Joshua's Altar and the Iron Forbidden to Touch Its Stones

"Then Joshua built an altar" (Joshua 8:30). It was taught, Rabbi says: from here is a hint to the resurrection of the dead from the Torah. It does not say "built" but "will build" [yivneh]. Similarly you say, "Then Moses will sing" (Exodus 15:1) — it does not say "sang" but "will sing"; from here is a refutation of those who say there is no resurrection of the dead from the Torah. "Whole stones" (Deuteronomy 27:6) — because the altar was created to lengthen a person's days and iron shortens a person's days, it is not right that what shortens should be lifted over what lengthens. And further, because the altar makes peace between Israel and their Father in Heaven. And the matter is an argument from the lesser to the greater: if of stones, which do not see and do not hear and do not speak, the Torah said "you shall not lift iron over them" because they make peace between Israel and their Father in Heaven, then one who makes peace between a man and his fellow, between husband and wife, between family and family, between city and city, between nation and nation — how much more so shall no calamity come upon him.