The Dead Rise Every Sabbath to Praise God

The dead do not simply lie still. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by SAFE0 Gaster in 1899, the righteous dead have a vast habitation with a brook flowing from the Garden of Eden and a field beside it. Every Sabbath eve, between the afternoon and evening prayers, their souls emerge from their hidden dwelling to eat in that field and drink from that brook.

This creates a strange obligation for the living. Any Israelite who drinks water during that same window between afternoon and evening services on Sabbath eve is said to be robbing the dead of their portion. The timing matters. The dead depend on it.

When the congregation calls out on Sabbath eve, "Bless the Lord, who is blessed," the souls return to their graves. But God does not leave them there in stillness. He revives them, stands them on their feet alive, and they rise from their graves to sing praises. The text quotes the verse, "The pious exult in honor, and they sing upon their resting-places."

This resurrection is not a one-time event. It happens every Sabbath and every new moon. The dead rise, come before the Divine Presence, and prostrate themselves before God. The text asks a pointed question about the verse "all flesh shall come to worship Me"—what does "people of the earth" really mean? Those who are hidden in the earth. The buried. Even death, in this tradition, observes the rhythm of the Sabbath.

XIX. (1) The sages tell that the dead have a large habitation, in front of which there flows a brook from the Garden of Eden, and by the side of this brook is a field. On every Sabbath eve between the afternoon and evening services the souls of the dead go forth from their secret abode and eat on this field and drink from this brook, (2) and every Israelite who drinks water between the afternoon and evening services of the Sabbath robs the dead. When the congregation on Sabbath eve exclaim, ' Bless the Lord, who is blessed,' they return to their graves, and God revives them, and causes them to stand upon their feet alive; (3) and all the dead of Israel rest on the Sabbath, and all stand up alive from their graves, and great multitudes come before God and sing praises unto Him upon their graves, and going to the synagogues, prostrate

42 [XIX. 4

themselves before Him, as it is said, ' The pious exult in honour, and they sing upon their resting-places.'

(4) Every Sabbath and every new moon they rise from their graves, and coming before the Divine Presence, prostrate themselves before Him, as it is said, ' And the people of the earth shall worship Me, on Sabbaths and on the new moons.' What is meant by the people of the earth ? Those who are hidden in the earth, as it is written, ' And it shall come to pass that on each new moon and upon each Sabbath all flesh shall come to worship Me.'