permissible, as Gideon requested,
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'Let me test, only this once, with the fleece' [Judg. 6:39], and as Hezekiah requested and others — that is permissible.
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And when a report comes with a qualification upon it, we interpret it in a way that harmonizes with the verified reports —
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as when we are told that lashes are thirty-nine, while Scripture says 'forty stripes shall he give him' [Deut. 25:3].
We understand that the implied meaning is thirty-nine, filled out by the text just as the text filled in: 'the number of days you scouted the land, forty days — a day for each year' [Num. 14:34].
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Since the valid grounds for allegorizing scriptural verses are these four and no fifth exists,
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and we see that resurrection of the dead cannot be dismissed by sense-perception — since we do not claim the dead revive on their own, but that their Creator revives them —
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nor can reason refute it — for restoring something that once existed but was dispersed is more rational than originating something from nothing —
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nor does any text contradict it — on the contrary, Scripture supports it, since it records in this world the resurrection of the son of the woman of Zarephath and the Shunammite woman's son.
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Nor is there any tradition requiring it to be allegorized — on the contrary, all the traditions support it.
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It is therefore obligatory to leave the matter as it stands according to the plain sense of the text: that God will resurrect the dead of His community at the time of Redemption, and it is not to be allegorized in any way.
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How much more so when the passages on the resurrection of the dead actually indicate that it is specifically in this world! This is the position I put forward at the outset.
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I say: the Song of Haazinu [Deut. 32] is arranged according to the vicissitudes of the Children of Israel. It begins from the very first moment God chose us, saying: 'Remember the days of old, consider the years of past generations' [Deut. 32:7],
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then proceeds to recount His grace toward us: 'He found him in a desert land' [Deut. 32:10],
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then third, our transgressions and sins: 'Jeshurun grew fat and kicked' [Deut. 32:15]; then fourth, our punishment: 'The Lord saw and was incensed' [Deut. 32:19], and what follows.
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Then fifth, the punishment of our enemies: 'For their vine is from the vine of Sodom' [Deut. 32:32],
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then sixth, our relief and deliverance: 'See now that I, even I, am He' [Deut. 32:39], to the end of the song.
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According to this arrangement, the verse 'I put to death and I make alive, I struck and I heal' [Deut. 32:39] falls in the days of Redemption.
Let us not imagine that it means: He causes some people to die and revives others, on the pattern of how the world normally works —
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for He said 'I struck and I heal' to teach us that just as the same body that was struck is healed, so the same body that was put to death is the body that is made alive —
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and that all of this will be at the time of Redemption, as attested by what follows: 'For I lift My hand to heaven... if I whet My lightning sword, and My hand takes hold on judgment... Sing aloud, O nations, of His people' [Deut. 32:40–43].
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Chapter 2. I say further: since the Creator knew what whispers in our hearts regarding the difficulty we feel about the resurrection of the dead,
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He came beforehand to His prophet Ezekiel about this and said to him: 'Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; they say: Our bones are dried up and our hope is lost — we are cut off' [Ezek. 37:11],
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then He commanded him to give us the good news of our rising from our graves and the revival of all our dead, saying thereafter: 'Therefore prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord God — I will open your graves and bring you up from your graves, O My people' [Ezek. 37:12],
and we should not suppose that this promise is only for the World to Come — for He added at the end of the speech: