4 min read

Body and Soul Stand Trial in the Orchard

A blind man and a lame man steal figs together, then each blames the other. God listens to both excuses and reunites them for judgment.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. Two Guards, One Theft
  2. Antoninus Asked the Question
  3. The King Recreated the Crime
  4. The Promise That the Dead Will Rise

Two Guards, One Theft

A king placed two guards over his finest orchard. One was blind. The other was lame. Alone, neither could steal the fruit, the blind man could not see it to take it, and the lame man could see it but could not reach it.

So the lame man climbed onto the blind man's back, and together they stripped the trees. The figs disappeared. The crime was real. But when the king returned, the guards were ready.

The blind man said: I could not see the figs. I took nothing.

The lame man said: I could not reach the trees. I took nothing.

Each statement was literally true. Neither guard had acted alone. The king did not argue with either defense on its own terms. He put the lame man on the blind man's back and judged them together.

Antoninus Asked the Question

Antoninus had come to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi with what he thought was a logical escape. At the final judgment, he pointed out, the body and soul could each avoid responsibility. The body could argue that since the soul departed, the body lay in the grave like a stone and sinned nothing. The soul could argue that since it left the body, it flew through the air like a bird and sinned nothing. If both arguments hold, who is judged?

Rabbi Yehuda told him the orchard parable. Then he applied it directly. God brings the soul and restores it to the body. He judges them together. Not because either argument is wrong on its technical merits, but because the arguments miss what judgment is for. Judgment is not about isolating the least culpable component of a life. It is about the whole life that was lived, and that life was lived by body and soul together, every act performed through their collaboration.

The King Recreated the Crime

What the king does in the parable is not merely refuse to be fooled. He recreates the conditions of the crime. He places the lame man back on the blind man's back. The two guards become, again, the unit that committed the theft. Only then does judgment happen.

This is precise. A crime committed by combination cannot be judged by division. To judge the blind man alone or the lame man alone would be to judge a fiction, some portion of what happened, not the thing itself. The king understands that justice requires the restoration of the actual unit that acted.

God does the same at resurrection. The soul descends back into the body it inhabited. They stand together at trial as they lived together in life. The philosophical escape that Antoninus proposed depends on separating what was never truly separate. God's judgment closes the escape by closing the separation.

The Promise That the Dead Will Rise

Behind the parable and the legal argument is a conviction that the dead will rise in their bodies. Not as floating souls, not as pure light, but as recognizable, embodied persons who were and who will again be. The garments they wore are theirs. The faces they carried through life are theirs. The judgment falls on what they actually were.

This is the promise that gives the parable its weight. If judgment were only abstract or spiritual, the orchard story would be clever but not necessary. It becomes necessary because the tradition insists on physical resurrection, on the idea that the body was never merely a vehicle for the soul but its partner in the act of living.

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From the tradition

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Sanhedrin 91bTalmud Bavli, Sanhedrin

fine first fruits of a fig tree, and he stationed two guards in the orchard, one lame, who was unable to walk, and one blind. Neither was capable of reaching the fruit on the trees in the orchard without the assistance of the other. The lame person said to the blind person: I see fine first fruits of a fig tree in the orchard; come and place me upon your shoulders. I will guide you to the tree, and we will bring the figs to eat them.

The lame person rode upon the shoulders of the blind person and they brought the figs and ate them. Sometime later the owner of the orchard came to the orchard. He said to the guards: The fine first fruits of a fig tree that were in the orchard, where are they? The lame person said: Do I have any legs with which I would be able to walk and take the figs?

The blind person said: Do I have any eyes with which I would be able to see the way to the figs? What did the owner of the orchard do? He placed the lame person upon the shoulders of the blind person just as they did when they stole the figs, and he judged them as one. So too, the Holy One, Blessed be He, brings the soul on the day of judgment and casts it back into the body, as they were when they sinned, and He judges them as one, as it is stated: “He calls to the heavens above and to the earth that He may judge His people” (Psalms 50:4).

“He calls to the heavens above”; this is the soul, which is heavenly. “And to the earth that He may judge His people”; this is the body, which is earthly. The Gemara relates another exchange. Antoninos said to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi: For what reason does the sun emerge in the east and set in the west?

Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said to him: If it were the reverse, you would have also said that to me, as the sun must emerge from one direction and set in the other. Antoninos said to him: This is what I am saying to you: For what reason does the sun set in the west and not occasionally deviate and set elsewhere? Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said to him: The sun always sets in the west in order to greet its Creator, as it is stated: “And the hosts of heaven worship You” (Nehemiah 9:6).

