That the soul has a life of its own after death was a firmly fixed
idea in Judaism, though, except in the works of philosophers and in
the liberal theology of modern Judaism, the grosser conception of a
bodily Resurrection was predominant over the purely spiritual idea of
Immortality. Curiously enough, Maimonides, who formulated the belief in
Resurrection as a dogma of the Synagogue, himself held that the world to
come is altogether free from material factors. At a much earlier period
(in the third century) Rab had said (Ber. 17 a): 'Not as this world is
the world to come. In the world to come there is no eating or drinking,
no sexual intercourse, no barter, no envy, hatred, or contention. But the
righteous sit with their crowns on their heads, enjoying the splendour
of the Shechinah (the Divine Presence).' Commenting on this in various
places, Maimonides emphatical y asserts the spirituality of the future
life. In his _Siraj_ he says, with reference to the utterance of
Rab just quoted: 'By the remark of the Sages "with their crowns on their heads" is meant the preservation of the soul in the intel ectual sphere, and the merging of the two into one.... By their remark "enjoying the
splendour of the Shechinah" is meant that those souls wil reap bliss in what they comprehend of the Creator, just as the Angels enjoy felicity in
what they understand of His existence. And so the felicity and the final
goal consists in reaching to this exalted company and attaining this high
pitch.' Again, in his philosophical _Guide_ (I. xli.), Maimonides
distinguishes three kinds of 'soul': (1) The principle of animality, (2)
the principle of humanity, and (3) the principle of intellectuality, that
part of man's individuality which can exist independently of the body,
and therefore alone survives death. Even more remarkable is the fact that
Maimonides enunciates the same opinion in his Code (Laws of Repentance,
vii . 2). For the Code differs from the other two of the three main
works of Maimonides in that it is less personal, and expresses what the
author conceives to be the general opinion of Judaism as interpreted by
its most authoritative teachers.
There can be no question but that this repeated insistence of Maimonides
has strongly affected all subsequent Jewish thought. To him, eternal
bliss consists in perfect spiritual communion with God. 'He who desires to
serve God from Love must not serve to win the future world. But he does
right and eschews wrong because he is man, and owes it to his manhood
to perfect himself. This effort brings him to the type of perfect man,
whose soul shall live in the state that befits it, viz. in the world to
come.' Thus the world to come is a state rather than a place.
But Maimonides' view was not accepted without dispute. It was indeed
quite easy to cite Rabbinic passages in which the world to come is
identified with the bodily Resurrection. Against Maimonides were produced
such Talmudic utterances as the following: 'Said Rabbi Chiya b. Joseph,
the Righteous shal arise clad in their garments, for if a grain of wheat
which is buried naked comes forth with many garments, how much more shal
the righteous arise ful garbed, seeing that they were interred with
shrouds' (Kethub. 111 b). Again, 'Rabbi Jannai said to his children,
Bury me not in white garments or in black: not in white, lest I be not
held worthy (of heaven) and thus may be like a bridegroom among mourners
(in Gehenna); nor in black, lest if I am held worthy, I be like a mourner
among bridegrooms (in heaven). But bury me in coloured garments (so that
my appearance wil be partly in keeping with either fate),' (Sabbath,
114 a). Or finally: 'They arise with their blemishes, and then are healed'
(Sanh. 91 b).
