Subject, topic tonight that we're going to discuss is the topic of תחיית המתים. Is that good or bad? Okay. תחיית המתים, the resurrection of the dead. תחיית המתים happens to be one of the י״ג ikarim, one of the 13 principles in Yiddishkeit. We know that the Rambam, Maimonides, set up 13 principles in Yiddishkeit. That means that there are 13 ideas, 13 things that are important, they're fundamental to Yiddishkeit, to the Jewish religion. It doesn't mean that everything else is not so important. Every detail in Yiddishkeit, every individual mitzvah is important 100%, but not every individual mitzvah or every individual thing that we believe, that we know, is fundamental. So the Rambam, what he did was he took 13 ideas, and he said these 13 are very, very important, and they're the foundation of Yiddishkeit. For instance, the first one is Ani Maamin, we believe that Hashem is the Creator of the world, and there's Hashem, there's existence of Hashem, this obviously is the foundation of Yiddishkeit. Then there is the principle that Hashem gave us the Torah, Torah was given by Hashem, the principle that the Torah is eternal. Then there is a principle that Mashiach will come. And then there is another principle that we believe, Ani Maamin b'emunah shleimah, I believe with complete faith that there will be תחיית המתים, there will be the resurrection of the dead. That means that if someone doesn't believe in תחיית המתים or in the other principles, it's not just that he is lacking a belief in something that is true that the Torah says. That applies to everything. Any detail that's written in the Torah, this would apply to. For instance, if someone doesn't believe, just to use as an example, that Avraham Avinu existed, doesn't believe that, this guy's an apikores. He doesn't believe in the Torah, the Torah says Avraham Avinu did exist. But it doesn't mean that he doesn't believe a principle of Yiddishkeit, it doesn't say anywhere that to believe that Avraham Avinu existed is a principle, it's one of the ikarim of Yiddishkeit, even though a person who doesn't believe is called a kofer, he denies in the truth and he's an apikores. But if a person doesn't believe in one of the principles, then this person is not just an apikores, and this person is just lacking the whole foundation of Yiddishkeit. And one of the principles is the fact that there will be תחיית המתים, that there will be the resurrection of the dead. And this is something that we believe as a principle of Yiddishkeit, and even though the expression is Ani Maamin, which means I believe, as some people say after davenen every day, Nusach HaAri doesn't say it, but we think it, some people even say it, and the expression is Ani Maamin b'emunah shleimah, I believe with complete faith, it's not really belief, cuz the moment we use the term I believe, it leaves place for doubt. As the expression always goes, when someone says he believes something, you can tell him, \"Well, you're entitled to your belief, and I have my belief.\" The moment we say that, that means we are not 100% sure, we believe, it's a belief. It's not a belief, it's a fact! We know! Whatever the Torah says is true, we know. So we know that there will be Techiyat hametim, because the Torah says so, and this is one of the principles of Yiddishkeit. Now, the first thing that we have to do when we're start talking about this subject is: where does it say that there will be techiyat hametim? So the Gemara in Sanhedrin, that's why I actually opened the Gemara Sanhedrin here, brings different proofs from the Chumash, even from the Chumash. But in the Chumash, it's only hinted. It doesn't say clearly in the Chumash that there will be techiyat hametim, that the time will come that there will be the resurrection of the dead. But in Tanach, in the Neviim, we do find clear pesukim where it says that the time will come that the dead will become alive again. There is a pasuk that says יחיו מתיך, very clearly, יחיו מתיך, your מתים, your dead will become alive. There's a pasuk actually in Daniel י״ב, ב׳ where it says ורבים מישני אדמת עפר יקיצו, that many from those that are sleeping, a literal translation sleeping in the ground, which means are buried, will wake up. Then there is the other famous pasuk where it says בהקיצו ורננו שכני עפר, that those that are שכני עפר, live in the ground, which means are buried in the ground, בהקיצו will wake up, ורננו and they will be happy. So it's pasuk that the people will wake up. Actually, there was a time when techiyat hametim took place already, besides stories in the Gemara or in Tanach, or individual tzadikim, neviim did techiyat hametim on individual people, we find a story that there was techiyat hametim on a big group. The famous story with Yechezkel, with the עצמות היבשות, when Yechezkel was in the valley, and there he saw the a whole pile of dried-out bones, and Hashem told him to prophesy, gave him prophecy, and he said that the prophecy was that these bones should turn into human beings, they should become alive again, and that's exactly what happened. There's a whole discussion in Gemara who they were, what happened to them later. The most accepted opinion is that these were people who left Mitzrayim too early. When the Jews were in Egypt, they knew that the time will come for their redemption. And they even had a cheshbon, a calculation when it should happen. There were people, actually members of the tribe of Ephraim who miscalculated. And 22 years earlier before the time has come, they thought that this was the time for them to leave. And therefore, they left Mitzrayim. I don't even know how they got out because it says that Mitzrayim was so closed that not even one slave could escape, but somehow they got out. But because they got out on their own without Hashem guiding them because it wasn't the right time, so on the way they were killed by the goyim, by the Canaanites or the Amalekites, whoever killed them. And that was the pile of bones, and later Yechezkel made them alive again through Hashem. And this was supposed to be a siman, a symbol that later on, this is going to happen to Klal Yisrael, that all the Yidden are going to become alive. But the Gemara also brings, besides the stories or the pesukim in Tanach by the Neviim, from chumash. The very famous one is אז ישיר משה ובני ישראל. It says after Keriat Yam Suf, after they crossed the sea and they sang a song, so the pasuk says, and we say this every day in davenen, אז ישיר משה ובני ישראל, then Moshe and Bnei Yisrael and the Yidden are going to sang a song, and they sang the shirah, the song as a