Thus, it is clear that the eternality of the soul does not at all depend on the knowledge that the soul acquires, as the philosophers had suggested. Rather, the soul’s eternality is in its very essence – its essential desire to give. Knowledge that the soul acquires is its reward, not its essence.
RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD This also answers the fifth inquiry. We explained that the body is defective, to the point that a soul cannot reach its complete purity until the body has decomposed. If so, why is the body resurrected? Moreover, the Sages say that the dead will be resurrected with their blemishes, so that others will not say that they are different people.