Maimonides Reinterpretation of the Thirteenth Article of Faith: Another Look at the Essay on Resurrection

 Jewish Studies Quarterly, Volume 10 (2003) pp. 244—257  Albert D. Friedberg

In this paper I argue (1) that Maimonides
Essay actually reinterpreted, somewhat coyly, his earlier statements; and (2) that his Essay outlined a novel doctrine of the resurrection 

 Among scholars, he continues, there are five opinions on
the reward for the righteous who keep the biblical commandments (and the converse for the unrighteous).
(1) a carefree, sensually luxurious life in the Garden of Eden
(2) eternal prosperity and health in the messianic era
(3) resurrection of the dead to material yet immortal bliss
(4) health and wealth in this world under a powerful native sovereign
(5) all of the above
In this light Maimonides complains that few are interested in the extraordinary phenomenon of the olam haba or world-to-come. He raises the urgent question of what constitutes takhlit (the “goal”, or true reward), and differentiates between true reward and the causes leading thereto.
He is exasperated by those who worry whether they will rise clothed or naked, bejewelled or not – as if this had anything to do with ultimate reward.
It becomes clear, from the tone of what he says, and goes on to say, that Maimonides categorically dismisses all five opinions in terms of takhlit or ultimate goal. Rather, only the immortality of the soul/intellect could be the proper takhlit of the virtuous.

In summary, then, the body does indeed decompose after death, but the righteous need not be resurrected since they are already “alive”. While resurrection is one of the articles of the faith, Maimonides seems to be foreclosing on a literal interpretation thereof. The suggestion in the Guide for the Perplexed is that the resurrection of the dead must be allegorized: another way of expressing the immortality of the righteous soul. As the passage in his Mishneh Torah makes clear, the ultimate reward of the righteous is blissful eternity in an immaterial world.

The silent plague of spousal abuse - inflicted by women

 

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/317413 

With the media’s focus currently on the phenomenon of domestic violence against women, the head of Shovrot Shivyon (Breaking the Equality), Naama Zarbiv, presented some very surprising facts regarding violence directed not against the wife but rather the husband.

In conversation with Israel National News, Zarbiv related the background story to the facts she provided.

“Many of the men in our organization think that the figures regarding spousal abuse are symmetrical and present statistics from abroad,” Zarbiv says. “When I tried to talk about the phenomenon at a Knesset panel discussion, and requested statistics from the police so that budgets could be allocated accordingly, Tamar Zandberg (Meretz) – who was then standing in as chair of the committee – cut me off and muted my microphone, ‘explaining’ that violent women do not exist.”

“That really infuriated me,” she continues, “and I decided, in the name of freedom of information, to get hold of official police figures, because in the judicial system there’s a certain bias and we wanted to have a working figure to use.”

Zarbiv describes how “we requested statistics for grievous bodily harm (GBH), inflicted on men by women and the reverse. We especially wanted statistics for GBH because it’s something that can be proven with physical evidence, and also because a lot of people claim that while the phenomenon of spousal abuse against the husband exists, it refers to emotional abuse rather than physical.”

“The figures simply stunned us,” she says. Police statistics for 2020 showed that while 177 cases had been opened relating to the male spouse inflicting violence on the female, a whopping 2,068 cases had been opened relating to violence inflicted by the female spouse on the male.

Kyle Rittenhouse Refuses to Become Poster Boy for Conservatives

 https://www.newsweek.com/kyle-rittenhouse-refuses-become-poster-boy-conservatives-1651885

 Richards also issued a rebuke to Donald Trump Jr. for encouraging people to support a gun rights organization that said it would "award" Rittenhouse an AR-15 for his "defense of gun rights."

In a tweet that has since been deleted, Trump Jr. wrote: "Gun Owners of America is sending Kyle Rittenhouse an AR-15. Sign the card in support of Kyle. Americans have a fundamental right to defend themselves, and to keep and bear arms. The verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial is a recognition of those rights."

"He's an idiot," Richards told Insider. "I don't have to expand on that because it speaks for itself."

Rav Shlomo Fisher - Halachic authority of public acceptance by the masses

The following is a very fascinating and provocative essay by Rav Shomo Fisher explaining the authority of something accepted by the masses - even just as behavior without explicit acceptance. [It is 8 pages long  - this is just the first page.] It is  in his Beis Yishai (chapter 15). In brief he is explaining that halachic authority and creativity can arise from the actions of the masses and not just from the Torah or rabbis. The consequences of this thesis are very significant