Setting is a form of worship; it is as though the sun is bowing to God. The Divine Presence rests in the west, as is evident from the fact that the Holy of Holies in the Temple, in which the Ark, the resting place of the Divine Presence, is located in the west. Antoninos said to him: If so, let the sun come until the midpoint of the sky, set slightly and greet its Creator, and return and enter its place of origin in the east and set there.

Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi answered him: The sun sets in the west due to workers and due to travelers, as, if the sun did not proceed from east to west with the light of day gradually waning, they would not know that it is time to return home or to find an inn. And Antoninos said to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi: From when is the soul placed in a person? Is it from the moment of conception or from the moment of the formation of the embryo, forty days after conception?

Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said to him: It is from the moment of the formation of the embryo. Antoninos said to him: That is inconceivable. Is it possible that a piece of meat could stand for even three days without salt as a preservative and would not rot? The embryo could not exist for forty days without a soul.

Rather, the soul is placed in man from the moment of conception. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said: Antoninos taught me this matter, and there is a verse that supports him, as it is stated: “And Your Providence [pekudatekha] has preserved my spirit” (Job 10:12) indicating that it is from the moment of conception [pekida] that the soul is preserved within a person. And Antoninos said to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi: From when does the evil inclination dominate a person?

Is it from the moment of the formation of the embryo or from the moment of emergence from the womb? Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said to him: It is from the moment of the formation of the embryo. Antoninos said to him: If so, the evil inclination would cause the fetus to kick his mother’s innards and emerge from the womb. Rather, the evil inclination dominates a person from the moment of emergence from the womb.

Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said: Antoninos taught me this matter, and there is a verse that supports him, as it is stated: “Sin crouches at the entrance” (Genesis 4:7), indicating that it is from the moment of birth, when the newborn emerges from the entrance of his mother’s womb, that the evil inclination lurks. § Reish Lakish raises a contradiction between two verses written with regard to the resurrection of the dead.

It is written: “I will bring them from the north country and gather them from the ends of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and the woman giving birth together” (Jeremiah 31:7), indicating that at the end of days there will still be people with physical defects. And it is written: “Then shall the lame man leap as a deer and the tongue of the mute sing; for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert” (Isaiah 35:6), indicating that at the end of days there will be no people with physical defects.

How so? When resurrected, the dead will arise still afflicted with their defects, and they will then be healed. Ulla raises a contradiction. It is written: “He will swallow death forever; and the Lord God will wipe tears from all faces” (Isaiah 25:8), indicating that death will no longer exist at the end of days.

And it is written: “There shall be no more an infant a few days old then…for the youngest shall die one hundred years old” (Isaiah 65:20). The Gemara answers that this contradiction is not difficult. The verse here, in Isaiah chapter 25, is written with regard to the Jewish people, who will live forever after resurrection; the verse there, in Isaiah chapter 65, is written with regard to gentiles, who will ultimately die after an extremely long life.

The Gemara asks: And what do gentiles seek, i.e., why will they merit to live, in that era? The Gemara answers that the verse is referring to those gentiles about whom it is written: “And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and aliens shall be your plowmen and vinedressers” (Isaiah 61:5). Rav Ḥisda raises a contradiction. It is written: “Then the moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts will reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before His elders shall be His glory” (Isaiah 24:23), indicating that the sun and the moon will no longer shine at the end of days.

And it is written: “And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days” (Isaiah 30:26), indicating that the sun and the moon will exist then and they will shine more brightly. The Gemara answers that this is not difficult. The verse here, in Isaiah chapter 30, is written with regard to the days of the Messiah, when the sun and moon will shine more brightly; the verse there, in Isaiah chapter 24, is written with regard to the World-to-Come, when the only light will be the light of God.

The Gemara asks: And according to Shmuel, who says: The difference between this world and the messianic era is only subjugation of the exiles, as during that era the Jewish people will be freed from that subjugation, how is the contradiction resolved? The Gemara answers that even according to Shmuel this contradiction is not difficult. The verse here, in Isaiah chapter 30, is written with regard to the light in the camp of the righteous; the verse there, in Isaiah chapter 24, the verse is written with regard to the camp of the Divine Presence, when the only light will be the light of God.

