How the Blind and Lame Rise Then Are Healed in the World to Come

(Genesis 46:28:) NOW HE SENT JUDAH AHEAD OF HIM TO JOSEPH. This is what Scripture says (Isaiah 65:25): "THE WOLF AND THE LAMB SHALL FEED AS ONE, etc." Come and see: everything that the Holy One, blessed be He, struck in this world is healed in the World to Come. The blind are healed, as it is said (Isaiah 35:5): "THEN THE EYES OF THE BLIND SHALL BE OPENED." And the lame are healed, as it is said (ibid. v. 6): "THEN SHALL THE LAME LEAP LIKE A HART." And the dumb are healed, as it is said (ibid.): "AND THE TONGUE OF THE DUMB SHALL SING FOR JOY." All are healed. But just as a person goes, so he comes back: he goes blind and comes back blind, he goes deaf and comes back deaf, he goes lame and comes back lame, he goes dumb and comes back dumb. Just as he goes clothed, so he comes back clothed, as it is said (Job 38:14): "IT IS CHANGED LIKE CLAY UNDER A SEAL, AND THEY STAND FORTH AS A GARMENT." From whom do you learn this? From Samuel. When Saul brought him up, what did he say to the woman? He said to her, "What do you see?" "AND SHE SAID: AN OLD MAN IS COMING UP, AND HE IS WRAPPED IN A ROBE" (1 Samuel 28:14)—for so he had been clothed, as it is said (1 Samuel 2:19): "AND HIS MOTHER WOULD MAKE HIM A LITTLE ROBE." And why, when a person goes, does he come back in the same way? So that the wicked of the world will not say: After they died, the Holy One, blessed be He, healed them and afterward brought them back—it would seem these are not the same ones but others. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: If so, let them rise just as they went, and afterward I will heal them, as it is said (Isaiah 43:10): "BEFORE ME NO GOD WAS FORMED." And afterward even the beasts are healed, as it is said (Isaiah 65:25): "THE WOLF AND THE LAMB SHALL FEED AS ONE, etc." But the one who brought a blow upon all is not healed, as it is said (ibid.): "AND DUST SHALL BE THE SERPENT'S FOOD." And why? Because he brought everything down to dust.