-----------------------

   Authority Derived From Acceptance of Masses by Rav Fisher

Marc B. Shapiro – Forgery and the Halakhic Process

 https://seforimblog.com/2007/08/marc-b-shapiro-forgery-and-halakhic-2/

  In The Limits of Orthodox Theology I quoted the following comment of R. Bezalel Naor, who was quoting his teacher, the Gaon R. Shlomo Fisher of Jerusalem: “The truth, known to Torah scholars, is that Maimonides’ formulation of the tenets of Jewish belief is far from universally accepted.” For those who don’t know, R. Fisher is one of the gedolim of our time, and you can see many of his shiurim on yeshiva.org.il. Many of these shiurim focus on Talmud (and he has published the great rabbinic work, Beit Yishai), but R. Fisher is also the only one of our gedolim who is an expert in Jewish philosophy. This explains why his Derashot Beit Yishai are very different than other collections of derashot. Professor Zev Harvey told me that from R. Fisher’s edition of Crescas’ Or ha-Shem, it is clear that he used Wolfson’s Hebrew text found in Crescas’ Critique of Aristotle.[1]

 Someone I know currently attends R. Fisher’s weekly shiur on Avnei Miluim, the last half-hour of which is devoted to issues of hashkafah. Interestingly enough, he reported to me that a few weeks ago R. Fisher declared that he believes the Rambam abandoned his system of 13 Principles, the proof being that they are never mentioned as a unit in the Mishneh Torah.[2] In my book, I noted that R. Shlomo Goren held the same view. R. Goren also makes another interesting point, that while in the Commentary on the Mishnah Maimonides requires one to actually believe in certain principles, in the Mishneh Torah he only requires you not to deny any principles. One who has never heard of a principle obviously does not believe in it, which makes him a heretic according to the Commentary on the Mishnah. But according to the Mishneh Torah, since this person does not actually deny the principle, he is not regarded as a heretic.

Getting back to R. Moshe, as is well known, he ruled that the Commentary of R. Yehudah he-Hasid was a forgery, as he could not imagine that a rishon would acknowledge that there were some post-Mosaic passages in the Torah.[3] Only after my book appeared did Rabbi Naor tell me that the comment I quoted above in the name of R. Fisher was stated precisely with reference to R. Moshe’s positon on this issue. After R. Moshe banned R. Yehudah he-Hasid’s Commentary, R. Fisher commented that R. Moshe assumes that R. Yehudah he-Hasid has to accept the Rambam’s Principles, but in truth there were many disagreements with the Rambam, and R. Yehudah he-Hasid’s position on Mosaic authorship is one of them.

Tucker Carlson Delighted as Jonah Golberg, Stephen Hayes Quit Fox—'Viewers Will be Happy'

 https://www.newsweek.com/tucker-carlson-delighted-jonah-golberg-stephen-hayes-quit-fox-news-1651776

Goldberg and Hayes confirmed in a Sunday post on their conservative online magazine, The Dispatch, that they had left Fox News over "irresponsible" voices at the network.

In a joint statement, the pair said: "Fox News still does real reporting, and there are still responsible conservatives providing valuable opinion and analysis. But the voices of the responsible are being drowned out by the irresponsible.

"A case in point: Patriot Purge, a three-part series hosted by Tucker Carlson. The special, which ran on Fox's subscription streaming service earlier this month and was promoted on Fox News, is presented in the style of an expose, a hard-hitting piece of investigative journalism.

Anti-vaxxer nonsense!

 DR. SHERRI TENPENNY: WHY IS HYDROGEL, SPIKE PROTEINS, GRAPHENE OXIDE... INSIDE THE C-19 KILL SHOTS?

DR. JUDY MIKOVITS AND DR. MIKKI WILLIS IN A RARE DUAL INTERVIEW
Why are they adding this to the child vaccines? It causes Cancer!

Dr. Robert O. Young on shocking results of the vaccine contents
Over the past two and a half decades, Robert O. Young has been widely recognized as one of the top research and clinical scientists in the World. Throughout his career, his research has been focused at the cellular level. Having a specialty in cellular nutrition, biochemistry and microbiology, Dr. Young has devoted his life to researching the true causes of "disease," subsequently developing "The New Biology™" to help people balance their life.

In 1994, Dr. Young discovered the biological transformation of red blood cells into bacteria and bacteria to red blood cells. He has since documented several such transformations.

DR. ROBERT YOUNG: IMMENSE HARM FROM CRYSTALLIZING BLOOD CELLS DUE TO GRAPHENE POISONING FROM THE JAB

BREAKING: Immense Harm from Crystallizing Blood Cells due to Graphene Poisoning from the jab

In breaking news, Dr. Young addresses the call for information from a Dutch pathologist witnessing blood coagulation (and micro-bleed skin discoloration called peticchiae) in high numbers of deceased, post-vaccine, and explains this is the immense harm being caused by the Nano Graphene and Iron Oxide poisoning (now found to be contained in all 4 major vaccines—Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson) which is coagulating red blood cells extremely and causing a crystallizing of the blood cells. Nano Graphene inside the cells is also making people extremely electrically conductive and paramagnetic, while opening them up to remote-access manipulation from wireless/5G radiation by linking them up to cell towers and supercomputing AI.
PROF. DOLORES CAHILL epidemiologist AND DR. ANNE MCCLOSKEY - SOME IMPORTANT QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER 14 Min.

