| 221 and Paul in his day had nothing to do but to proclaim himself a believer in the resurrection, to obtain a temporary protection from the Pharisees, at least in the time of his difficulty.-ED.
To the EDITOR of the TIMES & SEASONS.
SIR: If you should judge the following remarks interesting your readers, they are at your disposal.
The gospel says "Blindness in part has happened in Israel," &c. The reader of this will perceive how far the apostle was correct in his assertion, The resurrection is one of the important subjects of faith amongst them. The most of them believe it. Every Jew is commanded to rehearse the thirteen articles of faith daily. The last of the thirteen is: "I believe, with a perfect faith, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, at the time when it shall please the Creator, blessed and exalted be his name forever." The following is the opinion of the Rabbies [Rabbis] on the subject:
Rabbi Manasse Ben Israel says in Nishmath Cajim: "we find many proofs of the resurrection in the five Books of Moses and the Prophets. Faith in it is essential and godly. Those who say the resurrection cannot be proven from the law, bar themselves out from the communion of the saints, and deny a particular point of the law. All such are heretics and infidels, and will have no part in the world to come, and be deprived of eternal life."
R. Isaac Aberhaph in his Menorat Hamoor, says: "Who denies the resurrection, or one miracle contained in the law, denies the whole law, and will have no part in the world to come, in Talm Tract Sanhedrin. Those that deny the resurrection, can have no part in it, because it is one of the great properties of God to pay with the same measure wherewith we have measured, and according to every sin we shall be punished." Why is the resurrection not named in the law of Moses? R. Baccay answers: "It is one of the mightiest matters of the law to be very short and brief." Mysterious things, the shorter and more mysterious, the more difficult is the explanation; and you find, generally, short accounts of mysterious things-for instance: in the creation of the world you find but a short account upon the light, while the third day has a full description. Even so with the waters above to the waters beneath. Furthermore, all promises wherewith Moses encourages the seed of Adam diligently to keep the commandments, are bodily, that man might more easily believe his words, and press forward on their own account to reach a higher state of felicity. This makes him to be so short on the subject. Would he have attempted at that time to impress this truth on their dark minds, they would not have believed him; because it was a future and distant subject, and what proofs could he have given them? A wise and diligent searcher of the Bible will find out the sacred hints of it by degrees, and then he will search more diligently, which he would not have done if he had seen it all at once. At the time when the dead shall rise, the Rabbies [Rabbis] give the following: R. Isaac Abarbanel says, on Isaiah 18:3: "The prophet would gather the dispersed Jews at the last day, and at the same time performing the wonderful work of the resurrection from the dead, then all those dwelling upon the earth will acknowledge the high and lofty one." R. D. Kimchi is of the same opinion. He says, on Isaiah 66:5: "You that are in trouble about the word of the Lord, when it will come at last, your God in whom you trust, will fulfil [fulfill] unto you his promises." Rabbi Naphtali in Emakhamelek puts the resurrection forty years after the gathering together of the Jews. The proofs he takes from Psalms 147:2, 3. The Jalkut Kodosh and Medrash Neelam agrees with him, from which the Abarbanel concludes that the redemption of the Jews must undoubtedly be in the year of the world 5294-A. D., 1534, and the resurrection 5335-A. D., 1575. R. Bacay takes a different view. From Deuteronomy 30:15, he says: "If one compares this place, which begins with the first verse and ends with the tenth, and which, undoubtedly, speaks on the redemption, it will appear from this that the resurrection will be 206 years after the redemption-because the Hebrew has 206 in number. In the Song of Solomon it is said: "Unto thee, Solomon, are due one thousand" but unto the keepers of his fruit two hundred. Understand 206-he would shew [show] thee with it that the resurrection from the dead would be 206 years after Spiritual Solomon, viz: Messiah which would spring from him: you must understand this verse, then, in the following manner: When Solomon and the Messiah, which is the Prince of Peace, will make their appearance (after their allowed time, 1,000 years,) then shall the keepers of his fruits, (those that kept his commandments,) 206 years afterwards, be raised from the dead. Who shall perform the resurrection? In Aphkat Rackel it is said: "All Israel, young and old, must believe that in future the most holy God will quicken the dead, call them forth out of the dust, and unite their souls to their bodies. R. Joseph Albo says: "Because this is so supernatural, the men of the large congregation, Ezra and his collego [college], attribute it only to the power of God, and for this reason, in compiling the prayer, have said this blessing: 'Thou art powerful to raise the dead.'
R. Jacanan counts three keys the Lord kept wherewith he would trust no messenger, viz:
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