The popular fancy, in its natural longing for a personal existence
after the bodily death, certainly seized upon the belief in Resurrection
with avidity. It had its roots partly in the individual consciousness,
partly in the communal. For the Resurrection was closely connected with
such hopes as those expressed in Ezekiel's vision of the re-animation
of Israel's dry bones (Ezek. xxxvii.). Thus popular theology adopted
many ideas based on the Resurrection. The myth of the Leviathan hardly
belongs here, for, widespread as it was, it was certainly not regarded
in a material light. The Leviathan was created on the fifth day, and
its flesh wil be served as a banquet for the righteous at the advent
of Messiah. The mediaeval poets found much attraction in this idea,
and al owed their imagination full play concerning the details of
the divine repast. Maimonides entirely spiritualised the idea, and
his example was here decisive. The conception of the Resurrection
had other consequences. As the scene of the Resurrection is to be
Jerusalem, there grew up a strong desire to be buried on the western
slope of Mount Olivet. In fact, many burial and mourning customs of
the Synagogue originated from a belief in the bodily Resurrection. But
even in the orthodox liturgy the direct references to it are vague and
idealised. Two passages of great beauty may be cited. The first is taken
from the _Authorised Daily Prayer Book_ (ed. Singer, p. 5):
'O my God, the soul which Thou gavest me is pure; Thou didst create it,
Thou didst form it, Thou didst breathe it into me; Thou preservest it
within me; and Thou wilt take it from me, but wilt restore it unto me
hereafter. So long as the soul is within me, I wil give thanks unto
Thee, O Lord my God and God of my fathers, Sovereign of al works,
Lord of al souls! Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who restorest souls unto
dead bodies.' The last phrase is also extant in another reading in the
Talmud and in some liturgies: 'Blessed art Thou, who revivest the dead,'
but the meaning of the two forms is identical. This passage, be it noted,
is ancient, and is recited every morning at prayer. The second passage is
recited even more frequently, for it is said thrice daily, and also forms
part of the funeral service. It may be found in the Prayer Book just
quoted on p. 44: 'Thou, O Lord, art mighty for ever, Thou quickenest
the dead, Thou art mighty to save. Thou sustainest the living with
loving-kindness, quickenest the dead with great mercy, supportest the
fal ing, healest the sick, loosest the bound, and keepest Thy faith to
them that sleep in the dust. Who is like unto Thee, Lord of mighty acts,
and who resembleth Thee, O King, who killest and quickenest, and causest
salvation to spring forth? Yea faithful art Thou to quicken the dead.'
The later history of the doctrine in the Synagogue may be best summarised
in the words of Dr. Kohler, whose theological articles in the _Jewish
Encyclopedia_ deserve grateful recognition. What fol ows may be
read at full length in that work, vol. vi. p. 567: 'While mediaeval
philosophy dwelt on the intel ectual, moral, or spiritual nature of the
soul to prove its immortality, the Cabbalists endeavoured to explain the
soul as a light from heaven, after Proverbs xx. 27, and immortality as
a return to the celestial world of pure light. But the belief in the
pre-existence of the soul led the mystics to the adoption, with al
its weird notions and superstitions, of the Pythagorean system of the
transmigration of the soul.' Moses Mendelssohn revived the Platonic form
of the doctrine of immortality. Thenceforth the dogma of the Resurrection
was gradual y discarded until it was eliminated from the Prayer Book of
the Reform congregations. Man's future was thought of as the realisation
of those 'higher expectations which are sown, as part of its very nature,
in every human soul.' The statement of Genesis that 'God made man in
His own image,' and the idea conveyed in the text (1 Samuel xxv. 29),
'May the soul ... be bound up in the bundle of life with the Lord thy
God,' which as a divine promise and a human supplication 'fil ed the
generations with comfort and hope, received a new meaning from this view
of man's future; and the Rabbinical saying (Ber. 64 a): "The Righteous
rest not, either in this or in the future world, but go from strength
to strength until they see God in Zion," appeared to offer an endless
vista to the hope of immortality.'
But quite apart from this indefiniteness of attitude as to the meaning
of immortality, it is scarcely possible to speak of a Jewish Eschatology
at al . The development of an Eschatology occurred in that section of
Jewish opinion which remained on the fringe. It must be sought in the
apocalyptic literature, which has been preserved in Greek. The whole
subject had but a smal attraction for Judaism proper. Natural y there
was some curiosity and some speculation. The Day of the Lord, with its
combination of Retribution and Salvation, was pictured in various ways
and with some elaboration of detail. Paradise and Hel were mapped out,
and the comfortable compartments to be occupied by the saints and the
miserable quarters of sinners were specified with the precision of an
Ordnance Survey. Purgatory was an institution not limited to the Roman
Catholic Church; it had a strong hold on the mediaeval Jewish mind. The
intermediate state was a favourite escape from the theological necessity
of condemning sinners to eternal punishment. The Jewish heart could
not suffer the pain of conceiving Gehenna inevitable. So, one by one,
those who might logically be committed there were rescued on various
pretexts. In the end the number of the individual sinners who were to
suffer eternal torture could be named on the fingers of one hand.