BROTHER ALEXIS BUGNOLO (FROM ROME) - THE ONLY SOLUTION TO FIGHT THE GREAT RESET

DR AMANDHA VOLLMER B.SC. ND SHOWS US THE ATTITUDE NEEDED

KAREN KINGSTON: COVID-19 THE DISEASE OF A CORRUPT GOVERNMENT AND MEDICAL SYSTEM

Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan ztl with Dr. Russell Barber complete

Rabbi Kaplan

 https://mishpacha.com/rabbi-kaplan/

  For all his brilliance, Rabbi Kaplan’s focus was inspiring teenagers. It was in this transition from responsibility to accountability, from child to adult, that he saw potential for resonant ideas. A young adult, many point out, is called na’ar in the Torah, which derives from the letters ayin-reish, meaning “awake.” Teenagers are awake to causes, ideals, and values that are often replaced by the pragmatism of our adult years. Perhaps it is we who have fallen asleep.

A terrorist shatters all the stereotypes about terrorists

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/317340

Shkhaydem and his family lived in the northeastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat. Classified as a “refugee camp,” Shuafat is adjacent to two Jewish neighborhoods, Pisgat Ze’ev and French Hill. Its residents take the same light rail line as the residents of those cities. In other words, the Shkhaydems had plenty of opportunities for peaceful interaction with Israeli Jews.

Shkhaydem was not some uneducated street thug. He has been described in news reports as “an Islamic scholar.” He was a well-known preacher in Jerusalem mosques, including the al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount. He was a teacher at the Rashidiya Secondary School, in Jerusalem which is in the municipial school system, but teaches the PA curriculum. He was “working on his PhD,” according to Shibli Sweiti, the terrorist’s uncle.

 The main cause of terrorism is ideology, not poverty. That may be hard for some Americans to comprehend because it’s so different from our own experience. Most Americans are not ideological. American culture doesn’t accept political violence. The American government doesn’t promote the use of violence. And the religions that most Americans embrace do not espouse violence.

המשטרה על ראש העיר החשוד: "הוא היה במעמד הרצח"

 https://www.kikar.co.il/405962.html

במהלך הדיון בבקשת המשטרה להארכת מעצר לראש העיר החשוד במעורבות ברצח אבי אדרי סיפר נציג המשטרה כי החשד שהיה במעמד הרצח; ראש העיר הכחיש הכל; ומתי עלה שמו בתיק?

Knesset confrontation: 'Abbas, condemn Jerusalem attack'

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/317379

 A confrontation took place in the Knesset plenum Monday evening between Religious Zionism party chairman Bezalel Smotrich and United Arab List (Ra'am) chairman Mansour Abbas.

In his speech, Smotrich addressed Abbas, who chaired the session as Deputy Knesset Speaker, and demanded that he condemn the deadly shooting attack by a Hamas terrorist in Jerusalem yesterday.

The Ra'am party condemned the attack on Sunday, but only in Hebrew, due to concerns over potential criticism from the Arab public should they issue a condemnation in Arabic as well.

No, Rabbi Cardozo, the Torah is Not Flawed

 https://cross-currents.com/2016/10/30/no-rabbi-cardozo-the-torah-is-not-flawed/

I have friends who were profoundly impacted by Rabbi Cardozo in his early days as a master lecturer in hashkafah (Jewish philosophy) at a famous Jerusalem yeshiva. I think that all of us one way or another benefited from Rabbi Cardozo’s early writings, as an expositor par excellence of authentic Torah perspectives, using scholarly academic tools to reach the minds of those who otherwise would not appreciate the material. We are quite saddened by Rabbi Cardozo’s departure from this model and his embarkation on a path of subverting Torah teachings and Torah authority. We long for the previous Rabbi Cardozo to reemerge and again spread the light of genuine Torah wisdom.

Bodies pile up outside hospital morgue as Romania struggles with fourth wave of Covid

 https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/22/europe/romania-covid-19-vaccine-skepticism-intl-cmd/index.html

 Romania has one of Europe's lowest vaccination rates.

Just under 36% of the population has been vaccinated, even though the country's vaccination campaign got off to a good start last December.

Medical workers and officials attribute this low vaccination rate to a variety of factors, including suspicion of the authorities, deeply held religious beliefs, and a flood of misinformation surging through social media. 

 

"Look at the reality," said Col. Dr. Valeriu Gheorghita, an army doctor who runs the national vaccination campaign. "We have our intensive care units full of patients. We have lots of new cases. We have, unfortunately, hundreds of deaths every day. So this is the reality. And more than 90% of patients who died were unvaccinated."