thanksgiving to Hashem. But the way it's written is not אז שר, then he sang, but it says, אז ישיר, with a yud. The literal translation from ישיר is will sing. And the Gemara says, and Rashi actually brings it in chumash, what does that mean he will sing? It should have said שר. מכאן רמז לתחיית המתים מן התורה. Here we have a hint in the Torah that there will be תחיית המתים, and in the future, when Moshe Rabbeinu will again sing together with Bnei Yisrael, because he will get up תחיית המתים. In the end of chumash, before Moshe Rabbeinu passed away, it says that Hashem said to משה, הנך שוכב עם אבותיך וקם העם הזה וזנה, etc., etc. which means you are going to die, you're going to be buried with your fathers, וקם, according to one פשט, וקם means and you will get up. Hashem said clearly to משה, הנך שוכב עם אבותיך, you will die, וקם, and you're going to get up. So here we see clearly Hashem said to Moshe Rabbeinu, and you're going to get up. Then there's another drasha, just bringing in the Gemara brings a pasuk similar to אז ישיר. It says, אז יבנה שלמה. Shlomo HaMelech will this is not from Chumash actually, from Tanach. Shlomo HaMelech will build. It should have said he built, when he built the בית המקדש and the palace. So the Gemara says it means that in the future he will build again. But this is not from Chumash. But we even find another proof from Chumash. It says a pasuk in Chumash concerning the מתנות כהונה. It says concerning different things that you have to give a kohen. We know that the kohen would get in the time of the בית המקדש 24 presents, so to speak, given to the kohen. Nowadays, we don't give to the kohen anything. The presents included terumah and challah and all other things that they used to give to the kohen. We don't give challah to the kohen now. We don't give terumah for many reasons. The only thing that's leftover that we give to the kohen is pidyon haben, which is one of the 24, but this we still give to the kohen. But there's a pasuk in Chumash that speaks about a certain matanah, a certain thing that you give to the kohen. And the pasuk says that you will give it to ונתתם ממנו את תרומת השם לאהרן הכהן. You should give this terumah, this present, to Aharon HaKohen. Now this present that the Torah talks about happens to be one of those things that was not did not apply, did not have to happen, take place till Yidden enter Eretz Yisrael. We know there are many mitzvot that applied right away when it was given in the desert, and certain mitzvot did not apply till they entered Eretz Yisrael. That happens to be one of those that didn't apply till the Yidden entered Eretz Yisrael. We know that Aharon HaKohen did not enter Eretz Yisrael. So they never gave Aharon HaKohen this terumah. So what does the pasuk mean, ונתתם ממנו את תרומת ה׳ לאהרן הכהן? So the Gemara asks, וכי אהרן אהרן לעולם קיים? Did Aharon live forever? והלא לא נכנס לארץ ישראל שניתן לו תרומה? He didn't enter Eretz Yisrael to get the terumah! אלא מלמד שעתיד לחיות. It shows that he will be alive again, וישראל נותנים לו תרומה, the Yidden will give him terumah. So we see a Chumash, the Chumash says you will give Aharon terumah. Then the Gemara brought, I'm just bringing at random certain ראיות the Gemara brings. There's a pasuk that says Hashem said to Moshe to tell the Yidden, וגם הקימותי את בריתי אתם, says I spoke to the Avot, to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, I promised them I will give this land to them, and I will fulfill my covenant, לתת להם את ארץ כנען, to give them the land of Canaan. So the Gemara says, לכם לא נאמר אלא להם. It should have said to give to you! He didn't give Canaan to the Avot! Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov had passed away before the Yidden entered Eretz Yisrael, many hundreds of years. So what does he mean I will keep my promise to give them the land? Should have said, he's talking to the Yidden, to give you the land. אלא מכאן לתחיית המתים מן התורה. It means yes, when there's Mashiach will come, later on there will be techiyat hameitim, and they will get Aharon, Aharon will get terumah and the Avot will get the land. This all will happen. So here the Gemara brings רמזים, hints from the Chumash, that there will be techiyat hameitim. But besides the pesukim, whether it's a Chumash or in Tanach, in Gemara we find tens, hundreds maybe, of places where the Gemara refers to תחיית המתים in the future as a fact. This actually, in Sanhedrin in Perek Chelek is a whole sugya, a whole section that deals with תחיית המתים. And this is a fact in Torah, in Torah Shebaal Peh. Now, to us, even if we would not find any hint in חומש, in תנ״ך, or even in חומש, תורה שבכתב, the written Torah, that there will be תחיית המתים, wouldn't make a difference. Torah Shebaal Peh, the oral Torah, is as true as Torah Shebichtav. Every word of the Gemara is true without a question. So if it would just say in the Gemara that there will be תחיית המתים, it's good enough for us, and we know for sure that this is going to happen. And this became, this is a very important, integral part of Yiddishkeit, not just that if a person doesn't believe in this, well since it says in the Torah this is going to happen, and you don't believe in it, that shows that there is a certain aspect of Torah that you don't believe. That's not so. It's more than that. Like I said before, if you don't believe that Avraham Avinu ever existed, you also don't believe in certain part of Torah, but it's not that you don't believe in the more, the most important part of Torah. Here, this is a principle that you don't believe in, that means you don't believe in the essence of Torah. Now we will explain later why is this such an important part. It's a fact because it says in the Torah, so we know it's going to happen. So big deal if someone doesn't believe that there will be תחיית המתים. So why does that take, why is that so important? Why is that such a a principle in Torah? So we will get to that. But this is so important, so much so that this is put into the Shemoneh Esrei, into the Shemoneh Esrei, the Amidah that we say three times a day, and Shabbos and Yom Tov and Rosh Chodesh, four, in Chol Hamoed, four times a day, on Yom Kippur five times a day. Shemoneh Esreis vary, Yom Tov, Shabbos, but there are certain part of the Shemoneh Esrei that's always the same. This is part of it: ונאמן אתה להחיות מתים, that you are trustworthy that you will resurrect the dead, ברוך אתה ה׳ מחיה המתים. We praise Hashem for making תחיית המתים. So we know that this is, so this is definitely a very important part, it's part of the Shemoneh Esrei.

