Pt2 Interpreting Eschatological Biblical Prophecies: Resurrection, the Messianic Future, and the World-to-Come (Pesachim 68a)
This is the second and final part of a two-part series. Part 1 is here; the outline of the series can be found at Part 1.
R’ Shmuel bar Naḥmani citing R’ Yonatan - In the messianic future, the righteous will resurrect the dead
אמר רבי שמואל בר נחמני, אמר רבי יונתן:
עתידים צדיקים שיחיו מתים,
This idea1 is derived from a different source as well.
R’ Shmuel bar Naḥmani said that R’ Yonatan said:
In the messianic future the righteous will resurrect the dead,
Prooftexts - the “staff” of the aged in Jerusalem is linked to Elisha’s staff used in the attempted revival of the Shunamite’s son - Zechariah 8:4; II Kings 4:29
שנאמר:
״עוד ישבו זקנים וזקנות ברחבות ירושלים, ואיש משענתו בידו מרב ימים״,
וכתיב:
״ושמת משענתי על פני הנער״.
as it is stated:
“Old men and old women shall yet again dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff (משענתו) in his hand for very age” (Zechariah 8:4).
And the staff will then be used as it was used by Gehazi when Elisha sent him to bring the son of the Shunamite woman back to life, as it is written:
“And you shall lay my staff on the face of the child” (II Kings 4:29).
Ulla - Apparent contradiction, re the messianic future: one verse says death will be destroyed forever, while another says the youngest will die at age 100
עולא רמי:
כתיב:
״בלע המות לנצח״,
וכתיב:
״כי הנער בן מאה שנה ימות״!
As we have been discussing the world of the messianic future and the resurrection of the dead, the Talmud cites additional statements on these topics.
Ulla raised a contradiction between two verses:
In one verse it is written:
“He will destroy death forever, and YHWH God will wipe away tears from off all faces, and the insult of His people shall He take away from off all the earth; for YHWH has spoken” (Isaiah 25:8).
And in another verse it is written:
“There shall be no more there an infant who lives a few days, nor an old man who has not filled his days; for the youngest shall die 100 years old” (Isaiah 65:20), implying that people will live long lives, but death will not be totally eradicated.
Resolution: no death for Israel, long life but eventual death for non-Jews - Isaiah 25:8; Isaiah 65:20
לא קשיא:
כאן
בישראל,
כאן
בגוים.
Ulla answers:
This is not difficult:
Here, in the first verse,
it is referring to Jews,
who will not die at all, while there, in the second verse,
it is referring to non-Jews, who will live exceedingly long lives but eventually die.
Non-Jews are present in the future messianic era as servants of Israel - Isaiah 61:5
וגוים מאי בעו התם?
The Talmud asks:
What are non-Jews doing there in the future messianic world?
דכתיב:
״ועמדו זרים ורעו צאנכם
ובני נכר אכריכם וכרמיכם״.
The Talmud answers:
As it is written:
“And strangers (זרים) shall stand and feed your flocks,
and the sons of the alien (נכר) shall be your plowmen and your vineyard workers” (Isaiah 61:5).
Rav Ḥisda - Apparent contradiction re the future messianic era: one verse says the moon and sun will be ashamed, while another says their light will be greatly increased
רב חסדא רמי:
כתיב:
״וחפרה הלבנה, ובושה החמה״,
וכתיב:
״והיה אור הלבנה כאור החמה, ואור החמה יהיה שבעתים, כאור שבעת הימים״!
Rav Ḥisda raised a contradiction between two verses re the future messianic era:
In one verse it is written:
“Then the moon shall be confounded (חפרה), and the sun ashamed, when YHWH of Hosts shall reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before His elders will be His glory” (Isaiah 24:23), which indicates that in the future there will be no light at all from the sun or the moon.
And elsewhere it is written:
“Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of 7 days, on the day that YHWH binds up the breach of His people and heals the stroke of their wound blow” (Isaiah 30:26), which indicates that the light of the sun and moon will be even brighter than before.
Resolution: the first refers to the World-to-Come; the second to the messianic era - Isaiah 24:23; Isaiah 30:26
לא קשיא:
כאן
לעולם הבא,
כאן
לימות המשיח.