By the preceding paragraph it is not implied that Jewish literature in
Hebrew has not its ful complement of fancies, horrible and beautiful,
regarding heaven and hell. But such fancies were neither dogmatic
nor popular. They never found their way into the tenets of Judaism as
formulated by any authority; they never became a moving power in the life
of the Jewish masses. It was the poets who nourished these lurid ideas,
and poetry which has done so much for the good of religion has also done
it many a disservice. Judaism, in its prosaic form, accepted the ideas
of Immortality, Retribution, and so forth, but the real interest was in
life here, not in life hereafter.
We can see how the two were bridged over by the Jewish conviction of
human solidarity. For twelve months after the death of a father the son
recited daily the Kaddish prayer (_Authorised Daily Prayer Book_,
p. 77). This was a mere Doxology, opening: 'Magnified and sanctified
be His great name in the world which He hath created according to His
wil . May He establish His kingdom during your life and during your days,
and during the life of al the house of Israel, even speedily and at a
near time, and say ye Amen.' As to the Messianic idea of the Kingdom of
God, something will be said in the next chapter. But this Doxology was
believed efficacious to save the departed soul when uttered by the living
son. The generations were thus bound together, and just as the merits of
the fathers could exert benign influence over the erring child on earth,
so could the praises of the child move the mercy of God in favour of
the erring father in Purgatory. It was a beautiful expression of the
unbreakable chain of tradition, a tradition whose links were human
hearts. In such conceptions, rather than in descriptive pictures of
Paradise and Gehenna, is the true mind of Judaism to be discerned.
That the first formal sign of grief at the death of a parent should be a
Doxology wil not have escaped notice. God is the Righteous Judge. Thus,
in the Eschatology of Judaism, this idea of Judgment predominates. A
favourite passage was the Mishnic utterance (second century): 'Rabbi
Eleazar said: They that are born are destined to die, and they that
die to be brought to life again, and they that live to be judged.'
(Aboth, iv. 29). But in another sense, too, there was judgment at
death. The sorrow of the survivors, like the decease of the departed,
was to be considered as God's doing, and therefore right. Hence in the
very moment of the death of a loved one, when grief was most poignant,
the survivor stood forth before the congregation and praised God. And so
the Burial Service is named in Hebrew 'Zidduk Ha-din,' _i.e._ 'The
Justification of the Judgment.' A few sentences in it ran thus (_Prayer
Book_, p. 318): 'The Rock, His work is perfect.... He ruleth below and
above, He bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up again.... Blessed be
the true Judge.' And perhaps more than all attempts to analyse beliefs
and dogmas, the following prayer, recited during the week of mourning
for the dead, will convey to the reader the real attitude of Judaism
(at least in its central variety) to some of the questions which have
occupied us in this chapter. The quotation is made from p. 323 of the
same Prayer Book that has been already cited several times above:
'O Lord and King, who art ful of compassion, in whose hand is the soul
of every living thing and the breath of al flesh, who killest and makest
alive, who bringest down to the grave and bringest up again, receive,
we beseech Thee, in Thy great loving-kindness, the soul of our brother
who hath been gathered unto his people. Have mercy upon him, pardon all
his transgressions, for there is not a righteous man upon earth, who
doeth good and sinneth not. Remember unto him the righteousness which
he wrought, and let his reward be with him and his recompense before
him. O shelter his soul in the shadow of Thy wings. Make known to Him the
path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand are
pleasures for evermore. Vouchsafe unto him of the abounding happiness
that is treasured up for the righteous, as it is written, Oh how great
is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee, which
Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the children of men!
'O Lord, who healest the broken-hearted and bindest up their wounds,
grant Thy consolation unto the mourners: put into their hearts the
fear and love of Thee, that they may serve Thee with a perfect heart,
and let their latter end be peace.
'Like one whom his mother comforteth, so wil I comfort you, and in
Jerusalem shal ye be comforted. Thy sun shal no more go down, neither
shal thy moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shal be thine everlasting
light, and the days of thy mourning shal be ended.
'He will destroy death for ever; and the Lord wil wipe away tears from
off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shal he take away from off
all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.'