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BEGIN WITH A GRIN

Two friends were sitting in a restaurant, enjoying several glasses of good wine. Suddenly one says: “You know, I’m really crazy about you, what would I do without you, you’re the only one who manages to make me happy!”

The surprised friend asks: “Moshe, is it you talking or the wine?!”

Moshe: “It’s me talking, but to the wine…!”

DEAD OR ALIVE?

This week’s parsha, Shelach, revolves (mainly) around one central story – the sin of the spies. The fate of the spies, together with their generation, whom they led to this cursed sin, is known. None of them survived or merited to enter the Land, except for Yehoshua bin Nun and Calev ben Yefuneh.

The real question that must be asked is – what will happen to them in the future? What will be the fate of the desert generation [dor ha’midbar] and the spies [meraglim] themselves in the era of Geula? Will they rise in the Resurrection of the Dead and merit the World to Come?

This question is not a new one, but rather an ancient Talmudic discussion in Meseches Sanhedrin. In the Mishna (Sanhedrin 108a), Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Eliezer disagreed on the matter. Rabbi Akiva’s opinion is: The spies have no portion in the World to Come, as it is said: “And those men who brought an evil report of the land died by plague before G-d” (Shelach 14:37) – “died” – in this world, “by plague” – for the World to Come. The desert generation has no portion in the World to Come, as it is said: “In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die” (Shelach 14:35). In contrast, Rabbi Eliezer is somewhat more forgiving and inclusive, and his opinion is that they are destined to arise in the Resurrection of the Dead, and about them it is said: “Gather My faithful ones to Me, those who made a covenant with Me upon a sacrifice” (Tehillim 50:5).

It sounds somewhat strange that Rabbi Akiva, the lover of Israel, expresses himself so harshly about the desert generation and even rules such a far-reaching punishment, for all generations, forever. The Gemara itself (in the continuation of the discussion) wonders about Rabbi Akiva’s harsh ruling and says: “Rabbi Akiva abandoned his piety” [chassidusei – his ‘chassidus’] meaning: Rabbi Akiva abandoned and neglected his well-known trait of kindness in his harsh ruling against the desert generation. What is the logic in this? Why? Why not give them another chance?!

The Rebbe addressed this on various occasions, and this week we focus on an interesting and unique explanation of this topic.

Let us preface the explanation with a magical Talmudic story. The Gemara (Bava Basra 73b and on) tells about the Amora Rabba bar bar Chana, who was shown by an Arab merchant the dead of the wilderness, namely the bodies of the people of the dor ha’midbar who survived in their graves for thousands of years. He describes them as if they are lying down, their faces yellow and glowing like those intoxicated with wine. The Arab merchant passed under the raised knees of one of them, while riding a camel with a giant spear raised in his hand, and with all this, he was barely able to touch the bottom of his knee!

The Chassidic explanation of this strange story is based on the fact that the secrets of the Torah are compared to wine, as it is known that “wine enters, secrets come out.” The people of the desert generation were drunk on wine because they drank much from the “wine of the Torah,” from the secrets of the Torah stored like wine stored in its grapes. Their glowing faces are an expression of the supreme pleasure that the secrets of the Torah caused them, to the extent that their faces shone with spiritual pleasure. This pleasure caused them complete intoxication to the point of feeling total drunkenness.

In light of the above, this story comes to highlight the wonderful virtue of the people of the desert generation, and indeed the Tosafos (there) learns from this story that the law follows Rabbi Eliezer’s opinion and they will merit the Resurrection of the Dead, and the joy visible on their faces is about the Resurrection of the Dead that is coming.

TO LIVE AGAIN OR BE BORN AGAIN?

Regarding Rabbi Akiva’s opinion, there were those who explained (the Rama of Fano, Maamar Chikur HaDin, chelek 2, Chapter 8, and similarly in Megaleh Amukos on our portion) that Rabbi Akiva’s intention was that the desert generation has no portion in the World to Come because they are above the level of the World to Come, and therefore this does not constitute a reward for them.

But even if we adhere to the simple interpretation of Rabbi Akiva’s words, we can find a merit for the desert generation. First, there is an ancient dispute about how the Resurrection of the Dead should occur. The opinion of the Medrash Rabba and the Zohar is that the rebuilding of the body will be through the luz bone that never decays. They bring proof of this from the wording of the verse in Yeshaya (26:19): “Your dead shall live,” and not “Your dead shall be created.” Because the body will not be created anew, but rather it will be built through the luz bone. According to this opinion, the body that will return in the Resurrection of the Dead is not a new body, but rather the same old body that underwent ‘complete renovation.’