Now when it comes to talk about תחיית המתים, obviously everyone is interested, 'Oh, תחיית המתים, when is it going to be, and how is it going to be, and what things will happen?' But the Rambam, when he explains the concept of תחיית המתים a little bit in explaining the משנה, כל ישראל יש להם חלק לעולם הבא, that all Yidden have a share in the world to come, which refers to תחיית המתים as I will mention soon, so the Rambam complains that people are, why are people interested in תחיית המתים? Why do people care about these things? That's not what they should be involved in! That's what he says. They should be involved in other things, but why whatever it will be, it'll be. So why why do they care so much? And it's something that people are very curious about. Everyone is curious about and people ask and whenever you talk about it. So the Rambam complains that's not how it should be. So it would seem from this Rambam that we shouldn't be having this class! Why would we discuss תחיית המתים when the Rambam says it's not important to discuss? So I want to tell you that's not the pshat in Rambam. And that's how the Rebbe explains it, the Rambam does not complain why people are curious and discuss and are interested in תחיית המתים. What he complains about why they're interested in the minor things. That's what people are interested. How will they get up? Will they get up? With which clothes will they wear? Will it be the same clothes that they got buried in or different clothes? If a person was buried when he was sick, will he get up sick, or will he get up healthy? That's what people care about. If a person came down into this world more than once, and we know that neshamot go come down more than once, a gilgul, so when they get up, which body will it be? These are the things that people are worried about. So the Rambam complains, why worry about that? Worry about the essence of תחיית המתים. We can't say the Rambam complains why we discuss תחיית המתים, if it he himself put it as a principle in Yiddishkeit, so how could he complain why people are interested? You should be interested. What else should you be interested in? Not in the principles of Yiddishkeit? So obviously that's not what he means. Something that was put into davenen every day three times or four or five times a day, so that's something that we shouldn't be interested in? So again, the Rebbe says the pshat is that's what it bothers him. Why are you interested in the minor? Be interested in the main thing! Be interested what תחיית המתים means. Why will there be תחיית המתים? Why is it so important? Why is it important to know that there will be and why will there be תחיית המתים? Why do we need to say that there will, why will there be that all the dead will come back? Why is that important? To understand what it is, that's what we have to discuss. And that's what we will discuss. But before that, just one detail which is minor, but it's important for the whole hemshech, is when is it going to happen? We're talking about something, so the first thing we have to know, when is it going to happen? Now we know it's going to happen after Mashiach will come. We know that there are two periods after, from when Mashiach will come. Now we're in a period, obviously, galut and earlier periods. When Mashiach will come, will start, the tekufah we call it, the period of ימות המשיח, the days of Mashiach. It says in the Zohar that ימות המשיח will continue for forty years. After forty years, then will come the second period, called the period of עולם התחייה, the world of resurrection, or תחיית המתים, or better known as Olam Haba, the time of Olam Haba. And the Gemara talks about it as the period of Olam Haba, the world to come. Now we should know that the expression עולם הבא has two meanings, and not always when we refer to Olam Haba we mean the same thing. Olam Haba could mean Gan Eden, which is not something that's going to happen later. That's taking place now. After a person finishes his time in this physical world, the neshamah leaves the body, goes to Gan Eden, that's also called Olam Haba. Why is it called Olam Haba? Olam Haba means the world to come. That's not going to come, it right now! The reason is because for the person it's to come. It's a second step. First you live in this world, then you go to the next step. That's why it's called Olam Haba. Sometimes Olam Haba refers to techiyat hametim. In the Mishnah where it says כל ישראל יש להם חלק לעולם הבא, every Jew has a share in the world to come, that does not refer to Gan Eden, because it is not true, not everyone has a share in Gan Eden. Some people don't get to Gan Eden for whatever reason. But in Olam Haba that it's Olam Haba that says there means the world to come, means techiyat hametim. So that's going to happen, it says in the Zohar, forty years after ימות המשיח, after Mashiach comes. But I want to tell you that even though it says forty years, it doesn't necessarily mean that it'll have to take forty years. What it really means is that it the maximum it'll take is forty years. If we are zocheh, if we have merit, a greater zechut, and it could happen earlier, because we find different things in the Gemara explaining different pesukim, where it explains that things, they say, depend on whether we have a special zechut or not. For instance, the fay- the most famous one, the Gemara asks a contradiction in in in the same pasuk. One pa- it says in the pasuk that Mashiach will come, this talks about משיח, בעתה אחישנה. בעתה means in its time, and אחישנה means very fast. So the Gemara asks, what is it? Will it be in the time when it comes, or will it be fast? And the Gemara says it depends. זכו, if we are zocheh, it'll be אחישנה, could be earlier. לא זכו, if we're not zocheh, then it'll come in its time. In other words, there is a time when Mashiach has to come no matter what, that's the latest possible. There's another place in Gemara, the same area, but the Gemara another question. In one place it says Mashiach is going to come עני ורוכב על חמור, he'll be a poor man riding a donkey. Another place it says ארו עם ענני שמיא, he'll come with the clouds. Which will it be? So the Gemara says it depends: לא זכו, if yidden are not zocheh, we don't merit, and Mashiach will come anyway, then it's going to be עני ורוכב על חמור, some low-key poor man coming on a donkey, and he'll take us out of galut. But if zachu, then he's going to come come with with the sky, with with I don't know, with jets, I don't know how he's going to be, with with the clouds, and that's how he's going to come. That in Gemara we find other places also, and the Rebbe explains different contradictions in different places also, one place like this, one like this, and all based on this idea that it's possible in two ways. And the same thing here, when it says that תחיית המתים, when it says that תחיית המתים is going to be 40 years after ימות המשיח starts, that's not necessarily going to have to happen. If we are zocheh, then it's going to happen earlier. So this is concerning the time when it's going to happen, that that's when there will be תחיית המתים. But the next question is, besides when it'll be, for how long is it going to be? How long will this period of תחיית המתים last? That people are going to be are going to be alive again, their bodies will be rebuilt, and they'll be alive again with the with the bodies that we have now, and that's how they're going to continue living. How long is that going to last? So here we have an argument between the Rambam and the Ramban. The Rambam says that the period of תחיית המתים is also a passing stage. That is not the ultimate end. The ultimate end is that after, I don't know for how long there will be this level of תחיית המתים when we'll all be back in our bodies, the bodies will disappear, and we will be left only neshamot. That's what the Rambam says. The Ramban argues, and the Ramban says, no, this is it. תחיית המתים when the bodies will come back, that's how it's going to be forever, eternal. This is it. Forever, forever, forever, we will have our bodies. When it comes to a question like this, what's the accepted