I forgot to include what’s said in the Zohar about Techiyat HaMeitim, so let’s do that now.
The Zohar offers quite a lot of insight into the state of things in the course of the Techiyat HaMeitim, so we’ll only offer the following which sums up the gist of it.We’re told that the Techiyat HaMeitim will come about through the agency of the supernal light that had been hidden away with creation (T Z p. 41a).
The righteous will be rewarded then with as handsome a body in the course of Techiyat HaMeitim as Adam had when he first entered the Garden of Eden (1, p 113b; also see 1, p. 141a). That of course refers to the sort of other-worldly body that Adam was granted which, when reduplicated in the Techiyat HaMeitim, will add a higher degree of other-worldly luster to their souls.
Curiously enough, given the absolutely unfathomable distinctiveness of the whole experience, we’re nonetheless told that “the only difference between the world now and (the world in the course of) Techiyat HaMeitim is in (degrees of) purity, intellectual grasp,…. and length of life” (1, p. 139a).
Those who come back in the course of Techiyat HaMeitim will live in the Land of Israel (1, p. 69a), and the dead of the Land of Israel will rise up before those outside of it in the course of it (2, p. 199b; also see 1, p. 181b, 1, p. 128b, TZ 81a).
Given that the Zohar fully accepts the reality of reincarnation, the natural question is which body will come back to him? And we’re told that one’s first body will reunite with his soul most often (2, p. 100a, 3, p. 308b; but also see 2, p. 105b, 1, p. 131a).
Especially touching is the idea that friends and others will recognize each other then (2, p. 220a). And in fact if one died with maladies (for example) he’ll come back with them so that friends will recognize him, and then they’ll be made whole (3, p. 91a).
And we’re informed that people will rise up in groups: the righteous with other righteous, wrongdoers with other wrongdoers, etc (1, p. 63a), like cliques in a way.
(c) 2012 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org
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