Kaisipang Hudyo sa Ezekiel 37:3: Kuzari

34. The Rabbi: Do not believe that I, though agreeing with thee, admit that we are dead. We still hold connexion with that Divine Influence through the laws which He has placed as a link between us and Him. There is circumcision, of which it is said: 'My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant' (Genesis 17:13). There is further the Sabbath, 'It is a sign between me and you throughout your generations' (Exodus 31:13). Besides this there is 'the covenant of the Fathers,' and the covenant of the law, first granted on Hōreb, and then in the plains of Moab in connexion with the promises and warnings laid down in the section: When thou shalt beget children and grandchildren' (Deuteronomy 4:25). Compare further the antithesis: 'If any of thine be driven out unto the utmost parts of heaven' (Deuteronomy 30:10); 'Thou shalt return unto the Lord thy God' (Deuteronomy 30:2), finally, the song: 'Give ear' (Deuteronomy 32:1); and other places. We are not like dead, but rather like a sick and attenuated person who has been given up by the physicians, and yet hopes for a miracle or an extraordinary recovery, as it is said: 'Can these bones live?' (Ezekiel 37:3). Compare also the simile in the words: 'Behold my servant shall prosper'; 'He has no form nor comeliness,' 'Like one from whom men hid their faces' (Isaiah 52:13; which means that he is, on account of his deformity and repulsive visage, compared to an unclean thing, which man only beholds with disgust, and turns away; 'Despised and rejected of men,' 'A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief' (Isaiah 53:3).

35. Al Khazari: How can this serve as a comparison for Israel, as it is said: 'Surely he has borne our griefs?' That which has befallen Israel has come to pass on account of its sins.

37. Al Khazari: Make this a little clearer.