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The Physical Form of Resurrection

January 23, 2003

I scanned this to share with a friend, from The Religious Thought of Hasidism.

Source: R. Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev, Kedushat Levi to Va’ethanan

There is a well–known debate between the kabbalists and the philosophers concerning one [whose soul] has undergone many transmigraions in which body will he be resurrected. The kabbalists hold that the soul will be vested in the first body, the philosophers, that it will be vested in the last body. I maintain a middle position. It is well known that the 248 positive commandments correspond to the 248 organs of the body, and the 365 negative commandments correpond to its 365 sinews. Each part of the body corresponds to a speific mitzvah. [Thus we may understand] the dictum of the rabbis that patriarch Abraham fulfilled [the whole Torah], including erav tavshilin, even though this was before the giving of the Torah. By the sensibility of his organs he was able to grasp [the essence of] the entire Torah. Consequently, when a man fulfills the entire Torah, he sets aright and perfects the entire structure of his body by means of the 248 organs and 365 sinews; and when he impairs a mitzvah he impairs and weakens the organ [or sinew] that corresponds to it. [As a consequence, he] lacks the limb that corresponds to the commandment he violated. His soul, therefore, must undergo many tranmigrations until it has rectified all its earlier transgressions. In this way all its organs are healed, and the structure of his body is rectified and completed in utter perfection.

At the time of the resurrection, when God gathers the dispersed of Israel, every single Jew will be whole in the structure of his body and soul, utterly perfect; and will be ready to enter into the sanctuary the of the King, wholly free of any defect. This will occur by means of joining of all the healthy limbs together, each limb having achieved tikkun,, made whole and healed as a result of many transmigrations. Each separate organ, so rectified, will be joined to the others in the structure of the body, which will be utterly perfect and without defects.

Posted January 23, 2003 11:56 PM