The Talmud answers:
This is not difficult:
Here, where it says that the sun and the moon will be ashamed before the glow of the Shekhina,
it is referring to the World-to-Come, which is an entirely different world;
while there, where it says that their light will increase,
it is referring to the days of the Messiah.2
Since Shmuel holds that the messianic era differs from the present only in political subjugation, both verses must refer to the World-to-Come: one to the camp of the Shekhina, the other to the camp of the righteous
ולשמואל דאמר:
אין בין העולם הזה לימות המשיח
אלא שיעבוד מלכיות בלבד,
מאי איכא למימר?
The Talmud asks:
And according to the opinion of Shmuel,
who said that there is no difference between this world and the days of the Messiah
except for subjugation to foreign kingdoms,
but in all other ways, including the illumination of the celestial bodies, the world order will remain unchanged, what is there to say to reconcile these verses?
אידי ואידי לעולם הבא,
ולא קשיא:
כאן —
במחנה שכינה,
כאן —
במחנה צדיקים.
The Talmud answers:
This and that refer to the World-to-Come,
and it is not difficult:
Here, where it says that the sun and the moon will be totally ashamed,
it refers to the camp of the Shekhina;
while there, where it says that the light of the sun and moon will be greatly magnified,
it refers to the camp of the righteous.
Rava - “I put to death and I make live” means God revives the very same people He killed, just as He heals the very same people He wounded - Deuteronomy 32:39
רבא רמי:
כתיב:
״אני אמית ואחיה״,
וכתיב:
״מחצתי ואני ארפא״.
השתא אחויי מחיי,
מרפא לא כל שכן!
Rava raised a contradiction between two parts of a verse.
It is written:
“I put to death and I make live” (Deuteronomy 32:39)
and in that same verse it is written:
“I wound and I heal.”
Now once it says that He gives life to the dead,
all the more so is it not clear that He can heal those who are still alive?
What then does the second clause add to the first?
אלא,
אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא:
מה שאני ממית —
אני מחיה,
כמו שמחצתי —
ואני ארפא.
Rather,
the second clause clarifies the first one: God said:
Those same people whom I put to death
I will bring to life,
just as those people whom I wounded
I will heal.
In other words, the verse means to say that just as God will heal the same people He wounded, so will He revive those He put to death; and not, as the verse might otherwise have been understood, that He puts some people to death and gives life to others.
Baraita - “I put to death and I make live” cannot mean death for one person and life/birth for another, because “I wounded and I heal” clearly refers to the same person; This proves resurrection from the Torah - Deuteronomy 32:39
תנו רבנן:
״אני אמית ואחיה״
יכול
מיתה באחד
וחיים באחד,
כדרך שהעולם נוהג,
Similarly, A baraita states:
“I put to death and I make live”;
one might have thought that this refers to
death for one person
and life, i.e., birth, for another person,
As in the customary manner of the world.
תלמוד לומר:
״מחצתי ואני ארפא״,
מה מכה ורפואה
באחד,
אף מיתה וחיים
באחד.
Therefore, the verse states:
“I wound and I heal”;
just as the wounding and the healing mentioned here
clearly refer to the same person,
so too death and life
refer to the same person.
מכאן תשובה לאומרים:
אין תחיית המתים מן התורה.
From this verse, there is a refutation to those who say that
there is no Torah source for the resurrection of the dead,
for it is clearly indicated in this verse.3
Alternative interpretation - At resurrection, God first revives the dead with their wounds, and only afterward heals them - Deuteronomy 32:39
דבר אחר:
בתחלה
מה שאני ממית -- אני מחיה,
והדר
מה שמחצתי -- ואני ארפא.
Alternatively, the verse can be explained as follows:
At first,
those whom I put to death -- I will bring to life, but they will be revived with the same injuries that they had when they died;
and subsequently,
those whom I wounded -- I will heal, meaning that their injuries will be healed after they are resurrected.
That in the messianic future the righteous will resurrect the dead; see Part 1, section “Rav Ḥananel citing Rav - In the messianic future, the righteous will resurrect the dead“.
Compare my general discussion in the intro to “Barred from the Afterlife: Heretics, Biblical Sinners, and Groups Denied a Share in the World-to-Come (Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:1-4)“.
This proof is paralleled also in Sanhedrin.91b.12; see my note in the appendix to “Pt2 Scripture, Logic, and Polemic: Proofs for the Principle of the Mass Resurrection of the Jewish Dead in the Future Messianic Era (Sanhedrin 90b-91a)“, on “Appendix 1 - Table summarizing the 13 proofs for resurrection cited in the sugya“.