opinion? How do we pasken? Here comes the Arizal. The Arizal was the master of Kabbalah, right, like the Ramban. And being that this whole issue is more a kabbalistic issue, it's a spiritual issue, it's not a halacha issue, so when it comes to Kabbalah, to פנימיות התורה, to the inner part of Torah, to the secrets of Torah, the posek, the codifier, the one that could say exactly what it will be and that's how we follow, is the Arizal. And if the Arizal says that this is how it's going to be, that's how we accept. And in Chassidut, it's clearly accepted that this is the halacha, that תחיית המתים with the bodies is going to be forever. That's what תחיית המתים is. And besides the fact that the Arizal says so, which to us is the source, between the Ramban and the Rambam himself, in this case, we would pasken like the Ramban, because the Ramban was a big מקובל, learned a lot of Kabbalah. The Rambam was not as a great a mekubal as the Ramban. Now I'll even explain it in more detail. Some hold that the Rambam did not learn kabbalah at all. That's the opinion of many. We know differently. How do we know differently? We have a kabbalah, we have a tradition handed down from the Baal Shem Tov. And the Baal Shem Tov said that the Rambam did learn kabbalah. And as a matter of fact, some halachot in the Rambam are based on kabbalah. The Rogatchover has one halachah where where Rambam himself says a halachah and he says, there is no source to this, but I heard this from my father. And the and the Rogatchover explains that this is based on kabbalah. The Moreh Nevuchim, The Guide for the Perplexed, has such strange things there that if you look, you learn it very superficially, a lot of strange things there. But in kabbalah, if you learn kabbalah, you'll see how everything is founded on kabbalah. So we have a tradition that the Rambam did learn kabbalah. Nevertheless, that wasn't his main expertise. His main expertise was halachah. The Ramban was a mekubal. And therefore, the halachah is that when you have an argument between two poskim, how do you pasken? So you pasken according to the one in the area where he is more expert, that's the halachah. The Gemara says this: whenever there's a machloket between Rav and Shmuel, these two great amoraim, so the הלכה כרב באיסורא, if there is a question concerning איסור והיתר, what's allowed and what's not, and there's an argument between Rav and Shmuel, we pasken like Rav. If there is a question of ממונא, a monetary question that there is a dispute between Rav and Shmuel, הלכה is like Shmuel. And the Rosh explains why: because Rav was more expert in issur, because they used to ask him more questions on issur, and Shmuel was more expert in mamon, in monetary questions, and that's why you pasken like him. And therefore, when it comes to this question, we have the same thing: that when we have a question in a Kabbalistic thing, in תחיית המתים, which is a spiritual matter, we will go along according to the one that's more expert, which is the Ramban. But besides that, being that the Ari z"l paskens that way, so obviously that's what we accept, and we know that it'll come whenever it'll come, 40 years or whatever earlier, and then it'll stay that way forever, that forever we will be back into the bodies.

Who will get up תחיית המתים? Every Jew. Every single Jew. כל ישראל יש להם חלק לעולם הבא. Every single Jew has a share in Olam Haba, which we said before means עולם which means עולם התחייה, תחיית המתים. But one might ask, when you learn the Mishnah, the Mishnah says כל ישראל יש להם חלק לעולם הבא. We say it every Shabbos before we say Pirkei Avot, but you should know, we don't say the whole Mishnah. We only say part of the Mishnah. The Mishnah continues: ואלו שאין להם חלק לעולם הבא. And these are the exceptions! These are people who do not have a share in the World to Come! So obviously there are people who will not get up to Olam Haba, and not get up to תחיית המתים. The answer is, as we will explain later, it is impossible, impossible that a Jew should not get up to תחיית המתים. What the Gemara, the Mishnah, means that there are some people who will not get up, it means they will not get up as fast. They will have to go through more levels and more transformations and things, purifications, till they will get up, but they will eventually get up. And it's all based on the fact that the geulah of Mashiach, the redemption through Mashiach, is for everybody, unlike the way it was when there was the redemption of Egypt, from Mitzrayim, where not everyone went out. One-fifth of the population, of the Jewish population, went out according to one opinion; 1/50th—imagine! The two and a half million people who went out according to one opinion was 1/50th of how many Jews that really were there! Not everyone went out, but in this geulah, everyone will go out. And just like everyone will go out when Mashiach will come, everyone is going to get up at תחיית המתים. There are people who, look, seems that they wouldn't get up, but Hashem is going to make different things happen that even they will also be forgiven, even those people who sinned a lot. The Rambam says if someone does teshuvah right before he dies, his sins are forgiven. Even all his life he was a rasha, and if he did just teshuvah before he dies, his sins are forgiven. Then there's a thing called ברא מזכי אבא. A child, a son, can do mitzvot down here in this world that will purify the neshamah up there. So therefore, even if it's a neshamah that does not deserve to get up to תחיית המתים and not deserve to come when Mashiach will come, will come up. And there are all kinds of other things that I don't want to go into detail that that come out, that that could be done, which Hashem will make happen, that every single Jew will get up. It's all based actually on a pasuk, there's a pasuk in Shmuel, that's Shmuel Bet, that says: לחשב מחשבות לבלתי ידח ממנו נדח. Hashem will make all kinds of thoughts that nobody, nobody will be pushed away. No matter how far he is, he will come back. The Rambam says סוף ישראל—הבטיחה תורה, the Rambam, that Hashem promised, the Torah promised—סוף ישראל לעשות תשובה, the end will be everyone will do teshuvah. There is no question, every Yid will do teshuvah. So every Yid is going to have a share in the geulah, which automatically means that he will have a share in techiyat hametim. Rashi in Chumash brings a pasuk, it says ואתם תלקטו לאחד אחד. Hashem is going to hold everyone by his hand, and one by one Hashem is going to take every Yid out of galut, and every single person will get up techiyat hametim. Now the question is: why? We'll get to that. Why? Why do we have to say everyone will get up? Why is that? And why is that such a fundamental philosophy or concept in Yiddishkeit that every Yid will get up? And why does it, why will it happen? Why is it important to say that there will be techiyat hametim? Now, on one hand, see, the fact that the neshamah continues living, that's not a question. But that's got nothing to do with techiyat hametim. The neshamah is Godly. The neshamah of a Yid is a חלק אלוקה ממעל ממש, is part of Hashem, and just like Hashem is eternal and there is no such thing even put into words that there should be a destruction of part of Hashem, or a part of Hashem should get lost and disappear, it can't be, it's against the the it's part of Hashem. So how could there be such a thing a neshamah should disappear? So a neshamah of a Yid, which is a חלק אלוקה ממעל ממש, automatically is eternal, there is no question about it. Techiyat hametim doesn't mean the neshamah, because the neshamah is there without תחיית המתים. When a person dies and the neshamah continues living, תחיית המתים means that the neshamah will come back to the body, that the body will get up. And the body is going to be eternal, the way we posken like the Ramban, that it's going to be forever. That means that not only is the neshamah eternal, but the body is eternal. And that's why that we have to understand: why is it so important or why will it be that way that the body of a Jew will stay forever, is eternal? Why is it so important for the body to be eternal? Now, the truth is it's important for the body to get a reward. That, yeah. Because if the body participated in doing the mitzvot, when we do a mitzvah, we only do it with the combination of the neshamah and the body. A person without the body can't do mitzvot if it would be just a neshamah. The body without a neshamah can't do either, but we have to have both. So Hashem has to reward the body, too. That we understand. Actually, when Hashem want to punish a neshamah, the neshamah is going to say, \"Me? I couldn't do the aveirah. If not for the body, I couldn't do. I'm just floating around. How could I do something wrong? So it's the body's fault.