Q: #1 What is the true reward of the Y’mot HaMashiach?
Q: #2 What is the true and most important reward we will receive in the Y’mot HaMashiach and ultimately in the Olam HaBa?

Maimonides

The great Torah Scholar and Giant Maimonides in his “Essay on the Resurrection” shows us that the Olam HaBa will be …

(1) a carefree, sensually luxurious life in the Garden of Eden

(2) eternal prosperity and health in the messianic era

(3) resurrection of the dead to material yet immortal bliss

(4) health and wealth

Scholars have had a hard time understanding exactly what Maimonides was saying in his discussion on the Resurrection of the dead. And, there is a great deal left to be discussed on the matter.

The resurrection is, according to Maimonides a miracle. The body must decay in the Earth because it is earthly material and belongs to the mundane world.

Maimonides explains that the resurrection is a miracle in the following terms.

In syllogistic terms,

a. Resurrection is a miracle.

b. Miracles are a fundamental of the Law.

c. Resurrection is a fundamental of the Law.

Thus, how will it be possible for the resurrection of the dead if all the mundane material has returned to the earth and not suitable for a “spiritual body” for the Y’mot HaMashiach and ultimately the Oalm HaBa?

The Rub:

In the book of Yehudah (Jude) Michael the principle agent of G-d contended with the “adversary” i.e. the earth over the Body of Moshe Rabbenu. We might have heard the Earth saying the body is mine and the soul is G-d’s. It seems that the earth would not allow Michael to take the material body of Moshe Rabbenu. However, what was the real discrepancy?

Yehudah 1.9 But when Michael the principle Messenger of the Divine contended with the adversary for the body of Moshe Rabbenu, he did not attempt to bring condemnation against him, but said “The Lord rebuke you!”

It is evident that there was a discrepancy over the body. As pointed out above the adversary was the Earth. And as we have pointed out elsewhere that when G-d said, “Let us make man in our own image” He was speaking to the earth who had been invested with various powers an ability. The deeper question is, exactly what was the issue in the contention? I see an issue not fully discussed before us. When Michael wanted to take the body of Moshe, we opine that he opted for the whole body per se. Herein is his reason and a true point of contention. Moshe had been on the mountain with G-d on several occasions. We do not have data that tells us that he was there in that dimension only in spirit. Thus, it seems that Moshe Rabbenu entered the spiritual dimension body and all. As such his body bore the evidence and residue (the rub) of having entered and exited the spiritual world with his body. In essence, his body “rubbed” the spiritual world or was surrounded and swallowed up by the dimension of the Divine It was for this reason he had to veil his face.

Shemot (Exodus) 34.27 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”²⁸ So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread or drink water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. ²⁹ It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony [were] in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him. ³⁰ So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.

Again, it seems evident here that Moshe Rabbenu was there in physical form, albeit this would take a great deal of discussion to fully understand. Perhaps we should see this picture as a reference to the Y’mot HaMashiach. Furthermore, there is a great deal of investigation necessary to determine how a man can live in an environment where he does not need food or water. And we may opine that this is an allegorical reference to the Day of Atonements (Yom Kippur). Nevertheless, our point here is the effect of the spiritual dimension has on the body of Moshe. The body as a mundane instrument is affected by the prolonged exposure to the spiritual realm and the Divine Presence. Thus, the body has been permeated with a material that is produced making it partly divine and partly physical. Man was made from the “dust of the earth” and the “spirit (breath) of G-d.” The merging of the two worlds within the body is a great mystery. However, the joining, mixture of the material and spiritual produces an element of spirituality in the physical body. While the spirit (Neshamah) is an interface between the body and the spirit there is an element of the union that is partly from both worlds. When the body participates in the obedience and practice of the mitzvoth it is an instrument of the spirit. The obvious desire we should possess is to participate in holy activity as much as possible. This is in and of itself true spirituality.

Regarding to the resurrection of the body:

During the period known as the “realm of souls” or the “world of souls” the body will be purged from all the negativity that we experienced and practiced while we are in the Olam HaZeh (this present dimension and time). This negativity must dissolve into the earth. This evacuation takes place with the death of the body or when the Neshamah leaves the body. It exits the body for the sake of this purification. It leaves when it knows that there will be no more righteous activity resulting positive reward and further development. It leaves at the ultimate peak for positive performance. The earth as an agent of the spiritual world dissolves the body through microscopic creatures and organisms who are themselves earthly. Such base lifeforms cannot consume spirituality. Thus, the spiritual nature of a man is evacuated through the air, or the spiritual dimension to the heavens returning to a place where it can be re-assembled as the new body of a man. Here we must say that we are not talking of the purely spiritual nature or elements that leaves causing the body to no longer be animated, energized, or alive. These are, as we stated above resident in the world of souls an intermediate realm between the already but not yet.

The element created from the mixture of holy and mundane that return to the spiritual dimension will be the body we are united with for the days of Messiah. The body has been through the process of disintegrating the negativity and the extraction of the holy elements we have fostered while living in the Ola m HaZeh.

Rabbi Dr Eliyahu b Abraham
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