Rava raises a contradiction. It is written: “I will kill and I will bring to life” (Deuteronomy 32:39), indicating that God is capable of reviving the dead. And it is written immediately afterward: “I wounded and I will heal,” which indicates that God will only heal the wounded. Rather, it should be understood: The Holy One, Blessed be He, is saying: What I kill, I bring to life, indicating that God revives the dead.

And then what I wounded, I will heal. § The Sages taught in a baraita with regard to the verse: “I will kill and I will bring to life.” One might have thought that it means that there will be death for one person and life for one other person, in the typical manner that the world operates. Therefore, the verse states: “I wounded and I will heal.” Just as wounding and healing take place in one person, so too, death and bringing back to life take place in one person.

From here there is a response to those who say that there is no resurrection of the dead derived from the Torah. It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Meir said: From where is resurrection of the dead derived from the Torah? It is derived from a verse, as it is stated: “Then Moses and the children of Israel will sing this song to the Lord” (Exodus 15:1). It is not stated: Sang, in the verse; rather, the term “they will sing” is stated, indicating that Moses will come back to life and sing the song in the future.

From here it is proved that resurrection of the dead is derived from the Torah. On a similar note, you can say: “Then Joshua will build an altar to the Lord God of Israel on Mount Ebal” (Joshua 8:30). It is not stated: Built, in the verse; rather, the term “will build” is stated. From here, resurrection of the dead is derived from the Torah.

The Gemara challenges: If that is so, then in the verse: “Then Solomon will build an altar for Chemosh the abomination of Moab” (I Kings 11:7), does this also mean that Solomon will build in the future? Rather, the use of the future tense here should be understood differently. Solomon did not build an altar to the idol; rather, the use of the future tense teaches that the verse ascribes him blame as though he built it, since he did not prevent his wives from doing so.

Therefore, no proof for the resurrection of the dead may be cited from this verse. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi says: From where is resurrection of the dead derived from the Torah? It is derived from a verse, as it is stated: “Happy are they who dwell in Your house; they will yet praise You, Selah” (Psalms 84:5). It is not stated: They praised you, in the verse; rather, the term “they will praise you” is stated.

From here, resurrection of the dead is derived from the Torah. And Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi says: Anyone who recites song to God in this world is privileged and recites it in the World-to-Come, as it is stated: “Happy are they who dwell in Your house; they will yet praise You, Selah.” Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba says that Rabbi Yoḥanan says: From where is resurrection of the dead derived from the Torah? It is derived from a verse, as it is stated: “Your watchmen, they raise the voice; together shall they sing, for they shall see eye to eye the Lord returning to Zion” (Isaiah 52:8).

It is not stated: They sang, in the verse; rather, the term “together shall they sing” is stated. From here resurrection of the dead is derived from the Torah. And Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba says that Rabbi Yoḥanan says: All the prophets are all destined to recite song in one voice, as it is stated: “Your watchmen, they raise the voice; together shall they sing.” Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: With regard to anyone who withholds halakha from being studied by the mouth of a student who seeks to study Torah, it is as though he robs him of the inheritance of his ancestors, as it is stated: “Moses commanded us the Torah, an inheritance of the congregation of Jacob” (Deuteronomy 33:4), indicating that the Torah is an inheritance for all of the Jewish people from the six days of Creation.

Rav Ḥana bar Bizna says that Rabbi Shimon Ḥasida says: With regard to anyone who withholds halakha from being studied by the mouth of a student who seeks to study Torah, even fetuses in their mother’s womb curse him, as it is stated: “He who withholds bar,

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Kohelet Rabbah 7:1Kohelet Rabbah

The Rabbis in Kohelet Rabbah delve deep into this verse, unpacking its layers of meaning. Rabbi Pinḥas and Rabbi Ḥilkiya, in the name of Rabbi Simon, pose a crucial question: When does the spirit return to God? Their answer is striking: it's when the dust returns to the earth as it was. What does it mean to return "as it was?" The Rabbis suggest it means returning free of sin, as pure as the day we were born. If we manage that, wonderful! But what if we don't? Well, then, quoting I (Samuel 25:29), "may He cast away the souls of your enemies…" A rather harsh image, isn't it? The idea here is that God will cast away the souls of the sinners.

Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani, drawing on Rabbi Avdimi of Haifa, offers a powerful analogy. Imagine a priest, meticulous about ritual purity, giving a loaf of teruma (a priestly offering) to another priest who isn't so careful. He says, "Look, I am pure, my household is pure, my utensils are pure, and this loaf that I am giving you is pure. If you return it to me in the manner that I gave it to you, fine, but if not, I will burn it in your presence.”

