Sanhedrin 143

נושא: Sanhedrin

Sanhedrin 143

BET MIDRASH VIRTUALI

דּוֹר הַמַּבּוּל אֵין לָהֶם חֵלֶק לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא וְאֵין עוֹמְדִין בַּדִּין, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר, "לֹא יָדוֹן רוּחִי בָאָדָם לְעֹלָם" – לֹא דִין וְלֹא רוּחַ. דּוֹר הַפְלָגָה אֵין לָהֶם חֵלֶק לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר, "וַיָּפֶץ ה' אֹתָם מִשָּׁם עַל פְּנֵי כָל הָאָרֶץ". 'וַיָּפֶץ ה' אֹתָם' – בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה; 'וּמִשָּׁם הֱפִיצָם ה" – לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא. אַנְשֵׁי סְדוֹם אֵין לָהֶם חֵלֶק לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר, "וְאַנְשֵׁי סְדֹם רָעִים וְחַטָּאִים לַה' מְאֹד". 'רָעִים' – בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה; 'וְחַטָּאִים' – לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא. אֲבָל עוֹמְדִין בַּדִּין. רַבִּי נְחֶמְיָה אוֹמֵר: אֵלּוּ וָאֵלּו אֵין עוֹמְדִין בַּדִּין, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר, "עַל כֵּן לֹא יָקֻמוּ רְשָׁעִים בַּמִּשְׁפָּט וְחַטָּאִים בַּעֲדַת צַדִּיקִים". 'עַל כֵּן לֹא יָקֻמוּ רְשָׁעִים בַּמִּשְׁפָּט' – זֶה דּוֹר הַמַּבּוּל; 'וְחַטָּאִים בַּעֲדַת צַדִּיקִים' – אֵלּוּ אַנְשֵׁי סְדוֹם. אָמְרוּ לוֹ: אֵינָם עוֹמְדִים בַּעֲדַת צַדִּיקִים אֲבָל עוֹמְדִין בַּעֲדַת רְשָׁעִים. מְרַגְּלִים אֵין לָהֶם חֵלֶק לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר, "וַיָּמֻתוּ הָאֲנָשִׁים מוֹצִאֵי דִבַּת הָאָרֶץ רָעָה בַּמַּגֵּפָה לִפְנֵי ה'". 'וַיָּמֻתוּ' – בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה; 'בַּמַּגֵּפָה' – בָּעוֹלָם הַבָּא. דּוֹר הַמִּדְבָּר אֵין לָהֶם חֵלֶק לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא וְאֵין עוֹמְדִין בַּדִּין, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר, "בַּמִּדְבָּר הַזֶּה יִתַּמּוּ וְשָׁם יָמֻתוּ" – דִּבְרֵי רַבִּי עֲקִיבָא; רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר אוֹמֵר: עֲלֵיהֶם הוּא אוֹמֵר "אִסְפוּ לִי חֲסִידָי כֹּרְתֵי בְרִיתִי עֲלֵי זָבַח". עֲדַת קֹרַח אֵינָהּ עֲתִידָה לַעֲלוֹת, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר, "וַתְּכַס עֲלֵיהֶם הָאָרֶץ" – בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה; "וַיֹּאבְדוּ מִתּוֹךְ הַקָּהָל" – לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא, דִּבְרֵי רַבִּי עֲקִיבָא. רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר אוֹמֵר: עֲלֵיהֶם הוּא אוֹמֵר "יְיָ מֵמִית וּמְחַיֶּה מוֹרִיד שְׁאוֹל וַיָּעַל". עֲשֶׂרֶת הַשְּׁבָטִים אֵינָן עֲתִידִין לַחֲזוֹר, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר, "וַיַּשְׁלִכֵם אֶל אֶרֶץ אַחֶרֶת כַּיּוֹם הַזֶּה": מָה הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה הוֹלֵךְ וְאֵינוֹ חוֹזֵר אַף הֵם הוֹלְכִים וְאֵינָם חוֹזְרִים – דִּבְרֵי רַבִּי עֲקִיבָא. רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר אוֹמֵר: 'כַּיּוֹם הַזֶּה': מָה הַיּוֹם מַאֲפִיל וּמֵאִיר, אַף עֲשֶׂרֶת הַשְּׁבָטִים שֶׁאָפַל לָהֶן, כָּךְ עָתִיד לְהָאִיר לָהֶן:

The generation of the flood have no share in the world to come nor will they arise for judgment, for it says "My spirit shall not judge man ever" [Genesis 6:3] – [they deserve] neither judgment nor spirit.

