[Avodah] Loving Israel while in Chutz

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Jun 29, 2008 at 09:41:14PM -0400, Yitzhak Grossman wrote:
: > Igeres Techiyas haMeisim. Drawin on the mashal of the blind man and
: > lame man who get together to streal some figs (Sanhedrin 91b). IIUC,

: Rambam cites that mashal?

Yes.

: > he understands the yom hadin as whether or not the person has the actual
: > ability to resurrect.
: > 
: > Here's a quote from ch. 4, near the beginning:
: > > As I will explain in the current essay: Why should we not interpret these
: > > pesuqim allegorically, as we have done with many other Biblical verses,
: > > allegorically without their literal meaning? The reason is as follows:
: > > The idea of techiyas hameisim, ie, that the neshamah will return to the
: > > body after death, is described by Daniel in a way cannot be explained any
: > > way but literally: "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth
: > > will rise, some to everlasting life, and some to reproach and everlasting
: > > contempt." Daniel was similarly told by the mal'akh, 'Now go your way to
: > > the end and rest, and you shall arise to your destiny at the end of days.'

: Rambam merely notes, as I mentioned, that these verses are
: unambiguously literal.  He says nothing at all about *why* God will
: perform the miracle..

The pasuq does. "Eileh lechayei olam, ve'eileh lachavafos".

...
: I believe that there is a great deal of discussion of what exactly the
: Rambam meant by his formulation of the Ikkarim; see, e.g. Abarbanel,
: Rosh Amanah, Chapter Twenty Three.  In any event, Rambam's view on the
: significance of Tehias Ha'Mesim in particular is quite problematic,
: since in spite of its appearance as Ikkar Thirteen and his vigorous and
: indignant defense of his belief in it in Iggeres Tehias Ha'Mesim, his
: reference to it in the Yad (Teshuvah 3:6) is so brief and ambiguous that
: Gedolei Ha'Rishonim (e.g. Ra'avad ibid. 8:2, although see Kessef Mishneh
: there) were apparently able to believe that he rejected it...

The Ra'avad isn't quite objective WRT finding reasons to attack the
Rambam. BTW, did he have access to IThM?

Lema'aseh, I can only judge the Rambam by what I see of the Rambam, and
he writes about techiyas hameisim at length.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             A wise man is careful during the Purim banquet
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