Wow! What a visual.

So too, the Holy One, blessed be He, says to each of us: “Look, I am pure, My abode is pure, My attendants are pure, and the soul that I am placing in you is pure. If you give it to Me as I gave it to you, fine, but if not, I will burn it in your presence" – in Gehenna (hell). A sobering thought.

The text goes on to say that in old age we face these consequences. However, in youth, sin can manifest as physical ailments, like gonorrhea and leprosy – hence Moses' warning in (Leviticus 15:2). The point is, God's punishment can come from within, not just from external forces.

Then, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi shifts gears, offering an alternative interpretation of (Ecclesiastes 12:1-7), usually seen as a warning to remember God before old age. He sees these verses as a call to remember God while various covenants are still intact: the priesthood, the Levites, Jerusalem, the House of David, the Temple, and the people of Israel themselves. He warns of a time "before the evil days come" (Ecclesiastes 12:1) – the days of exile.

He paints a vivid picture: The sun darkening (the kingdom of David), the light fading (the Torah), the moon waning (the Sanhedrin (the supreme rabbinic court)), and the stars dimming (Torah scholars). "And the clouds return after the rain" (Ecclesiastes 12:2) – all the harsh prophecies of Jeremiah coming to pass after the Temple's destruction.

The text continues with a series of evocative images representing the decline and fall of Jerusalem: the trembling guards, the bent men of valor (the priests), the ceasing grinders (the great compilations of tannaitic traditions, like those of Rabbi Akiva), and the darkened windows (the inability to articulate studies clearly during exile).

There’s mention of the doors of Neḥashta of the House of Elnatan, once open to all in need, now shut. Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani likens Torah study to a mill that never stops grinding, day and night.

Rabbi Levi speaks of a Divine Voice calling to Nebuchadnezzar to destroy God's house because His children were disobedient. Nebuchadnezzar, however, also fears the "heights," the King of Kings.

The text details Nebuchadnezzar's divinations before attacking Jerusalem, how only those performed in the name of Jerusalem succeeded. It speaks of the "grasshopper" (Ecclesiastes 12:5), a disdainful reference to Nebuchadnezzar's giant golden image. The haaviyona (caper berry) fails, symbolizing the loss of the patriarchs' merit.

"For the man goes to his eternal home" (Ecclesiastes 12:5) – they were from Babylon, and to Babylon they returned. The mourners circle in the streets, a reference to the exile of Yekhonya. The silver cord is severed (the genealogical chain), the golden skull is shattered (matters of Torah), and the pitcher is smashed at the spring (the transmission of knowledge between master and disciple).

The text emphasizes that "the dust returns to the earth as it was" (Ecclesiastes 12:7) – again, they were from Babylon, and to Babylon they returned. And finally, "the spirit returns to God" – the Divine Spirit. Jeremiah, witnessing the destruction, exile, and departure of the Divine Spirit, laments, "vanity of vanities" (Ecclesiastes 12:8).

So, what do we take away from all this? It's a interplay of ideas, weaving together themes of sin and purity, covenant and exile, destruction and remembrance. Perhaps the most profound message is the call to live a life that allows our spirit to return to God as pure as it was when we received it. A challenging goal, to be sure, but one worth striving for, wouldn't you agree?

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2 Baruch 21-262 Baruch

Seven days without bread. Seven days without water. Seven days without speaking a single word to another human being. Baruch sat in a cave in the Valley of Kidron, sanctifying his soul in silence and starvation. And he felt neither hunger nor thirst. Something was sustaining him that had nothing to do with food.

When the fast ended, he returned to the place where God had spoken. Sunset came. And in the dying light, Baruch opened his mouth and poured out one of the most extraordinary prayers in all of ancient Jewish literature.

He began by acknowledging God's absolute sovereignty over creation, the One who fixed the firmament by a word, who commands the air with a nod, who numbers each drop of rain. "Armies innumerable stand before You and minister in their orders quietly at Your nod." But then the prayer turned. From praise to plea. From awe to anguish.

"For in a little time are we born, and in a little time do we return. But with You, hours are as a time, and days as generations. Be not wroth with man, for he is nothing. We did not say to our parents, 'Beget us.' Nor did we send word to Sheol saying, 'Receive us.' What is our strength, that we should bear Your wrath?"

The prayer was simple and devastating. God heard it. And He responded. But not with the comfort Baruch wanted.

