Resurrection: No Dropouts
Following this line of reasoning, we have one more issue to settle. What added dimension do we gain from the Resurrection of the Dead? Haven’t we already — during the Messianic Age – reached the point where the purpose of creation is fulfilled? Hasn’t the world – during the Messianic Age – come to the realization that the material world possesses intrinsic holiness, and that, therefore, even before the Messianic Age our focus on doing Mitzvot is the nurturing of the divinity within the body (and not only the nurturing of the soul)?
There is, at least, one more salient feature that makes the belief in the Resurrection a basic belief of Judaism. When we view the entire process of life as an educational experience, the soul being the teacher and the body, the student, there is one apparent discrepancy.
When the person lives a full life – replete with Mitzvot – and the person’s body had been refined and qualifies as a “good student,” what is to happen with the student? It is odd that while in the analogy the prize student goes on to become a teacher or an otherwise productive member of the same society, in the analogue, the body after completing the course drops out of life!
What this demonstrates is that the premise of the body’s centrality in Judaism is not that complete and the analogy breaks down. True, the body is not just a means for the soul to express itself – as a prop on a stage – and it has its own intrinsic value, however, it cannot be compared to the holiness of the soul itself. And as great as the body will be in terms of it radiating the light of G-d in this world, the soul is still primary in that regard. This is what would have been our conclusion based on the belief in a Messianic Age without the subsequent belief in the Age of the Resurrection, When we affirm our belief in the Resurrection of the Dead, we are stating that the body once it is affected by the soul will live on forever. Moreover, the body itself will become the source of G-dly light independent of the soul. Thus, the belief in the Resurrection is an affirmation of the truly intrinsic nature of the body and that the body and soul will live on forever, in a relationship that can never wane. And our observance of Mitzvot that involve the physical matter of existence will likewise go on forever. This notion is indeed one that is central to our understanding of Judaism.
From the book Safe Kabbalah, Part Three: Journeys of the Soul by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
