Will the Dead Really Rise?

My grandmother Celine , a pious and intelligent women, seriously worried that one day in the future if and when the messiah comes - her mother, my great grandmother Dina, who perished at the age of 80 in a Nazi death camp will not rise from the dead - because she was never buried. The Jewish belief/norm is: Without a body in the ground resurrection is not possible. My mother told me this and it stuck in my mind - how many actually believe this idea? Is the rising of the dead not a metaphor? Well.. yes and no..

Do you believe in rising from the dead? I mean literally - do you believe that at some point in the messianic future bodies, like mine or hours - will rise from the grave and resurrect and live again? Is there comfort or consolation in this concept or just creepy disbelief? Why is it persistent in our tool kit? It feels insane and out of zombie movies yet it is a major religious belief that many Jews hold on to. I’m thinking about it today as this notion rises in the Book of Daniel on our Below the Bible Belt journey - and also as it relates to the modern memorial days on the Jewish calendar that we are in the middle of —Holocaust Day just behind us, memorial days for the fallen in Israel’s wars and terror and its day of birth ahead of us — many memories and traumas, personal and collective narratives about despair and repair, resurrection of trauma, transformed into hope.

But the actual belief in this idea, first introduced in the Book of Daniel, which is likely the last book written in the Bible, and therefor quite late in our history, roughly from the 2nd Century BCE is that at some point in the future the dead will rise from the grave. But for that there has to be a grave which is why burial matters. And which is why my grandmother, an educated woman, was so worried. This belief goes deep and old.

The Book of Daniel includes a lot of prophetic poetic stuff that introduces mystical material, and is beloved by the kabbalists. He is the first to mention angels by name - like Gabriel and Michael. By responding to historical trauma and persecution, he opens the path to spiritual . Speculation. And he’s the first to name the notion alluded to by Ezekiel and Isaiah - the dry bones will rise - not just the return of the nation to its home, back from exile, but the actual bones of bodies rising up, back to life.

“Many of those that sleep in the dust of the earth will awake”

Daniel 12:2

Scholars suggest that the reason we can find it in this book is because it is so late - by the Hellenistic era this idea makes its way into the Bible and into jewish thought. It would become one of the biggest topics of debate between the two sects of Jews in the Second temple period - the Pharisees that insist that its a divine doctrine, and must be believed in. And the Sadducees who insisted that when we die - we die, and that’s it. It’s hard to imagine how important this contention was for centuries and how it lingers still.

You know who was a famous Pharisee who rose from the grave and resurrected? That’s right. Jesus, whose resurrection was just celebrated by the Christian world last week.

The rabbis who would create post biblical and post temple Judaism inserted the notion of individual resurrection into jewish dogma, liturgy - and even the Bible - that’s why it shows up in the final chapter of Daniel that we will read this week. But nowadays it’s important to remember that not every idea is original and essential — and that the divides among us reflect not just what we think about what happens after we die - but how we live each moment and each day.

Some suggest that what Ezekiel and Daniel mean is indeed a symbolic image - our nation will fall and rise, again and again, as we are witnessing during these historical and painful times. Who knows what awaits us yet as the angels of history turn us around, during these difficult days.

Others still hold on to the dogma and doctrine that my grandmother learned — hold on to the time to come when all the graves will open up and all the dead will dance again.. literally..

The ancient schism between those who favored literal resurrection or read it as metaphor is in some way living in the deep divides and debates between Jews who read the Bible as literally god’s word and those of us more liberal who read is a text to be debated with, sacred, yet a human text that keeps evolving, just like us. Literal or liberal how do we somehow manage both?

Who know what and who will rise but what I know toady, as I honor my ancestral memory, those who died in peace and buried, and those who died in suffering and have no gravestone or day of death - is that it is on us to be open to the mystery, to honor the living and the life breath of every single human on the planet, and every single moment of life. Daniel is teaching me to not lose hope in the rising from this rubble, and in the belief in kinder days when even the dead concepts like peace and justice and decency and solidarity - are alive and well, restored and revived.

Next week we will close the Book of Daniel and open Ezra - the narrative of the Return to Zion, just as the Jewish calendar wrestles with the modern version of this historical privilege - with so much to learn and so much to repair, redeem, release and revamp..

May peace prevail. May memories be blessings, from here in Jerusalem I send us all a blessing of renewal of spirit, healing and hope, for everyone.

Shabbat shalom