The Resurrection of the Dead Isn't Just a Future Event — It's Happening Now • In Light of Chassidus

00:00 It is the custom of the Jewish people that after the festivals, after Pesach, on the Shabbosos between Pesach and Shavuos, we study Pirkei Avos on Shabbos afternoon, after Minchah. The custom is to study one chapter each Shabbos, continuing until Shavuos. Some have the custom to continue beyond Shavuos, throughout the summer Shabbosos until Rosh Hashanah. The Alter Rebbe also brings this in his siddur, and this is the custom in Chabad and in many communities: we recite Pirkei Avos not only on the six Shabbosos between Pesach and Shavuos, but continue afterward, repeating it again and again until Rosh Hashanah. There are many reasons for this. One of the main reasons brought in the sefarim is that it serves as preparation for the Giving of the Torah. If we say the custom continues until Shavuos, it is because the period between Pesach and Shavuos is a time of preparation to receive the Torah. It is the time of Sefiras HaOmer, when every day we prepare and count the days, as the Midrash explains. There is a well-known Midrash cited by the early commentators: the days of Sefiras HaOmer are when Jews prepare to receive the Torah. That is how it was the first time, and that is how it is every year. During these days, a Jew prepares to receive the Torah, so studying Pirkei Avos is a form of preparation. It teaches us the order in which the Torah was received, how it was transmitted through the generations: “Moshe received the Torah at Sinai and passed it on to Yehoshua.” The Torah passed from generation to generation until it reached the Tannaim of the Mishnah, who taught us about character traits—how to refine ourselves and correct our behavior, our traits and our conduct, and be ready to receive the Torah. Other sefarim offer another explanation, one that also connects the custom to the entire summer: after Pesach, summer begins, nature blossoms, and the physical world flourishes. It is also a time when people sometimes take time

02:22 off for vacations and the like. So the physical world can draw a person in, making him more absorbed in and inclined to pursue material things. By studying Pirkei Avos during these days, a person gains the strength to overcome the impulses that can grow stronger at this time, to master his yetzer and conduct himself with the good character traits our Sages taught us. That, essentially, is what Pirkei Avos is all about. Now, with Hashem’s help, we will try in the coming weeks to study a mishnah from Pirkei Avos each week. The Rebbe also spoke very strongly about this, especially in the later period. The Rebbe said that when we are living through such important days, days of preparation for the Geulah—when we see the world moving at a dizzying pace toward the time of the Geulah, and can already sense the approaching footsteps of the Geulah, the footsteps of Moshiach—it is all the more important to find the power of Geulah in everything we do. So the Rebbe spoke about studying Pirkei Avos on these Shabbosos, and making an effort to examine at least one mishnah more deeply, learn lessons from it, and draw from it a path in serving Hashem in our days, especially as we prepare for the Geulah. Today we will focus on the first mishnah. It is the Jewish custom that before beginning each chapter of Pirkei Avos, we always preface it with the mishnah: “All Israel have a share in the World to Come.” This mishnah is not part of Pirkei Avos. It is actually in Tractate Sanhedrin. There is a chapter in Tractate Sanhedrin, chapter ten, called the chapter of “All Israel.” It is a wonderful chapter that also discusses many subjects connected with the Geulah. The Gemara in Tractate Sanhedrin—this is well known—has a chapter called Chelek, with entire pages discussing all sorts of important things we need

04:41 to know for the footsteps of Moshiach, the end of exile. It also contains wonderful teachings about the deeper meaning of the Geulah and the state of the world in the days of the Geulah—truly remarkable teachings—and about how a Jew should prepare for the Geulah. All of this is found in that chapter of Tractate Sanhedrin. And for some reason, it is the custom throughout the Jewish people to study this mishnah before we study Pirkei Avos. That is what we will discuss today. What, essentially, is the message of this mishnah? When you read it—“All Israel have a share in the World to Come”—it is a wonderful, encouraging, strengthening message: the entire Jewish people have a share in the World to Come. As it says, “And your people are all righteous; they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, in which to take pride.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu says and testifies about every single Jew, “And your people are all righteous; they shall inherit the land forever.” They will inherit the World to Come. Why will they inherit the land? Because they are “the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, in which to take pride.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu takes pride in the Jewish people. Wonderful! But of course, this raises a few simple questions. The biggest question is: What does this mishnah actually have to do with Pirkei Avos? Why do we preface our study of Pirkei Avos with it? A second question: What is the message here? Pirkei Avos comes to teach a person how to behave and develop good character traits. In particular, as the Gemara says, Pirkei Avos is called milsa dechassidusa—teachings of exceptional piety. It comes to teach a person not just ordinary conduct, but a special kind of conduct that falls into the category of milsa dechassidusa. Someone who wants to be pious and go beyond the letter of the law has reached a very high level in his service of Hashem, where he is ready to take on such practices of piety. That is the person who comes to Pirkei Avos. Yet before it, we introduce this mishnah. What is the connection? “All Israel have a share in the World to Come”—how is that an introduction to Pirkei Avos, to milsa dechassidusa? What is the message of