\" And Hashem is going to come to the body and the body is going to answer, \"Me? If not for the neshamah, I'm a piece of flesh, a piece of meat. How could I do a aveirah? Only because I have a neshamah. So you can't punish me.\" So what's Hashem going to do? He'll put the neshamah into the body, put them together, and say, \"Well, you together did the aveirah, so I'll punish them together.\" And he gives a mashal, interesting mashal, a mashal of a king who had a garden, an orchard. And in the garden a lot of fruit. And he wanted to put guards there to protect, to guard it, but he was afraid that the guards themselves are going to eat up the fruit. So he was thinking, \"What should I do?\" He got an idea. He hired two guards. One was blind and one couldn't walk. And he said, \"The one that's blind can't see the fruit. The one that does see it can't walk to get it. So I have nothing to worry about. They won't be able to eat it.\" As they're sitting there, the one that couldn't walk was able to see, tells the other guy that couldn't see, says, \"You see, I see such good fruit there, but the problem is I can't walk. I can't get to it.\" So he says, \"I have a good etzah. You know what? The one that couldn't see said, \"Come ride on my back. You'll direct me where to go, and well, I'll walk, you'll walk, I'll carry you, you'll see it, you'll take the fruit and we'll eat it.\" And that's exactly what happened. They ate the fruit. And when the king came back and he saw, he wanted to punish them. So they said So the guy who couldn't walk said, \"I could It wasn't me! How could How could I get there?\" And then he comes to the other guy, says, \"It wasn't me! I can't see. How do you know?\" So he said, \"You know what?\" Took the blind person to put the person who blind person, put him on the back of the person, or he put the and at the person who is blind, and put the other guy on top of his shoulders, and he punished them together. And he says, \"You two together did it.\" So Hashem will punish the body and the neshamah together. But same way, if Hashem know Hashem knows that we did the mitzvot, all the good deeds, by the neshamah and the body together, so Hashem will reward the body, too. So that explains why there has to be a reward for the body. But why does the body have to be eternal? We're saying that the body will get up, תחיית המתים, and the body will stay that way. The body will be eternal. Why is it so, why is it such an important concept in yiddishkeit? And the answer is very simple, not so simple, but it's simple according to chasidut. Hashem, when He created the world, was for a purpose. The purpose was, as we have the famous statement brought down in chasidut thousands of times: נתאווה הקדוש ברוך הוא להיות לו יתברך דירה בתחתונים. Hashem had a desire to have a dwelling place in this low physical world. Hashem wanted that this physical world, as it is a physical world with physical people, should become a dwelling place for Him. He didn't want that the world should disappear. He wanted there should be a world and in the world there should be Godliness. He wanted physicality and into physicality there should be Godliness. And that will that He had comes from the most inner depth of the essence of Hashem. It's not from what we would call a lower level of one of the lower worlds, which in chasidut, kabbalah we would call of סדר השתלשלות השתלשלות. It's the essence of Hashem because the first, first step that Hashem made when he was, there was nothing there, just the essence of Hashem, and Hashem took the first step to create something that from that eventually would turn into a עולם הזה, this world, why did he do that? Why did he make that first step? Because within his essence, for some reason, had a desire to have that end, which is this physical world. And the physical world really means the physical people, and the physical people really mean the Jews. That's the essence of the world, and that's what Hashem wanted. So, the body of a Jew, the fact that we have a physical body comes from the essence of Hashem. So, it's not only as we think that the neshama of a Jew is a חלק אלוקה ממעל ממש, is part of Hashem, but the body of a Jew is a part of Hashem. The body of a Jew comes because there was a desire in the essence of Hashem that there should be a physical body of a Jew and he should do mitzvot. So, just like we said before that it's obvious that the neshama has to continue, because the neshama is part of Hashem, and just like Hashem is eternal and doesn't disappear and won't disintegrate, so too will the neshama not, the same thing is in the body. The body of a Jew, the expression is גוף ישראל קדוש. The body of a Jew is holy. Not only the neshama is holy, the body is holy. And it is with the body that we're able to do the will of Hashem, because the essence of Hashem wanted our body. It says in Tanya something very interesting. We always say, אתה בחרתנו מכל העמים, השם chose us from all nations, ובנו בחרת, you chose us. If you ask somebody, what part of us did Hashem choose? So, the answer people will give is our neshama. We are Jews, Hashem chose our neshama because we have a part of Hashem within us. So, in Tanya, the Alter Rebbe says something different. He says, concerning the neshama, you can't say that you use the term a choice, because how could you compare a neshama of a Jew with a neshama of a goy? So, that's not choice. Choice means that you have two equal things and you choose, that's called free choice. If you don't have free choice, if it's not free, in other words, there's a reason why you should choose, that's not called choice. If a person has a two things he could do, or he could get a million dollars, or he could get a patch, and he chooses the million dollars, that's not choice. You have no choice. Certainly, physically he had a choice, he could have said the other one, but that's not called choice. There's something that forces him because this thing is better than that. So, when Hashem chose the neshama of a Yid, that's not choice. What else should he have done? There's an expression in the sicha of the Rabbi Rashab, he says, when Hashem looked at the Yidden and goyim, whom should he have chosen? Ivanke? He had a choice of this Chassidishe Yid, this alte Yid, and this Ivanke, and this Jack, Jill, Joe, I don't know what name we'll give him. So, he had a choice, obviously. So, the Alter Rebbe says, you know what the choice is? The body of the Jew. In the body, the Jew and the goy look alike, because we all have the same bodies, and that's what Hashem chose. And why did he choose it? Choice means that it doesn't come because of the thing that's chosen, but because of the one that chooses. That means it's the essence of Hashem that's connected to our body. So, the body of a Jew is holy and is connected to the essence of a Jew, and that's why there will be תחיית המתים, because the body cannot disappear, and that's why Chassidus says this is something that's eternal, תחיית המתים is not something that is going to be a passing stage like the Rambam says. It's eternal, because the whole idea of תחיית המתים is that the body is holy and is part of Hashem and therefore, it's the essence of Hashem and therefore, it has to exist forever. It cannot stop existing, and that's why it will come back, because this is part of Hashem. The only question that one might ask, but the body is not, doesn't come back, it's a new body. It's a new body. The body, person dies and the