"You have prayed simply, O Baruch, and all your words have been heard. But My judgment exacts its own, and My law exacts its rights." God announced that the time of affliction was coming, swift, vehement, turbulent. In those days, all inhabitants of the earth would turn against one another. The wise would be few. Even those who understood would remain silent. Honor would become shame. Strength would become contempt. Beauty would become ugliness. Armies would rise to shed blood, and in the end, they would perish together.

Baruch cried out to Adam: "What have you done to all those born from you? What will be said to Eve, who hearkened to the serpent? For all this multitude is going to corruption."

Then came the question that burned through everything, the question Baruch needed answered before he could go on. He asked God directly: "In what shape will those who live in Your day exist? What will happen to their bodies?"

God's answer unveiled the mechanics of resurrection itself. The earth, He said, would restore the dead exactly as it received them, no change in form. So that the living could recognize those who had returned. Recognition first. Then judgment.

After that appointed day, everything would transform. The wicked would become worse than they already were, their very appearance would twist into something horrifying as torment took hold. But the righteous? Their splendor would be glorified. The form of their faces would turn into pure light. They would be made like angels. Equal to the stars. They would be changed into every form they desired, "from beauty into loveliness, and from light into the splendor of glory."

The extents of Paradise would be spread before them. They would see the majesty of the living creatures beneath God's throne, and the armies of angels held fast by His word, waiting for their moment. And the righteous would surpass even the angels in excellency.

Time would no longer age them. The heights of that world would be their dwelling. And the burden of anguish they had carried through this life would be laid down forever.

Baruch, hearing all this, found his voice changed from lament to resolution: "Rejoice in the suffering you now endure. Make ready your soul for what is reserved for you. Prepare for the reward that is laid up."

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Exempla of the Rabbis, No. 18Exempla of the Rabbis (Gaster, 1924)

Queen Cleopatra, not the famous Egyptian, but a later queen by the same name, posed a question to Rabbi Meir that had puzzled both scholars and common people: "When the dead rise at the resurrection, will they rise naked or clothed?"

It was not an idle question. If the resurrection was real. And the sages taught that it was as certain as tomorrow's sunrise, then the details mattered. Would the righteous stand before God in shame, exposed like newborns? Or would they rise with dignity, dressed for the occasion?

Rabbi Meir answered from the natural world. "Consider a grain of wheat," he said. "When you bury it in the earth, it is naked, a bare seed, stripped of all covering. But when it sprouts and rises from the ground, it comes forth dressed in multiple layers: husk, leaf, stalk, and ear. If a naked seed rises clothed, how much more will the righteous, who are buried in their shrouds, rise fully dressed?"

The argument moved from the lesser to the greater, a classic form of rabbinic reasoning. If God clothes a grain of wheat that was buried naked, He will certainly clothe a human being who was buried dressed. The dead will not rise in shame. They will rise in the very garments in which they were buried, which is why Jewish burial shrouds are treated with such reverence.

The Talmud (Sanhedrin 90b) preserves this teaching as foundational. The resurrection is not a metaphor. It is as real as a wheat field in spring. And just as beautiful. The dead will rise, and they will be clothed, and they will stand before God in dignity. The seed proves it.

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Jewish Encyclopedia, "Resurrection" (1906)Jewish Encyclopedia (1901-1906)

The earliest Hebrews believed the dead descended into Sheol, a colorless underworld where all souls, righteous and wicked alike, lingered in shadow (Isaiah 14:15). Only the rarest figures escaped: Enoch, who walked with God and vanished, and Elijah, who rode a chariot of fire into heaven. For everyone else, death was final.

Then something shifted. In the Book of Job, a longing for resurrection breaks through: "If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my service I would wait, till my renewal should come" (Job 14:13). And later, more boldly: "I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth" (Job 19:25). A crack in the wall of Sheol.

The prophet Isaiah widened that crack: "Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing" (Isaiah 26:19). And Daniel, writing during the persecutions of the second century BCE, described the final awakening: "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt" (Daniel 12:1). For the first time, resurrection applied to both righteous and wicked.

The Pharisees made resurrection a pillar of their theology. The Amidah prayer, recited three times daily, blesses God as the one "who revives the dead." The Talmud declared that anyone who denies the resurrection of the dead forfeits their share in the World to Come. Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones, scattered skeletons reassembling, reclothed in flesh, flooded with breath (Ezekiel 37:1), became the defining image of this hope.