The generation of the dispersion [of mankind – the Tower of Babel] has no share in the world to come, for it says "And from there God dispersed them over the face of the earth" [Genesis 11:8] – 'God dispersed them' in this world and 'from there God dispersed them' from the world to come.

The people of Sodom have no share in the world to come, for it says "The people of Sodom were wicked, great sinners to God" [Genesis 13:13] – wicked in this world and sinners for the next. But they shall arise for judgment. Rabbi Neĥemyah says that neither [the generation of the flood nor the people of Sodom] will arise for judgment, for it says "Therefore the wicked shall not stand in judgment nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous [Psalm 1:5] – 'Therefore the wicked shall not stand in judgment' refers to the generation of the flood while 'sinners in the assembly of the righteous' refers to the people of Sodom. The sages replied to him that while they 'shall not stand in the assembly of the righteous' they shall indeed stand in the assembly of the wicked.

The spies [that Moses dispatched to reconnoitre the land of Canaan] have no share in the world to come, for it says "The men who denigrated the Land died in a plague before God" [Numbers 14:37] – they died in this world and [they were consumed before God] by a plague in the next.

The generation of the [forty years wandering in the] desert have no share in the world to come nor shall they arise for judgment, for it says "In the desert shall you meet your end and there shall you die" [Numbers 14:35] – this is the opinion of Rabbi Akiva. However, Rabbi Eli'ezer says that to them we apply the verse [Psalm 3:5] "Assemble My pious ones who concluded a pact with Me over a sacrifice".

The assembly of Koraĥ is not destined to arise, for it says [Numbers 16:33] "the earth covered them" – in this world – "and they perished from the congregation" – in the next. This is the opinion of Rabbi Akiva, while Rabbi Eli'ezer says that to them we apply the verse [I Samuel 2:6] "God kills and gives life, brings people down to She'ol and brings them up again".

The ["lost"] ten tribes are not destined to return [and reconstitute a united Israel], for it says "and He cast them into another land as of this day" – just as the day goes never to return so they went never to return. This is the opinion of Rabbi Akiva, while Rabbi Eli'ezer says that just as the day darkens [at its end] only to become light again [with morning] so the day of the ten tribes which darkened for them is destined to dawn anew..

1:
I have divided our very long mishnah according to its topics, though, since it is pure Aggadah with no halakhic connotations whatsoever it is not very difficult to understand, despite its length. The seven sections of the mishnah correspond to seven aggadic midrashim which seek to teach that just as the previous mishnah dealt with seven individuals who forfeited their share in the world to come so there were also seven "generations" who did so too. However, with regard to some of the seven generations, our present mishnah adds that some of them not only forfeited their share in the world to come, but also forfeited the possibility of being resurrected for the great judgment. All the midrashim are based on the interpretation of certain verses – some of the interpretations being rather flimsy – while some of them interpret double clauses in the verses as relating to both the resurrection and the world to come.

2:
As regards the generation of the forty years wandering in the desert, Rabbi Akiva interprets the scriptural verse as teaching that "in this desert shall you meet your end" in this world "and there shall you die" in the next world, never to merit even judgment. Rabbi Eli'ezer disagrees with this interpretation concerning the generation of the desert. He interprets a verse in the book of psalms as referring to this generation in positive terms. The generation of the desert was the generation that concluded a pact with God after the theophany at Sinai, as related in Exodus 24:5-8:

And Moses sent Israel's youngsters to make offerings, and they slaughtered bulls as peace offerings to God. Then Moses took half the blood and put it in basins and the other half of the blood he sprinkled over the altar. Now he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said 'everything that God has said we shall do and obey'. Then Moses took the blood and sprinkled it over the people and said, this is the blood of the covenant which God concludes with you according to all these words'.

