20th Century Jewish Religious Thought: Original Essays on Critical Concepts, Movements, and Beliefs

Resurrection of the Dead

Resurrection of the Dead Arthur A. Cohen B elief in the resurrection of the dead (te~iyyat ha-metim) is an explicit dogma of classical judaism, reaffirmed and elaborated by Moses Maimonides, treated by I:Iasdai Crescas as a "true belief" (rather than as a fundamental principle of judaism), retracted to a more debatable level of deduction by joseph Albo, and all but lost as a central teaching ever since the close of the medieval discourse. Nonetheless , despite its fall from the dogmatic eminence in which it, among other beliefs, was regarded as a sine qua non of rabbinic eschatological teaching, resurrection continues to be affirmed in the traditional liturgy. Introduced as the second blessing of the Eighteen Benedictions (the Shemoneh Esreh) recited during the Amidah (lit., standing prayer), it asserts that God keeps faith with those who lie in the dust and will, according to his mercy, raise the dead, restore them bodily, and grant them eternal life. Bodily resurrection, that is, resurrection of the flesh, the reunification of soul to corporeal individuality, became a cardinal doctrine of rabbinic judaism , making its appearance in "proto-pharisaic theology" in the fourth century B.C.E.1 Despite the aristocratic hostility of Ben Sira (Ecclus. 10:11; 808 RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD 17:27; 41:3), it was further refined by the Book of Daniel (Dan. 12:1-4) and collateral apocalyptic literature and ultimately consolidated as pharisaic doctrine. Even earlier than these apocalyptic formulations of resurrection as an assertive teaching of Jewish eschatology is the famous passage in Isaiah, shown by Yehezkel Kaufmann to be of eighth century B.C.E. Isaianic authorship: "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 grQwthlYou make the land of the shades come to life" (Isa. 26:19).2 Among the characteristic popular sentiments of those who live in the twentieth century is the oft-heard wish that life not be prolonged unduly, that. beyond strength and lucidity there is no value to life. Coupled with this rejection of the ability of medical science to prolong length of days without comparably guaranteeing the quality of life lived is the collateral, albeit ironically expressed, hope that there be no life after death, no ongoing immortal soul, and surely no reunified flesh and spirit as offered in the promise of resurrection. It is enough, one thinks, to have survived this century's warfare and genocide and the pressures of an increasingly inhumane society and to have come in fullness of years beyond even the "three score ten and if by reason of strength four score" (Ps. 90: 10) augured by Scripture. What is it then to believe that even beyond these generous years God offers to the just the eternal life of reconstituted and ensouled flesh at the End of Days? How is one to take this promise, and to what end is it believed to be offered? The underlying presupposition behind the doctrine of the resurrection is that eternal life in the presence of God is indeed an immense and unmerited generosity. Resurrection, as described by the tradition-whether in its popular and anthropomorphic mythology as an almost Oriental banquet or in its more austere promulgation as eternal study in the supernal yeshivah whose director, gUide, and spiritual master is none other than God himself -is a meaningful gift only to those who in this life have thirsted for God and whose thirst has not been satisfied. We have no longer a communal consensus that stakes the value and reward of life upon the certainty of the living God. Indeed, millions may be obedient to Torah, believers according to their lights, but nonetheless lack that obsessional attentiveness that made God-talk no less commonplace in the markets of medieval Europe than discussion of the' price of bread. Not everyone in the Middle Ages was devout or, for that matter, aware of the provocative disputes that arose in Spain, Provence, and France about the writings of Maimonides (notably his views on resurrection), but many were-despite their lack of scholarship-constantly aware of God's weight and pressure in their lives. RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD 809 The resurrection of the dead strikes us in its formulation as a portion of jewish eschatological teaching as unpersuasive in the invariable way in which an alogical, antirationalist...