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— with the least effort. Perhaps one will say: these resurrected ones ate, drank, and married — and then after being resurrected they are transferred to the World to Come in that same body, and they no longer eat or drink?
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We bring it close to understanding and say: just as we know that Moses our teacher ate and drank — and yet he remained forty days on the mountain without eating or drinking, in the same bodily form.
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Perhaps one will also say: if they marry, does each man's wife return to him if she lived with him — or has death dissolved the marriage?
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We answer this just as one scholar was asked whether the resurrected would require sprinkling of purification waters or not, and he answered: when Moses our teacher is with them, we have no need to exhaust our minds on their behalf.
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Similarly I say regarding the question of marriage — our minds are suited for deriving rules about our own situations; but as for what is permitted or forbidden in circumstances entirely unlike anything we have known, whether marriage will be abrogated for the resurrected or not — we are relieved of that burden, for there will be prophets, revelation, and guidance there.
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Perhaps one will say: in the first redemption — the salvation from Egypt — we find no dead person who came back to life? We say: Correct, because the Creator did not pledge resurrection to them along with that redemption.
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Had He pledged it, He would have done it. He only said: "and afterwards they will go out with great wealth" — that was all. But in this final redemption He has pledged it, and it will assuredly be fulfilled.
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Then I say: what is the wisdom, as far as our minds can reach, in the first redemption not including this pledge while the final one does? Because the first enslavement
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was lighter than this one, its duration was shorter, and the community was not scattered as it has been in this one — rather, they were all in one place.
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A modest promise was enough to make them endure. But as for this our exile — because of its severity, its length, and our dispersion through it — our Lord, mighty and exalted, knew that we could not endure it except through magnificent promises and abundant tidings of good.
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That is why He made the second redemption surpass the first in several ways, this being one of them — namely, resurrection of the dead.
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I add a further point: the first was in haste and hurry, while the latter is not — for He says of it: "For you will not go out in haste."
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Furthermore, in the first, revelation reached us through the mouths of the prophets, while in the latter, revelation will come directly to each of us, so that we will need no one to teach another in matters of religion — as it says: "And they shall no longer teach one another, or say to one another, Know the Lord, for all of them shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest."
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Also, the first redemption was followed by another enslavement, while the latter will have no enslavement after it — as it says: "And strangers shall pass through it no more," and similar additional promises.
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Chapter 7. If an inquirer asks: who exactly are these who will be resurrected? We answer: the entire nation — the righteous among them and those who died in repentance.
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This is derived from His words: "And I will bring you up from your graves, My people" — for all who are called "My people" are included in this promise.
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I find that the righteous are called "My people" — as it says: "And say to Zion, You are My people"; that sinners who do not repent are not called "My people" — as it says: "For you are not My people"; and that penitents are included in "My people" — as it says: "And I will say to Not-My-People: You are My people."
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Our predecessors, when they enumerated the categories of sinners, said: one who violated a positive commandment, one who violated a negative commandment, one who incurred excision, one who incurred a court-imposed death penalty, and one through whom God's name was profaned — could it be that these will not