body rots, and there's nothing left of it, and then Hashem is going to recreate a new body. So, we're trying to say that Hashem has to give give reward to the body for doing the mitzvot. Hashem has to This body has to stay forever, but it's not the same body. The answer is it is. When it says יחיו מתיך, your dead will become will live, it doesn't say I will make them, I will they will the same ones will become will come alive. And how does it work? So, it says that there is one bone in every Yid, which is right here, the back of his head, which is called the עצם לוז, the bone called לוז, and that bone, you know the English name for it? It's where I know, the other word. So that bone, it says, never rots, you can't destroy it, and that bone remains forever. Why does that bone remain forever? It's interesting. It says that why bichlal do people die? It's all thanks to Chavah. Okay, we'll give some blame to Adam also, not only the woman. Okay, okay. So because Chavah ate from the עץ הדעת, from the tree, and so did Adam HaRishon, and that's when death came to the world. Why do the animals die, and the birds, and? Because every creature in the world tasted from the עץ הדעת, and that brought death. Except it says one bird that didn't, and that bird doesn't die. Every thousand years it renews itself, and the English name for it is the phoenix. Okay. So it says the body of the person, of Adam HaRishon and Chavah, when they ate from the tree, the nourishment from that fruit, and I will not use the word apple because it wasn't an apple, from that fruit of the tree that they ate, every part of the body got body got nourishment, and therefore, was affected by the chet, by the sin, and therefore every part of the body dies. Except for some reason the לוז bone did not take any nourishment from the עץ הדעת, and that bone remains forever. It says bichlal this bone doesn't get nourished from food, except for one type of food, from Melaveh Malkah. It says Motzaei Shabbat, Melaveh Malkah, that's where it gets, but otherwise it doesn't take nourishment from food. And this עצם לוז remains forever, and what Hashem will do, he will take this עצם לוז, and he will rebuild the same body again from this little bit of the original body that was there, and therefore it's the same body. Years ago, it was very hard to understand what that means, to take one bone and build it, so it's a new body, how does it? But now, with DNA, with all these things that we could take, with the cloning, we could understand it. You could take one cell, and that one cell could be rebuild a whole body which is similar to the one, and it's not a new body basically, because it's the cell of the body from before. So what's going to happen is Hashem is going to rebuild all the bodies of the Jews, and they will all get up תחיית המתים. So the body of the Jew will also remain eternal. And this is why this is such a fundamental issue in Yiddishkeit, because it's not just like believing in this mitzvah and that mitzvah, it's believing in the essence of what a Jew is. Believing in תחיית המתים, as I'm explaining, is believing in what it means to be a Jew. Just like everyone understands that it's very fundamental to believe what is Hashem, in Hashem, to believe in the Torah, and to understand that the Torah is special and the Torah is the chochmah of Hashem, that's it that's that's fundamental. It's also fundamental to know what is a Jew. And where do we get this idea to know what a Jew is? By תחיית המתים. If we know to believe in תחיית המתים, we know that there will be תחיית המתים, that means we know that a Jew is eternal. A Jew, his neshama and his body are both eternal, therefore they will continue existing. See, this is the the the more important part of what תחיית המתים is.

But we do have to get a little bit into the small pieces part, which are minor parts, which the Rambam complains we shouldn't get too carried away with, but a little bit. And one question is, when they're buried with clothes, will they get up with the same clothes or will they get up without clothes? So it says they will get up with the same clothes. A person who is buried sick, blind, will he get up blind? He'll get up blind, and then he will be cured. That's what it says. What happens if a person, I mentioned before, came down into this this world, what they call reincarnation with a gilgul, and he came down into more than one body, which body is going to get up? The answer is both bodies are going to get up. Both bodies, but it's one neshama. So where will the neshama be? One neshama in? The answer is: Why does a person come down in gilgul? Why does Hashem send a neshama down here a second time or a third time and send or whoever knows how many times? The reason is because the first time, he didn't accomplish everything he was supposed to. So there are other things to accomplish, come down a second time and a third time. When you accomplish a certain mission, there's a certain aspect of the neshama that is connected to that mission. Now, if a person would accomplish the complete mission, then all aspects of the neshama would be connected to that body that accomplished the mission. But if you only accomplished part of the mission, then only a certain aspect of the neshama is connected to that body. Then when you come down again and you accomplish another part of the mission, another aspect of the neshama is connected to that body. So when תחיית המתים will come, what's going to happen is that this aspect of the neshama will come into this body, and this aspect of the neshama will come into this body. Now, one might ask, in that case, that means that not the whole neshama is there in each body. It's not so, because each aspect of the neshama is basically the whole neshama. Each part of the neshama contains the whole neshama. And here again we have this mashal from each cell in the body contains all details of everything else. The best proof is that you could take one cell and rebuild it into a complete body. You could take a cell from the nose, and you'll make out of it in theory, they didn't do it yet, the animals they did, and you'll have a heart, and a head, and all parts of the body, because in each cell you have everything. So, in each aspect of the neshama you have everything, even though they're two parts of the same neshama. The best example is a husband and a wife. Even nowadays, we all know a husband and a wife really are one neshama. Originally they were one neshama. They split, came down in this world as two separate people, then when they meet together and they marry, the two halves come back. So, you say each person is a half of a neshama? פלג גופא, the half a body, half a neshama. What do you mean half a neshama? He doesn't have a whole neshama? So, a man doesn't have a complete neshama? His neshama is only half? Okay, the Gemara does say, מי שאין לו אשה אינו אדם, a person that doesn't have a wife is not a man, which means he's lacking, true. But no one is going to say that a person has a half a a man has a half a neshama, a woman has a half a neshama. But on the other hand, it does say it's a half a neshama. They're both true. It's a half a neshama, they're both branches, half they branched off each one from the other, but each half is a complete. In each part of the neshama you have complete. Just like it says that there are six hundred 600,000 neshamot in this world. Thank God there are many more Jews than 600,000. We have 13, 14 million Jews. So it says 600,000 are main neshamot, and all others are branches of those main neshamot. Now, we don't know exactly which are main, which are not, but so what does it mean that the branch is not a complete neshamah? Sure it is. But it's a branch. Same thing here: this one neshamah of the person, when it comes down into different different bodies, so what happens, it's going to each part is half, and each one is connected to a different body, and it's really one neshamah, but two halves, and each one is a whole. Each half is a whole. The only question that people ask, and I really don't have an answer to it because I don't never saw it written, but that's the first thing they'd ever ask: if a person remarries, not because he divorced his wife, because then obviously the connection is cut, because his wife passed away and then he remarries, and there will be תחיית המתים, who is he going to be married to? Now, maybe he could be married to two women, but what happens if a woman with two men? She can't be married to two men. So, how's that going to work? I really don't know. I really don't know how exactly how it's going to work, but I rely on Hashem, He'll work it out in the best way. I remember there was once an alter chasid that his wife passed away, and the Rebbe told him a few times he should remarry. Finally he told the Rebbe, \"But I'm afraid Mashiach is coming soon, we'll have תחיית המתים, and if I remarry, I want to be back with my original wife.