06:53 milsa dechassidusa in this mishnah as well? And there are several other questions about this. So, to get to the heart of the matter: of course there are many explanations, wonderful explanations. Today we will discuss an explanation based on the teachings of Chassidus. Part of what I will say today is also a wonderful explanation that I had the privilege of hearing from the Rebbe, who explained beautifully the lesson in serving Hashem that we can learn from this mishnah. But first, let us try to understand what this mishnah has to do with Pirkei Avos. As we said, Pirkei Avos is milsa dechassidusa. So sometimes a person comes to Pirkei Avos and is told that he should study it before the Giving of the Torah, to prepare for the Giving of the Torah, and that Pirkei Avos speaks about being pious. And he asks: Who am I, after all? What are you asking of me? I can barely manage to keep a few mitzvos. I am barely a Jew who is beginning to do what he should, struggling with his yetzer in everyday life just to do what is required. And you are coming to tell me about milsa dechassidusa? You are going to demand special conduct from me? That is not for me. That is for important rabbis and tzaddikim, holy and pure people, exceptional people who have already reached high levels. Pirkei Avos was said for them. “One who wishes to be pious,” as the Gemara says, should study Pirkei Avos. But I am someone who can barely manage to be a Jew, let alone more than that. What connection do I have to Pirkei Avos? That is why we preface it with this mishnah. This mishnah contains an exceptionally beautiful and profound message: “All Israel have a share in the World to Come.” First of all, what does the World to Come mean? As is well known, there is a major disagreement about this between the Rambam and the Ramban: when we say “the World to Come,” what do we mean? In Hilchos Teshuvah, the Rambam says that the World to Come

09:09 That refers to Gan Eden. The Ramban says that the World to Come is the world of resurrection, the Resurrection of the Dead. He wrote an entire book explaining his position. We won’t go into all the explanations now. In this Mishnah, apparently everyone agrees—even the Rambam and the Ramban—that it is speaking about the Resurrection of the Dead. The proof is that later the Mishnah says that someone who does not believe in the Resurrection of the Dead is among those who have no share in the World to Come, because he does not believe in it. In other words, the Mishnah itself tells you that it is speaking here about the Resurrection of the Dead. So “All Israel have a share in the World to Come”—which world does that mean? The world of resurrection. In fact, this is one of the differences between Gan Eden and the world of resurrection. You cannot say that all Israel have a share in Gan Eden. With regard to Gan Eden, we see in books and verses in many places that reaching it requires a particular level; not everyone merits it. “Who may ascend the mountain of Hashem? One with clean hands and a pure heart.” In other words, there are various conditions for being worthy of Gan Eden. But when we come to the Resurrection of the Dead, which is what the Mishnah is discussing here, the Mishnah says: “All Israel have a share in the World to Come.” Every Jew, by virtue of being a Jew, has a connection to the World to Come. But what does it say next? What is the explanation? The Mishnah brings a verse, and it is very interesting to explore its meaning and understand what it is about the world of resurrection. “All Israel have a share in the World to Come.” Why does every Jew, the entire Jewish people, have a share in the world of resurrection? Chassidus explains that the whole subject of the Resurrection of the Dead is connected to the Jewish body. After all, one of the main differences

11:12 between Gan Eden and the world of resurrection is that Gan Eden is primarily for souls. Gan Eden is souls without bodies. For a Jew to enter Gan Eden, he has to leave the body behind. It is a world of souls. That is essentially why the Rambam holds that the World to Come is Gan Eden: he holds that the ultimate reward is for souls without bodies. How could the body receive the ultimate reward? The Rambam cannot accept that the greatest reward would be within a physical, material body. What connection does it have to such things? Gan Eden is a spiritual world. The Resurrection of the Dead, however, takes place in this world, the physical world. Now, according to what we know and what the Ramban says—and as it is written in the books of Kabbalah and accepted in the books of Chassidus—the true reward is at the Resurrection of the Dead, not in Gan Eden. The ultimate reward is in the world of resurrection. The Ramban disagrees with the Rambam and says: On the contrary, it is specifically down here in the physical world that we will receive the greatest reward, the complete reward. As it says, “No eye has seen, O G-d, besides You.” The G-dly revelation that will come in the seventh millennium, after all the periods of the days of Moshiach, when we reach the ultimate reward, will be specifically within the body. Why? This very verse itself answers that. It says, “And your people are all righteous,” and then it says, “A branch of My planting, the work of My hands, in which to take pride.” There are two points here. The first is: “And your people are all righteous.” Every Jew has a measure of righteousness, connected to the performance of mitzvos. Gan Eden is more connected to a spiritual level that not everyone reaches; it requires special conditions. The Resurrection of the Dead is connected to fulfilling mitzvos in the physical world. And we all know that one of the things that was new at the Giving of the Torah—we are now preparing for the Giving of the Torah; the period from Pesach to Shavuos