Rabbi Eli'ezer says that the verse in the book of Psalms "Assemble My pious ones who concluded a pact with Me over a sacrifice" refers to this incident; therefore this generation is "My pious ones" so they could not have forfeited their share in the world to come as stated by Rabbi Akiva.

3:
The rebellion of Koraĥ ended with the insurgents perishing when the ground opened up and swallowed them. The Torah says that thus "they went down into She'ol alive". The midrash of Rabbi Akiva in our mishnah teaches that having been swallowed up alive and having descended into She'ol they are not destined to arise from there. Rabbi Eli'ezer disagrees. He interprets a verse in Hannah's hymn as meaning that God raises people for judgment from She'ol.

4:
In the year 722 BCE the Assyrian army conquered the Kingdom of Israel, which was the kingdom created by Jeroboam as we discussed in our last lesson. A large part of the population was physically removed from the Land of Israel and resettled in other parts of the Assyrian Empire. When a similar fate overtook the sister-kingdom of Judah in 587 BCE the exiles were permitted to return to their land some fifty years later. No such charitable fate is known in connection with the
'ten tribes' who are thus 'lost'. Rabbi Akiva holds that they are lost for ever, whereas Rabbi Eli'ezer holds that in the world to come their turn to return home will also come.

5:
Several of the midrashim in our mishnah present us with maĥlokot, differences of opinion. Rabbi Neĥemyah disagrees with Tanna Kamma and Rabbi Eli'ezer disagrees with Rabbi Akiva. If we were dealing with halakhic material we would, of course, want to know according to which of the sages halakhah is decided. In the case of Aggadah there is no point. As Rambam states in his commentary on our present mishnah:

When there is a difference of opinion between sages which has no practical implications and is pure speculation, there is no point in deciding Halakhah according to any of them.

6:
Since we have mentioned Rambam's mishnah commentary perhaps it would be useful to our discussion to point out here that the above comment, which we could also have deduced from our own common sense, is about the only matter of import in his brief comments on this mishnah: the rest of his comment is concerned with the question of why all this material was included in this tractate and not in a different one. This question might, in itself, be of interest if there were nothing else that we would expect him to comment on. As it stands his commentary on this mishnah and the previous one amounts to a resounding silence! The reason for his silence is clear. Our present mishnah completely refutes the case he tried to make in is very long comment on the first mishnah of this chapter. You will recall that it was there that he established his thesis that after physical death the souls of the righteous enter into everlasting life and that it is this that the sages are referring to when they speak of "the world to come". Our present mishnah, if read carefully, negates that thesis very clearly and is based on the pre-Maimonidean concept that we described at the outset of our discussion on this chapter. Let us very briefly recapitulate that earlier concept. At physical death a person's mortal remains reside in the grave. (There is a biblical concept of She'ol as the abode of the spirits of the deceased, but this concept is nowhere clearly developed.) At some undetermined time in the future there will be a general physical resurrection, which will be followed by the Great Judgment in which the righteous will receive the reward of everlasting bliss and the wicked the torments of everlasting punishment.

7:
In a previous shiur I mentioned that in our post-Freudian era it might be much easier for us to accept the earlier concept of reward and punishment according to which what happens to one may well be influenced by the actions of others – previous generations or contemporaries. By this philosophy it is easier to explain what otherwise appears to be gross unfairness in life: why do the righteous suffer and why to the wicked prosper? – not because of their own actions but because of the actions of others. Very hesitatingly I suggest that here too it might be easier for our modern generation to revert to the pre-Maimonidean concept of "the world to come". Advances in medical science are having a gradual and incremental impact upon people's viewing of this issue. More and more people seem to see physical death as being so final that they find the Maimonidean concept of a spiritual afterlife as being philosophically problematic. Such people may well find the philosophy which lies at the foundation of our present mishnah as being more congenial: physical death is just that and unless and until there will be a resurrection at some time in the future which only God is able to determine, that is how the mortal remains of all of us shall be: physically dead in the grave. The dead are dead unless and until they are resurrected.