\" So Hashem said so the Rebbe said to him, \"Don't worry, Hashem will take care of it, He'll work it out that everything will be fine.\" Exactly how, I don't know. Just another two minutes just for the detail some of the details. What will be with those people who are alive at the time of תחיית המתים? See, we're talking about the people who died all these years, thousands of years, they will become alive again. But the people who will be in this world at that time, hopefully it'll be us, so what will happen to us? Will we continue just the way we are, because we have a body, thank God, and we'll continue? So Rav Saadia Gaon writes that it's not clear how it's going to be. But that he wrote. In his time, the Zohar was not known yet. But later years, when the Zohar was revealed, in the Zohar it says clearly that every person is going to die for a second, and then there'll be תחיית המתים. In other words, everyone has to go through the stage of תחיית המתים even though he will be there with the body. Then there's another question: when there will be תחיית המתים and the people will come back again, will there be a דין ומשפט? Will there be a day of judgment, or not? There are difference of opinions. Some say that there will there will be a then the Ramban, that there will be another day of judgment. But the Abarbanel says, why would there be another day of judgment? All these people were judged when they passed away and they came to the bashamayim, they passed away. But the HaAri ז״ל says, for the goyim there will be a day of judgment then, by תחיית המתים, but for the people not. Only those people who will be alive, living at that time, who will not have gone through the judgments of the neshamah in in the higher worlds, they will go through judgment when there'll be תחיית המתים. But but then the question is, so what will happen if they deserve a lot of punishment, That mean that for a while they have to be punished, how will they join the group of תחיית המתים, everybody being together? So he says they'll be punished very short, but with such quality that it'll be as if they were punished for many years, and then they will join the group again. This is what how it'll happen. Then there's another thing it says. When עולם הבא will come, תחיית המתים, with this I'll finish, it says אין בו לא אכילה ולא שתיה. There will be no food, no eating, no drinking, even though we'll have a body, but the body will not have to exist through food. No diets. We'll all be fat. No, I mean skinny. Skinny. But it says we will draw nourishment from ruchniyut, from Godliness. Actually, now it says that the neshamah lives from the guf, the body lives from the neshamah, then it says the neshamah is going to live from the body. But we will not have to eat. But then the question is asked: so when will we eat the שור הבר and the לויתן, and the יין המשומר? It says we'll have this שור הבר, and it says after it'll be at that time of תחיית המתים. So when will But when will it be? Obviously, there'll be food. So the here again there are difference of opinions. Some say, I think the the son of the Rambam writes that this will be right before תחיית המתים, at the end. Then the Rashba and the others write that this is going to be right in the beginning of תחיית המתים, so things didn't change yet. In Likutei Torah and Alter Rebbe says, \"No, it's going to be later.\" But then he says, \"So the question is, so why are we How could there be food there?\" So he says when it says that אין בו לא אכילה ולא שתיה, there won't be food or drink, it doesn't mean that we won't be able to eat. We won't need food to live. But there is a concept of eating food for other reasons Hashem will have in mind. So there will be Shor Habor later. We will have that Shor Habor, that big, big ox that is going to be geshachten through the fish, the fish is going to shachat it, so we're going to have the meat and the fish, and you know the joke that everyone says: why will there be fish and meat? Why not? Because there will be some people who will not trust the הכשר on the meat, so they're going to ask for fish, so Hashem will have to supply them with fish also. They're not going to trust the shechitah of Hashem! So you know So they're going to have to have Then you're going to have the יין המשומר, but that could be for all, for different reasons. Okay, one more point while I'm you know, I have the microphone. What will be with goyim then? So we know, חסידי אומות העולם יש להם חלק לעולם הבא. The chasidishe goyim, which means the goyim who keep the seven מצות בני נח, the seven Noahide laws, they will have a share in the world to come. Obviously different, in a different place than we. Remember when I was a kid, I once asked my father, \"What's going to be? The goyim are also going to be there? How could it be to\" So he said, \"No, they're going to sit in the kitchen. We're going to be in the dining room, and they'll be sitting in the kitchen.\" Fine. They'll have their own place, but they will be. And the reason for it is also because if a goy keeps all his mitzvot, there is a certain eternity that he acquires because he does it because Hashem, because the right the real way to do it is because Hashem commanded it, so he's also doing it because of Hashem. So he acquires a certain deeper connection to Hashem, which is eternal, so he acquires a certain eternity, and therefore, they will also have a חלק לעולם הבא. But definitely not the same as we Yidden. We will have a different חלק, and they will be a different חלק, but that's when we will reach the ultimate level. And that's why it says, the Rambam says, that the חכמים and the נביאים, prophets, were waiting for Mashiach, waiting and waiting for Mashiach. Why were they waiting for Mashiach? Please don't think they were waiting for Mashiach because they were waiting for a time that they'll be able to be in control like we will be. No. Why were they waiting for Mashiach? So they were waiting for Mashiach because they'll be able to learn Torah calmly without interruptions, without distractions, so in order that when you learn so much Torah, that they will be able to get to עולם הבא. And the question that's asked: that means that they're they're waiting for Mashiach to be able to learn in order to get to עולם הבא, that means they're learning for reward. Doesn't the Mishnah say you should learn Torah not for reward? And the Rambam himself says that a chacham or a navi does not do things for reward. So what do we mean that they're learning it in order to get to olam haba? The answer is: they're not they don't care about the reward. Since olam haba is the ultimate level that will be, that's when the the the the desire of Hashem will come to be completely, they can't wait for the time when Hashem's desire will come to its highest level, and they will be part of Hashem's desire, and that's what techiyat hametim is. By the goyim, it's a different things, similar, but different. And this is what it is for the Yidden. Now, what I really think is that it's enough to talk about it. We just ask Hashem it should be very, very soon, that Mashiach should come soon, and then we will have techiyat hametim soon. We don't have to wait the 40 years. We'll definitely be zocheh, and Mashiach will come And techiyat hametim will be very, very soon bimheirah veyameinu. Amen. Yes.

