הלכה על איוב 41:22

And our rabbis also taught in a midrash: “Leviathan is a pure fish” [i.e., a kosher fish with fins and scales] as it is said, “The layers of his flesh stick together,”⁶⁰Job 41:15.and it is written, “his underparts are jagged shards”⁶¹Job 41:22. – these are the scales fixed to him.⁶²In other words, R. Bahya takes these particulars of the Book of Job’s lengthy description of Leviathan as references to its fins and scales. And the intellectual meal for both the body and soul will occur at the time of the resurrection of the dead. And now I will explain to you in what follows about the world of souls, which will come to human beings after their separation from the world, and the matter of the world to come, which is after the resurrection and the matter of the joy that the soul has in all these worlds together. Know that the intellectual meal for the body and soul at the time of the resurrection of the dead, because the routine for the body will be cancelled completely, and another routine – marvelous and new – will replace it, and moral rot –zohama’ – will cease from the world,⁶³According to b. Shabbat 146a: When the serpent came upon Eve, he infected her with zohama’ (“filth” or “moral lasciviousness”). Israel, who stood at Mt. Sinai – their filth ceased. The nations of the world, who did not stand at Mt. Sinai – their filth has not ceased. Thus, R. Bahya must be referring to the cessation of the whole world’s moral rot that will occur in the world to come after the resurrection of the dead (Chavel). and the Accuser will be swallowed up, “there is no adversary [satan] and no mischance,”⁶⁴1 Kg 5:18. “the Lord will make something new on earth,”⁶⁵Jer 31:21. and the souls will be made anew like the eagle is renewed;⁶⁶An allusion to Ps 103:5: “He satisfies you with good things in the prime of life so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” all of them shall be new, “the work of the Artist’s hand,”⁶⁷SS 7:2. so much the more so than with vessels of glass.⁶⁸B. Sanhedrin 91a: “Just as vessels of glass, which are the work of the breath of flesh and blood, are broken and it is possible to repair them, how much the more so with flesh and blood, who were through the breath of the Holy One Blessed be He.” Then the “children of the resurrection of the dead” whose body and their soul have been renewed shall take delight in the intellectual meal in the world to come, which is after the resurrection, in which there is no bodily meal at all, and it is regarding this meal that our rabbis z”l said,⁶⁹B. Berakhot 17a. “Rav was accustomed to say, ‘In the world to come, there is no eating and no drinking, no envy, no hatred, and no rivalry, but rather the righteous will sit with crowns on their heads and enjoy the splendor of the Shekhinah.'” And this statement should teach they will exist there in that world in a body and a soul, which is why he said “no eating and drinking.” For if they did not have there a body and soul, there would be no need for Rav to say “no eating and drinking for souls,” but rather they will certainly be there in body and soul, and despite that there will be no eating and drinking. For their bodily powers will be suspended from them, as they were suspended from Moses and Elijah⁷⁰Ex 34:28: “And [Moses] was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he ate no bread and drank no water;” 1 Kg 19:8: “And with the strength from that meal [Elijah] walked forty days and forty nights.” (peace be upon them). And if you would say that the “vessels” of their bodies and soul serve no purpose, they do serve a purpose, because they receive the reward and enjoyment together, just as they toiled in the Torah body and soul together. For the Holy One Blessed be He does not rob any created being of its reward, and He wants the body to receive its reward and He will not hold back on His judgment. For even though the soul is the most important, the body is nevertheless not superfluous; for it too is of great importance, for it is the tool through which the soul reveals its activities, and it has no power to realize them in action without it. That being so, the body should be destined with the gift of its reward together with the soul. And what “and their crowns on their heads” meant was a reference to the brilliant light that hovers over them, as it is written, “On that day the Lord of Hosts shall become a crown of beauty and a diadem for the remnant…”⁷¹Is 28:5. which our rabbis z”l interpreted in a midrash: It will be like someone who puts scraps on himself, though they are indeed “children of the resurrection of the dead.” ⁷²I.e., these crowns of light will be so commonplace among those rewarded with them that they’d think nothing of it. And more could be said about “and their crowns on their heads” – in the image of the crowns that were given to them at Mt. Sinai. This the finery which they merited at their receiving of the Torah, as it is said, “And the Israelites were stripped of the finery from Mt. Horeb.”⁷³Ex 33:6. That is, the finery must have already been given to them at Mt. Horeb (Sinai), if now, after the sin of the Golden Calf, it was stripped from them. Our rabbis taught in a midrash:⁷⁴Exodus Rabbah 45:1. “The armor of God’s Ineffable Name girded them. But when they sinned, they were taken from them, and Moses earned them back, and this is what Scripture meant by ‘from Mt. Horeb. And Moses would take the tent.’⁷⁵Ex 33:5-6. “And Moses took the tent” immediately follows “from Horeb,” and thisjuxtaposition implies that Moses took back what the Israel got “from Horeb” but lost after that because of the sin of the calf (Chavel). That is to say, he took all these marks of status and kinds of lights back for them – that is, ‘the tent –ha-ohel,’ which is like the expression: ‘be-halo nero– when His lamp shone [over my head].'”⁷⁶Job 29:3. By “creative philology” the midrash associates the similarly sounding words ha-ohel – “the tent” and be-halo – “when it shone.” And just as their measure of delight is like Adam’s measure of delight in the Garden of Delights before the sin, so the crowns on their heads are in the image of the crowns on at Mt. Sinai before the sin.