Berakhot 074
of the Rabbinical Assembly in Israel
RABIN MISHNAH STUDY GROUP
Today's shiur is dedicated by Harry Pick in memory of his father, Shalom ben Shlomo z"l, on the occasion of his Yahrzeit.
TRACTATE BERAKHOT, CHAPTER FOUR, MISHNAH ONE (recap):
The Morning Amidah [may be recited] until noon; Rabbi Yehudah says [only] until the [end of the] fourth hour. The Afternoon Amidah [may be recited] until evening; Rabbi Yehudah says [only] until Plag ha-Minĥah. The Evening Amidah has no fixed parameters. The Additional Amidah [may be recited] all day; Rabbi Yehudah says [only] until the [end of the] seventh hour.
EXPLANATIONS (continued):
18:
Rambam concludes his statement on Olam ha-Ba by reiterating the fact that it is completely severed from all physicality. He quotes the prophets:
The prophet Isaiah has already explained that Olam ha-Ba cannot be comprehended through the physical senses. 'No eye, O God, but Thine has seen what will be done for him that waits for Thee'. In explaining this passage the sages said that wherever the prophets deal with this topic they are without exception referring to the Messianic Age; as far as Olam ha-Ba is concerned, 'No eye, O God, but thine has seen it'".
19:
Many modern scholars (and not so modern ones too) have tried to guess why Rambam saw fit to broach this subject at all in his Mishnah Commentary. It is clear from his treatment that he is attempting to make rabbinic and Aristotelian concepts harmonize: he describes whatever remains of the human psyche after physical death as "discrete intelligences". The best guess is that in his Mishnah Commentary he was not trying to write an in-depth analysis of the position that he is espousing, but rather that he was attempting to "make the Jewish world a safe place for philosophers to live in", by indicating that there was room for maneuver.
20:
One thing is certain: he had every intention of denigrating the accepted conceptualization of resurrection. A couple of pages earlier in the excursus we have been discussing, he had written that there were people that
suppose that the reward [for keeping Torah] is the resurrection [Teĥiyyat ha-Metim]. That is, that a person will come to life again after their death, together with their relatives and friends, will eat, drink and never die again. The punishment for disobedience will be the reverse of the above. This group derives its opinion from various statements in the Bible and from various Biblical stories… A fifth group – and they are the majority – blend all these previous opinions together to claim that we are awaiting the Messiah, who will resurrect the dead, we shall all then enter Paradise, where we shall live happily ever after. Very few, on the other hand, are the people who consider that wonderful concept Olam ha-Ba. Very few are there who really ponder the question and who ask themselves what all the above ideas really mean. What you will find everyone asking – clergy as well as laymen – is whether the dead will be resurrected naked or clothed…"
21:
It is in this same excursus that Rambam expounds his Thirteen Basic Principles – what he considers the essential philosophic bases of Judaism. (These principles are better known in two other formats: one prose and the other verse. The prose version starts off each principle with the formula "I believe with perfect faith…": Rambam would have been horrified. The verse (or worse?) form is the hymn known as Yigdal. Obviously Rambam himself is not responsible for either of the two later formats.) The last of his Thirteen Principles is entitled "Resurrection", and his expounding thereof is limited to one pithy phrase: "I have already explained all this"! No doubt this is the reason why he was accused in his own lifetime of entertaining the heretical belief that there would not be a physical resurrection of the dead. He got so much flack that he had to write another work, Ma'amar Teĥiyyat ha-Metim [An Essay on Resurrection] in which he claims that he was misunderstood and grossly calumniated! He states quite categorically that "resurrection of the dead is an essential part of Jewish theology and that he who does not accept it is not part of Israel". He then manages to set up such a thick screen of verbiage concerning his own position that more heat is generated than light. However, his conceptualizations are obvious to those who wish to understand them.
22:
Thus it is that Judaism seems to have stated "absolutely categorically" that Teĥiyyat ha-Metim is so important a credal element that it must be hammered home in the second berakhah of the Amidah so that no one can claim that they do not accept the idea. However, no one seems to be able to agree with anyone else as what is the precise meaning of that which has been "categorically stated" – except the absolute certainty that different views must, of course, be heretical! Thus, in fact, in Judaism we seem to have found legitimate room for Resurrection, Afterlife, Transmigration of souls and so forth. What can be stated positively is that Rabbinic Judaism teaches that physical death does not entail spiritual extinction as well.
Thus far the second berakhah of the Amidah.
To be continued.
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