The rabbis debated every detail. Would the dead rise clothed or naked? Rabbi Meir argued they would rise in their burial shrouds, like a grain of wheat that enters the earth naked and sprouts in many garments. Would the body be whole or broken? Whole. God who forms the infant from nothing can certainly rebuild what once existed. Would the righteous rise first? Yes. And in the Land of Israel, where the resurrection would begin. Those buried abroad would have to roll through underground tunnels to reach the Holy Land before they could live again.

The mechanism seemed to mirror sleep. Just as the soul departs the body each night and returns at waking, so at the great reawakening, souls would return to "those who sleep in the dust." Death was not an ending but a longer night, and the resurrection was the morning.

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Vayikra Rabbah 4:5Vayikra Rabbah

It all starts with the verse, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: When a person [nefesh (the vital soul)] will sin…” (Leviticus 4:2). That word, nefesh, is usually translated as "soul" or "person". But Rabbi Yishmael, in this Vayikra Rabbah passage, takes us on a detour, a parable that’s both funny and deeply unsettling.

A king with a beautiful orchard, filled with the finest first fruits. To protect this precious bounty, he hires two guards: one disabled and one blind. He instructs them, “Carefully guard these fine first fruits!” Of course not!

As the story goes, the disabled guard, seeing the delicious fruit, whispers to the blind one, "I see fine first fruits in the orchard!" The blind guard replies, "Bring them here, and we shall eat!" The disabled guard protests, "I can’t walk!" And the blind guard retorts, "And I can’t see!" So, they come up with a solution. The disabled guard climbs onto the blind guard's shoulders, and together, they feast on the forbidden fruit. Then, they return to their posts, pretending nothing happened.

Later, the king arrives, expecting to see his prize-winning produce. "Where are the fine first fruits?" he asks. The blind guard, feigning innocence, says, "My lord, the king, how could I know? I'm blind!" The disabled guard chimes in, "My lord, the king, how could I have taken them? I can't even walk!"

But this king isn't a fool. He’s clever. He makes the disabled man ride on the blind man's back. "This," he declares, "is what you did! Together, you stole and ate the first fruits!"

So, what's this all about? Rabbi Yishmael uses this parable to illustrate a profound point about the soul and the body. In the future – meaning, at the time of judgment – God will ask the soul, "Why did you sin before Me?" And the soul, ever the innocent bystander, will say, "Master of the universe, I didn't sin! It was the body that sinned. Since I left it, I'm like a pure bird flying in the air. How could I have sinned?"

Then, God turns to the body and asks, "Why did you sin before Me?" And the body, equally quick to deflect blame, will say, "Master of the universe, I didn't sin! It was the soul that sinned. Since it departed from me, I'm just a stone cast on the ground. How could I have sinned?"

So, what does the Holy One, blessed be He, do? Just like the clever king, He brings the soul and injects it back into the body, judging them together. As it says in (Psalms 50:4), “He summons the heavens above, and the earth, to judge His people.” The Midrash cleverly interprets the word amo ("His people") as imo, meaning "with it" – God judges the soul with the body.

But the story doesn't end there. Rabbi Ḥiyya offers another analogy, this time involving a priest and his two wives. One wife is the daughter of a priest, and the other is the daughter of an Israelite. The priest gives them terumah dough – that's a portion of the harvest set aside for the priests (it's considered holy). But the dough becomes impure.

The priest demands, "Who made the dough impure?" Each wife blames the other. So, what does the priest do? He excuses the daughter of the Israelite and focuses his blame on the daughter of the priest. She protests, "My lord, the priest, why are you excusing her and blaming me? You gave the dough to both of us!"

He responds, "She's the daughter of an Israelite and isn't accustomed to such sacred things. But you, as the daughter of a priest, should know better. That's why I'm excusing her and blaming you."

Rabbi Ḥiyya connects this to the future judgment. The body and soul will stand trial, and God will initially excuse the body and judge the soul. The soul, indignant, will say, "Master of the universe, we both sinned together! Why are you excusing the body and judging me?"

God will reply, "The body is from the lower world, a place where people sin. But you are from the upper world, a place where there is no sin before Me. That's why I'm excusing the body and judging you."

These two parables, side by side, present a complex and somewhat contradictory picture. Are the soul and body equally responsible? Does one bear more guilt than the other? The tradition seems to suggest that it's not so simple. Responsibility is nuanced, influenced by our origins, our knowledge, and the choices we make together – soul and body, intertwined.