13:25 is a time of preparation for it—was that the mitzvos are physical. This is explained: Before the Giving of the Torah, there was already Torah. The forefathers studied Torah and so on, but before the Giving of the Torah, Torah and mitzvos were primarily spiritual. The physical aspect was not the point. Using physical things, material things, the physical world, to fulfill a mitzvah was not the main thing; it was secondary. What was new at the Giving of the Torah? Hakadosh Boruch Hu descended upon Mount Sinai and gave us a Torah that is practical. The deed is what matters most: bringing the fulfillment of Hashem’s will into the physical world. Practical mitzvos: physical tzedakah, physical tefillin, physical tzitzis. All the mitzvos are in the physical world. In fact, a person can focus on all the spiritual intentions all day long. If he did not put on tefillin or perform a mitzvah, he has not fulfilled the mitzvah of tefillin, despite all those intentions. He studied the Kabbalah, the mysticism of tefillin. If you did not put on tefillin, you did not fulfill the mitzvah. And the same applies to every mitzvah. The physical deed became the—the—the point. That is what matters most. That is how you make a dwelling place for Hakadosh Boruch Hu: with physical things. That is what was new at the Giving of the Torah. “And your people are all righteous.” Every Jew, whatever level he is on, has mitzvos. This is also what the last Mishnah that we recite at the end of Pirkei Avos each week says: “Hakadosh Boruch Hu wished to grant merit to Israel; therefore He gave them Torah and mitzvos in abundance.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave us so many mitzvos so that no Jew would be without opportunities to fulfill them. Every Jew is, in fact, full of mitzvos. As the Midrash also says, even the sinners of Israel are full of mitzvos like a pomegranate. A Jew, even if he falls into the category of the sinners of Israel, cannot possibly

15:28 be in a situation where he had no opportunities and fulfilled no mitzvos. He helped someone here, helped another Jew, gave tzedakah, did something. You will always have opportunities when you may not even notice that you have fulfilled a mitzvah. And because a Jew is full of mitzvos—“And your people are all righteous”—there is righteousness, there is integrity, there are mitzvos, there is doing, action, deeds. Therefore the body will rise in the Resurrection of the Dead, and there it will receive the reward for its deeds. That is the difference. Why is the Resurrection of the Dead specifically with the body? The World to Come, Gan Eden, is still without bodies, because it is primarily connected to spiritual intentions, Torah study, a person’s spiritual levels; it is connected to the soul. But the Resurrection of the Dead is connected to action, so it will take place specifically in the world of action, the world of doing down here. Even souls that have been above in Gan Eden for thousands of years—Moshe Rabbeinu, the holy forefathers, and all the great figures of our people who lived hundreds or thousands of years ago—will come down here to this world to receive the great reward, because the true reward is specifically connected to the physical world, to the physical body. Then the Mishnah adds another point. That is not enough; it says: Know that there is another point here that is much, much more important. “A branch of My planting, the work of My hands, in which to take pride.” A Jew, in his very essence—both the Jewish soul and the Jewish body—is connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. They are “a branch of My planting, the work of My hands.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu chose the souls of Israel. The soul is literally a part of G-d above. Hakadosh Boruch Hu also chose the Jewish body. The Alter Rebbe says in Tanya: “And You chose us from every nation and tongue.” Choice applies to things that are equal. When things are not equal, the word “choice” does not fit. You speak of choice when you have two equal things and choose one of them. That can only be said of the body. The body

17:36 The physical body of a Jew, which in its physical makeup resembles the bodies of the nations of the world—and Hakadosh Boruch Hu chose them, “You chose us from every people and tongue,” at the time of the Giving of the Torah. Hakadosh Boruch Hu chose not only the souls of the Jewish people; He also chose the body of the Jew. This body is a holy body: “The shoot of My planting, the work of My hands, in which to take pride.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu takes pride not only in a Jew’s soul, but also in a Jew’s body. That is why, in halachah, a Jew’s body has supreme importance—the sanctity of the body. A Jew’s body is a body that Hakadosh Boruch Hu chose. As the Rebbe Rashab once said to his son while looking at his own body: he took his hand and said, “This hand and this body—how precious they are to Hakadosh Boruch Hu.” Look how many mitzvos were given for this body, how much we must value and care for the body. This is connected to safeguarding our physical health, too. That is why the Baal Shem Tov said that serving Hashem should be without self-mortification and fasting. We must not break the body. On the contrary, we must honor the body, because Hakadosh Boruch Hu chose it. When will this become apparent? At the Resurrection of the Dead. “The shoot of My planting, the work of My hands, in which to take pride.” That is why the Resurrection of the Dead is with the body, too. So what does all this tell us as an introduction to Pirkei Avos? When we come to a Jew and say to him: Know that you are a Jew who has all this. “All Israel have a share in the World to Come.” You have a share in the World to Come. You are part of the wondrous choice Hakadosh Boruch Hu made, that your soul and your body will merit to take part in the Resurrection of the Dead, because you are “the work of My hands, in which to take pride.” And if so, you can be a chossid. That is why Pirkei Avos applies to you, too. As we said, a Jew comes and asks: Who am I? And what