In contrast, the second opinion on the matter is that of the Pirkei d’Rabi Eliezer. There it is said: “I do not leave anything from the body except a spoonful of decay, and it mixes with the dust of the earth like leaven in dough.” According to this opinion, the body that will rise in the Resurrection of the Dead is indeed a completely new body, because nothing remains of the previous body, ‘except a spoonful of decay,’ and therefore the creation of the body in the Resurrection of the Dead is considered a completely new creation.

According to this, it is possible to explain Rabbi Akiva’s words in a new way. He too agrees with Rabbi Eliezer’s opinion (and this is the halacha) that the people of the desert generation will rise in the Resurrection of the Dead, except that according to his opinion, their Resurrection of the Dead will be different from everyone else’s, because nothing will remain of their previous body. Their body will decay completely, it will become dust (or more precisely, decay) and from this dust G-d will create a completely new body, a body that has never sinned and will never sin.

In light of the above, the dispute is not whether the people of the desert generation will merit resurrection, but rather in what manner the resurrection of the people of the desert generation will be. This is the special perspective of the Rebbe who does not give up on any Jew, and finds every way to explain and clarify how every Jew will merit the Resurrection of the Dead.

The aforementioned dispute between the Medrash Rabba and Pirkei d’Rabi Eliezer is not just an ideological dispute but has practical implications regarding people with physical defects. We find numerous sources (Sanhedrin 91b and elsewhere) where it is said that these people will rise in the Resurrection of the Dead together with that same defect and they will be healed from it afterward. In contrast, in Pirkei d’Rabi Eliezer it is said that the bodies will return to life “cleansed of all defects.”

The Rebbe explains that this dispute stems from the previous dispute. For if the body that will be resurrected is a continuation of the previous body, the first opinion is understandable, that the healing of the body will occur after the Resurrection of the Dead, but in the actual resurrection the body will stand up together with the defect. In contrast, if the body will be created completely anew, the second opinion is understandable, that the body will be created without any defect, for what is the point of creating a defect anew, and then healing it?!

TO CONCLUDE WITH A STORY

And we will end with a story of how the tzaddikim of the generations bring us the Resurrection of the Dead already today. The following story is brought in the sefer Hilula d’Rabi Shimon bar Yochai, and the author of the book testifies that he was there at the time of the event and saw everything. This happened in the year 5683 (1923), when, like this year, Lag B’Omer fell out on Friday. On that Lag B’Omer, tens of thousands of celebrants participated who went up to the kever of Rabi Shimon bar Yochai in Meron. Most of the crowd also remained for Shabbos.

At the end of Musaf of the last minyan, close to midday (the crowd prayed in the Beis Medrash in several minyanim), suddenly the terrifying screams of a woman were heard – the mother of a small child who brought her son to Meron to give him a “chalaka” (first haircut). Her little son suddenly died. The many doctors who were at the place immediately examined the child and determined that he died as a result of contracting cholera, and that a quarantine would need to placed on all those present.

All that time, the child’s mother continued to scream and wail and cry bitterly over her dead son.

Suddenly the child’s mother got up, took her dead son in her hands, went down (the child had been lying all the time in one of the small rooms located on the roof of the kever in the courtyard) – to the shul next to the kever of Rabi Shimon bar Yochai, placed the child on the floor, and with a bitter voice cried and shouted: I came here in your honor to make a chalaka for my only son whom G-d blessed me with through your merit, I came to fulfill my vow that I would bring him here on Lag B’Omer. Yesterday I brought him alive and gave him the haircut with songs and zemiros. Now Rabi Shimon! How can I travel from here without the child? How can I go home?

After the woman got up and said: I am going and leaving my son before you as he is, please – do not shame me – do not send me away empty-handed – please! Return him to me alive as I brought him to you yesterday, and may the name of G-d, blessed be He, and your name be magnified and sanctified in the world.

She left and closed the door of the shul, and only the dead child remained there, lying alone.

After a few minutes, the sound of the child’s crying was heard from inside the shul as he screamed: Mama! Mama! One of the great rabbis who was staying at the place opened the door – and behold before his eyes stood the child on his feet crying and shouting – Mama, give me some water, I am very thirsty!!! They gave him water and the mother took him and brought him up to the room.

The entire crowd stood amazed at the child’s revival. Everyone came to see him. The many doctors who were there examined him and admitted that this is not something natural, but a miracle of Resurrection of the Dead that was performed through the merit of the divine Tanna Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, and they immediately ordered the cancellation of the quarantine.

Good Shabbos!

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