These stories aren't just about blame. They're about the intricate relationship between our spiritual and physical selves, and the ever-present question of how we navigate our choices in this world. It forces us to ask ourselves: how do we balance our desires with our responsibilities? And what does it truly mean to be accountable for our actions, both here and in the world to come?

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Sanhedrin 91aTalmud Bavli, Sanhedrin

The daughter of the emperor said to Rabban Gamliel: Leave him, and I will respond to him with a parable. She said: There are two craftsmen in our city; one fashions vessels from water, and one fashions vessels from mortar. Which is more noteworthy? The emperor said to her: It is that craftsman that fashions vessels from water.

His daughter said to him: If he fashions a vessel from the water, all the more so is it not clear that he can fashion vessels from mortar? By the same token, if God was able to create the world from water, He is certainly able to resurrect people from dust. The school of Rabbi Yishmael taught that resurrection of the dead a fortiori from glass vessels: If concerning glass vessels, which are fashioned by the breath of those of flesh and blood, who blow and form the vessels, and yet if they break they can be repaired, as they can be melted and subsequently blown again, then with regard to those of flesh and blood, whose souls are a product of the breath of the Holy One, Blessed be He, all the more so can God restore them to life.

The Gemara relates that a certain heretic said to Rabbi Ami: You say that the dead will live. Aren’t they dust? And does dust come to life? Rabbi Ami said to him: I will tell you a parable.

To what is this matter comparable? It is comparable to a flesh-and-blood king who said to his servants: Go and construct for me a great palace [palterin] in a place where there is no water and earth available. They went and constructed it. Sometime later, the palace collapsed.

The king said to them: Return to your labor and construct the palace in a place where there is earth and water available. They said to him: We are unable to do so. The king became angry at them and said to them: If in a place where there is no water and earth available you constructed a palace, now that there is water and earth available all the more so should you be able to do so. Similarly, concerning man, whom God created ex nihilo, all the more so will God be able to resurrect him from dust.

And if you do not believe that a being can be created from dust, go out to the valley and see an akhbar, a creature that today is half flesh and half earth, and tomorrow the being will develop and all of it will become flesh. Lest you say that creation of living creatures is a matter that develops over an extended period, ascend a mountain and see that today there is only one snail there; then ascend tomorrow, after rain will have fallen, and see that it will be entirely filled with snails.

The Gemara relates that a certain heretic said to Geviha ben Pesisa: Woe unto you, the wicked, as you say: The dead will come to life. The way of the world is that those who are alive die. How can you say that the dead will come to life? Geviha ben Pesisa said to him: Woe unto you, the wicked, as you say: The dead will not come to life.

If those who were not in existence come to life, is it not reasonable all the more so that those who were once alive will come to life again? The heretic said to Geviha ben Pesisa angrily: You called me wicked? If I stand, I will kick you and flatten your hump, as Geviha ben Pesisa was a hunchback. Geviha ben Pesisa said to him jocularly: If you do so, you will be called an expert doctor and will take high wages for your services. § Apropos Geviha ben Pesisa and his cleverness in debate, the Gemara cites additional incidents where he represented the Jewish people in debates.

The Sages taught in Megillat Ta’anit: On the twenty-fourth day in Nisan it is a joyous day, since the usurpers [dimusana’ei] were expelled from Judea and Jerusalem. When the people of Afrikiya came to judgment with the Jewish people before the emperor, Alexander of Macedon, they said to him: The land of Canaan is ours, as it is written: “This is the land that shall fall to you as an inheritance, the land of Canaan according to its borders” (Numbers 34:2).

And the people of Afrikiya said, referring to themselves: Canaan is the forefather of these people. Geviha ben Pesisa said to the Sages: Give me permission and I will go and deliberate with them before Alexander of Macedon. If they will defeat me, say to them: You have defeated an ordinary person from among us, and until you overcome our Sages, it is no victory. And if I will defeat them, say to them: The Torah of Moses defeated you, and attribute no significance to me.

The Sages gave him permission, and he went and deliberated with them. Geviha ben Pesisa said to them: From where are you citing proof that the land of Canaan is yours? They said to him: From the Torah. Geviha ben Pesisa said to them: I too will cite proof to you only from the Torah, as it is stated: “And he said: Cursed will be Canaan; a slave of slaves shall he be to his brethren” (Genesis 9:25).