19:32 am I, that I can study Pirkei Avos and fulfill what Pirkei Avos asks of me, and become that kind of person? After all, I’m a simple person. You are a Jew about whom it is said: “All Israel have a share in the World to Come, as it is said: ‘And your people are all righteous; they shall inherit the land forever—the shoot of My planting, the work of My hands, in which to take pride.’” So if you are “the shoot of My planting, the work of My hands, in which to take pride,” then you certainly have the ability to refine, elevate, and work with your body, to make your body a holy body. Pirkei Avos was made for you. From every mishnah in Pirkei Avos, you can learn a lesson in becoming a more refined, more sensitive, more elevated person. Milsah dechassidusa—matters of piety—applies to you just as it applies to every Jew, because each and every Jew—“all Israel have a share in the World to Come.” And here I want to add another point that I had the privilege of hearing from the Rebbe. He cited what is written in the name of—the Rebbe was speaking about what is written in the name of the Alter Rebbe. It was said of the Alter Rebbe’s students what the Gemara says of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his students: that even the least among them could bring about the Resurrection of the Dead. The explanation is that the Resurrection of the Dead is not only physical; there is also a Resurrection of the Dead in a spiritual sense. A Jew may have reached a state of spiritual death, G-d forbid. He has fallen from his level in serving Hashem. He has become so distant from the G-dly light that his soul seems to have gone out, with no light left—a state of death in serving Hashem. So we come and tell him: Know that you, too, can come back to life. There is a special power to bring about a resurrection: to approach a Jew and revive him, to instill life in him, to give him a spark of vitality, to restore G-dly light within him. The Rebbe then said at the farbrengen: This was said in the Talmud about Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his students. Later, these things were said about the Baal Shem Tov and his students, about

21:50 the Alter Rebbe and his students, and this is also said about each and every one of us in our generation. A Jew who is connected to the tzaddik, a Jew who has a connection with the Moshe Rabbeinu of the generation, with the tzaddik of the generation, has the power to revive the dead. He has the power to go out into the street, find a Jew who has, G-d forbid, reached a state of spiritual death, and bring about his resurrection—to bring him back to life. This is an important point for each of us. It is really the message of the first mishnah when, after Pesach, we begin studying Pirkei Avos and say: “All Israel have a share in the World to Come.” We are all destined for the Resurrection of the Dead. So even now, when Moshiach has not yet come, there is a resurrection—the Resurrection of the Dead in a spiritual sense. We then go on to say: “Moshe received the Torah from Sinai.” Moshe Rabbeinu is the one to whom Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave the Torah, and he passed it on to Yehoshua, Yehoshua to the elders, then to the prophets and the Men of the Great Assembly, until it reached us. So we are all continuing the golden chain of Torah that Moshe Rabbeinu received from Sinai. And concerning Moshe Rabbeinu, we say that Moshe Rabbeinu did not die. The Gemara in Sotah says: Moshe Rabbeinu did not die. Moshe Rabbeinu is alive, because the Torah is something that cannot end. The Torah is alive. “You who cling to Hashem your G-d are all alive today.” So a Jew has the ability to come back to life, even if there was a period in his life when he was distant, when he felt he no longer had that vitality, that he had lost it. You can return and live anew. And that is the message of the Resurrection of the Dead, both for ourselves and for awakening another Jew, stirring him and bringing him back to life. Especially now, in the final moments of exile, when very soon we will merit to see the Resurrection of the Dead before our very eyes, we should take the messages of

23:53 Pirkei Avos, live them, take them to heart, and make them part of ourselves. In this way, we too can help bring about the Resurrection of the Dead soon. I believe in the coming of Moshiach, and I believe in the Resurrection of the Dead. These are among the thirteen principles of faith, because the Resurrection of the Dead, as the Alter Rebbe explains in Tanya, is the purpose of creation: ultimately, all of existence and all the Torah and mitzvos we fulfill in this world will make the physical world a dwelling place for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. All the souls of the Jewish people will return here, to this world, for eternal life—true life, souls in bodies—to receive the great light, the great reward of the world of resurrection. May we merit to see it before our very eyes, speedily in our days, amen.