Let’s see now what Ramchal said about Techiyat HaMeitim in some of his other works. Interestingly, he sees it in light of the ethical continuum starting from Adam and Eve’s sin until the end of all sin in the World to Come (Derech Hashem 1:3:9). Since “humanity and the universe at large will not be able to reach perfection while continuing to exist in a ruined state,” he says there, “they and it will have to die and be undone, after which they and it will come back to life anew in a form that’s conducive to perfection”. Being more explicit he says elsewhere that the universe itself will “return to a state of formlessness and emptiness” (Genesis 1:2) after 6,000 years (Sanhedrin 97b), “returning then to its …. primal form” (Ma’amar HaIkarim, Geulah) [1].
Addressing the renewed relationship between body and soul then, Ramchal informs us that when the soul returns to the body after Techiyat HaMeitim, the soul will function “in all its splendor and might” (which it couldn’t do while the individual was alive) and will purify the body to “a great degree” [2]. And then the conjoined soul and body will “ascend higher and higher” (Derech Hashem 1:3:13).
Note:
[1] See Adir Bamarom p. 188 for more on the chronology as well as pp. 197-198 there.
[2] But see Da’at Tevunot 72 for a discussion of a complete purification of the body from the first, and more.
(c) 2012 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org
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