Is there any question regarding when a body is cremated? Even a The question was, a body is cremated. The truth is, even if a body is cremated, it will also have olam haba. It'll make it makes it harder for this to happen. Have to go through so many other more transformations till it'll get to it. The עצם לוז doesn't get ruined, no matter what they do, even though you might not see it, and I don't know if the bone that Harvey was talking about is the real עצם לוז, I mean, because I guess when you cremate, they don't see a little leftover bone, but there's something there that's smaller, probably, than something that we could see, whatever it is. And that'll also happen, but definitely, it causes a lot of harm for this techiyat hametim, definitely. That's why it's so important to see that this should not happen. Yes. So then if a body doesn't die, is it is it putting it back? And more, because if we just go back the way it was, it's not worth it. We go go back and plus. Yes. You mentioned before that it's for sure nobody that it won't be at all. That's for sure not. You have to find a different pshat, you know. Difference between the ones that are buried in Eretz Yisrael versus Yeah. How will it happen, techiyat hametim? So it says that they they will get up in Eretz Yisrael. They will get up in Eretz Yisrael, and the tzadikim of Eretz Yisrael will get up first. Even the tzadikim, the Yidden from chutz la'aretz, outside of Eretz Yisrael, will also get up in Eretz Yisrael, but they'll have to roll under the ground from wherever they are till they get to Eretz Yisrael, and then they'll come up. It says that tzadikim, Hashem will make tunnels, מחילות, tunnels under the ground so that it should be they shouldn't have to suffer, so to speak, when they roll in the ground, and that's when they'll come up. But they will come up first, the tzadikim of Eretz Yisrael will come up first. Now it says, what? Is that why you get buried next to a tzadik, so you keep that same roll? Maybe, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you follow along. You follow along, yes. That's why people want to be buried in Eretz Yisrael, but next to a tzadik, for that reason. Right, right. Just the tzadikim or everybody? No, everyone will come, but the tzadikim will be first. Are they gonna stand up Everyone will come from will be will come up in Eretz Yisrael. Buried first and get up last? Huh? No, I mean I mean, tzadikim first, everyone else last. Tzadikim of Eretz Yisrael first, tzadikim of chutz la'aretz later, but the stam people will be later. It's like the movie going backwards in time, no? No, it doesn't work that way. It says that there will be some tzadikim who will get up earlier. Some tzadikim will not get up תחיית המתים. It says there will be some tzadikim that will get up right in the beginning of Mashiach, when Mashiach will come. It says Moshe Rabbeinu and Aharon HaKohen, because the Gemara speaks about certain things in the בית המקדש, and the Gemara says, \"We don't know what to do.\" So the Gemara says, \"You know what? When we'll build the בית המקדש, we'll ask Moshe Rabbeinu.\" But that's before תחיית המתים! Moshe Rabbeinu will get up, and it says tzadikim in that caliber will get up. But if we don't know where Moshe Rabbeinu is is buried Yeah, he can get up without So, but he'll get up anyway, what's the difference? Because he's not in Eretz Yisrael. He's not in Eretz Yisrael, but he'll get up before. He is a separate category. He and people like him will get up before, not as part of the period, the תקופה of תחיית המתים. What about infants? Also get up. Will they get older? As infants and then they'll develop. How do you picture of yourself, like at what age? When they die. The way you die. You get up as an 90-year-old man. Yeah. But then Hashem will cure you, will make you look young. But in the beginning, it'll be like that, so you'll have a son and a a son and a father, the father died at 70 and the son died at at 95, he'll look older than him, true? Yes. That's not תחיית המתים, that's ימות המשיח. That's before. Mashiach will come, the world will stay the way it is without any things out of the ordinary, but not not תחיית המתים. Yes. What about babies that are We just mentioned, also will get up. Will get up. And they're going to stay like babies? No, and then they'll develop into into adults. Yes. That's חיבוט הקבר, that's a different type. That's a like not Gehinnam, but it's a certain level Okay, one more question and that's it, yeah. What about people that went to the sky without dying, like Eliyahu HaNavi? Come down back into the body. For sure. Much easier. Instead of coming from down there, he'll come down this way. After תחיית המתים. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. There'll be the neshamah like to repeat, a repeat from before. And in fact, Kabbalah says there are neshamot from after after after Mashiach, a special סוג, a special category of neshamot. Yeah. We're going to going to enter the Huh? Yeah. The Torah from that Mashiach, is it going to be before or after? Before too. And after also? And after also, yeah. After also. Ladies and gentlemen, just a few things real quick.