180 CHAPTER SIX
Although in the Guide Maimonides never deals expressly with the res-
urrection,Guide 1.42, discussing the meaning of the word “living,” is
clearly related to our subject. In the course of this chapter Maimonides
mentions the resurrection of a boy by the prophet Elisha (1 Kings 17:17),
an event that Maimonides interprets as the resuscitation of a very sick
child. He then cites the Talmudic saying, “The righ teous are called living
even when they are dead.”^91 This saying may seem to refer to the resur-
rection, but Maimonides cites it in proximity to “the traditional interpre-
tation” of Deut. 22:7: “That it may be well with thee and that you may
live long.” In Maimonides’ understanding, the traditional interpretation
of this last verse connects it to the world to come.^92 What ever it was that
Maimonides wanted his readers to understand by the resurrection of the
dead, it may not have been very far from his understanding of the world
to come. And the world to come, as we have already seen, was for him
strictly incorporeal.
Maimonides’ treatment of the resurrection of the dead stands in sharp
contrast to his expansive style in describing the world to come.^93 When
he had his choice, he said the strict minimum about the resurrection; and
when forced to elaborate, rather than discussing the question systemati-
cally, he resorted to polemics and exegesis, which allowed him to divert
the discussion. At no point in his discussion of the resurrection does one
get the impression that the awaited resurrection aroused profound emo-
tions in Maimonides.
We have seen above Maimonides’ strict censoring of a corporeal image of
God, a position that in his view no person, however limited intellectu-
ally, should be allowed to uphold. It is interesting to compare this atti-
tude to the one he adopts regarding eschatology. When Joseph ibn Jabir
asks him to explain the immortality of the soul in the world to come,
Maimonides discourages him from trying to understand things beyond
his ken, and says:
It will not be detrimental to your religion to believe that the inhabit-
ants of the world to come are bodies, until you clearly understand
their existence. Even if you think that they eat, drink and procreate
in the upper heaven or in Gan Eden, as it was said— there is no(^91) BTBerakhot 8:2.
(^92) SeeMishneh Torah,Hilkhot Teshuva 10: 1; Commentary on the Mishnah, Introduction
toPereq Heleq. 205: “ ‘That it may be well with thee’— in a world that is all good; ‘and that
you may live long’— in a world that is everlasting, which is the world to come”; and see also
Tosefta Hulin 10.
(^93) See above, apud note 32.