And with regard to a slave who acquired property, the slave belongs to whom and the property belongs to whom? The slave and his property belong to the master. And moreover, it is several years now that you have not served us. Therefore, not only are you not entitled to the land, there are additional debts that must be repaid, as well as a return to enslavement.

Alexander the king said to the people of Afrikiya: Provide Geviha ben Pesisa with a response to his claims. They said to Alexander: Give us time; give us three days to consider the matter. The emperor gave them the requested time and they examined the matter and did not find a response to the claims. Immediately, they fled and abandoned their fields when they were sown and their vineyards when they were planted.

The Gemara adds: And since that year was a Sabbatical Year, with the accompanying restrictions on agricultural activity, this benefited the Jewish people, as they were able to consume the produce of those fields and vineyards. The Gemara relates: On another occasion, the people of Egypt came to judgment with the Jewish people before Alexander of Macedon. The Egyptian people said to Alexander: It says in the Torah: “And the Lord gave the people favor in the eyes of Egypt, and they lent them” (Exodus 12:36).

Give us the silver and gold that you took from us; you claimed that you were borrowing it and you never returned it. Geviha ben Pesisa said to the Sages: Give me permission and I will go and deliberate with them before Alexander of Macedon. If they will defeat me, say to them: You have defeated an ordinary person from among us, and until you overcome our Sages, it is no victory. And if I will defeat them, say to them: The Torah of Moses, our teacher, defeated you, and attribute no significance to me.

The Sages gave him permission, and he went and deliberated with them. Geviha ben Pesisa said to them: From where are you citing proof that you are entitled to the silver and gold? They said to him: From the Torah. Geviha ben Pesisa said to them: I too will cite proof to you only from the Torah, as it is stated: “And the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years” (Exodus 12:40), during which they were enslaved to Egypt, engaged in hard manual labor.

Give us the wages for the work performed by the 600,000 men above the age of twenty (see Exodus 12:37) whom you enslaved in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years. Alexander of Macedon said to the people of Egypt: Provide Geviha ben Pesisa with a response to his claims. They said to him: Give us time; give us three days to consider the matter. The emperor gave them the requested time and they examined the matter and did not find a response to the claims.

Immediately, they abandoned their fields when they were sown and their vineyards when they were planted, and fled. The Gemara adds: And that year was a Sabbatical Year. The Gemara relates: And on another occasion, the descendants of Ishmael and the descendants of Keturah came to judgment with the Jewish people before Alexander of Macedon. They said to the Jewish people before Alexander: The land of Canaan is both ours and yours, as it is written: “And these are the generations of Ishmael, son of Abraham, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s maidservant, bore unto Abraham” (Genesis 25:12), and it is written: “And these are the generations of Isaac, son of Abraham” (Genesis 25:19).

Therefore, the land should be divided between Abraham’s heirs. Geviha ben Pesisa said to the Sages: Give me permission and I will go and deliberate with them before Alexander of Macedon. If they will defeat me, say to them: You have defeated an ordinary person from among us, and until you overcome our Sages, it is no victory. And if I will defeat them, say to them: The Torah of Moses, our teacher, defeated you, and attribute no significance to me.

The Sages gave him permission, and he went and deliberated with them. Geviha ben Pesisa said to the descendants of Ishmael: From where are you citing proof that the land of Canaan belongs to both you and the Jewish people? They said to him: From the Torah. Geviha ben Pesisa said to them: I too will cite proof to you only from the Torah, as it is stated: “And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac.

But to the sons of the concubines that Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and he sent them away from his son, while he yet lived, eastward, to the east country” (Genesis 25:5–6). In the case of a father who gave a document of bequest [agatin] to his sons during his lifetime and sent one of the sons away from the other, does the one who was sent away have any claim against the other? The father himself divided his property.

The Gemara asks: What were these gifts that Abraham gave to the sons of the concubines? Rabbi Yirmeya bar Abba says: This teaches that Abraham provided them with the name of the supernatural spirit of impurity, enabling them to perform witchcraft. § Apropos exchanges with prominent gentile leaders, the Gemara cites an exchange where Antoninos, the Roman emperor, said to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi: The body and the soul are able to exempt themselves from judgment for their sins.

How so? The body says: The soul sinned, as from the day of my death when it departed from me, I am cast like a silent stone in the grave, and do not sin. And the soul says: The body sinned, as from the day that I departed from it, I am flying in the air like a bird, incapable of sin. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said to him: I will tell you a parable.

To what is this matter comparable? It is comparable to a king of flesh and blood who had a fine orchard, and in it there were

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