JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

eschatology
lieved that the natural order would change in the messianic
era (unlike the view of Maimonides). As to the problem of
whether the redemption would be a miracle or the logical result
of a process already immanent, kabbalistic opinion was
divided. After the expulsion from Spain, the view gradually
prevailed that the appearance of the Messiah would be a symbolic
event. Redemption depended on the deeds of Israel, and
on the fulfillment of its historic destiny. The coming of the redeemer
would testify to the completion of the “restoration,”
but would not cause it.
Resurrection at the End of the World
The Kabbalah does not cast any doubt on the physical resurrection
of the dead, which will take place at the end of the
days of redemption, “on the great day of judgment.” The novel
expositions of the kabbalists revolved round the question of
the fate of those who were to be resurrected. Naḥmanides
taught that after a normal physical life the resurrected body
would be purified, and be clothed in malakhut (“the garments
of the angels”), and, thereby, pass into the future spiritual
world, which would come into being after the destruction of
this world; and this new world would appear after the resurrection.
In the world to come the souls and their “spiritualized”
bodies would be gathered together in the ranks of the
sefirot, in the true “bond of life.” According to Naḥmanides,
the souls, even in this state, would preserve their individual
identity. But afterward other views emerged. The author of the
Zohar speaks of “holy bodies” after the resurrection, but does
not state his specific view of their future except by allusion.
One widespread view identified the world to come with the
sefirah Binah and its manifestations. After the life of pleasure
experienced by the resurrected, this world would be destroyed,
and some say that it would return to chaos (“waste and void”)
in order to be recreated in a new form. Perhaps the world to
come would be the creation of another link in the chain of
“creations” or shemitot (“sabbaticals”; according to the view
of the author of Sefer ha-Temunah) or even the creation of a
spiritual existence through which all existing things ascend to
reach the world of the sefirot, and return to their primeval being,
or their “higher source.” In the “Great Jubilee,” after 50,000
years, everything will return to the bosom of the sefirah Binah,
which is also called the “mother of the world.” Even the other
sefirot, through which God guides creation, will be destroyed
with the destruction of creation. In contrast to the teaching
of the author of Sefer ha-Temunah concerning the creation of
worlds according to a fixed cycle (*Baḥya ben Asher speaks
of 18,000 jubilees), most of the kabbalists maintained that
there would be only one creation, and, correspondingly, only
one eternal “world to come.” The contradiction of having two
judgments on man’s fate, one after death, and the other after
resurrection, one of which would appear to be superfluous,
caused some kabbalists to restrict the great Day of Judgment
to the nations of the world, while the souls of Israel, in their
view, would be judged immediately after death.
[Gershom Scholem]
in islam
Introduction
From the beginning of Muhammad’s prophetic career, he was
impressed with eschatological ideas about the descriptions of
the occurrences which were to take place on the last day. Contending
that the “insured children of Abraham [the Jews]” did
not feel the crushing terror of God’s last judgment, J. Wellhausen
concluded that Muhammad must have been greatly influenced
by Christian eschatological ideas, especially the descriptions
of the punishment of the sinners as they were spread in
Arabia by monks and hermits who lived in the deserts of the
Arabian peninsula. However after a thorough examination of
Koranic material, T. Andrae concluded that Wellhausen’s assumption
has no foundation in the Koran. No decisive judgment
can be made as to which religion – Judaism or Christianity
– was more influential in Muhammad’s formulation of
an eschatology. In any event, it may be added that the same
ideas are to be found in the poems of Jews in Arabia, and
the works of the *ḥanīfs and contemporary pagan poets. The
texts found among the Dead Sea Scrolls show that these ideas
were familiar to Jewish circles in pre-Christian times. Thus, it
is probable that the beliefs about resurrection, the last judgment,
paradise, and hell were current in Arabia among Jews,
Christians, and Arabs alike. It is therefore not astonishing that
Koranic eschatological descriptions and beliefs have parallels
in the Apocrypha, the aggadah, and the apocalypses.
The Day of Judgment
On many occasions Muhammad repeats the descriptions of
yawm al-qiyāma (“the day of resurrection”), an expression
which occurs 70 times (e.g., 2:79, 107; 16:125; 58:19; 75:1–35),
and al-sāʿa (“the hour”), 40 times (e.g., 6:31, 40; 79:42). He also
uses many other names for that day, e.g., yawm al-ḥisāb (“day
of reckoning”; 38:15, 25, 53), and describes it in many different
fashions. On that day all men come back to life to be judged
(28:85; 77:13–14); it will be a day of great calamity, when everyone
will try to flee, so that “the leg shall be bared” (68:42; i.e.,
the loins will be girded for flight); on that day the trumpets (of
resurrection) shall be blown (6:73). According to Sura 69:13,
“the trumpet shall be blown with one blast,” but Sura 39:68
states that the trumpet shall be blown twice: at the first sound
“those who are in the heavens and in the earth shall swoon,
save whom God pleases. Then it shall be blown again and,
lo! they shall stand up and look on.” This āya (“verse”) was of
great importance for later descriptions of the last judgment:
the sound of the trumpet will be followed by an earthquake
(78:18); all this will occur “as the twinkling of an eye, or nigher
still!” (16:79); at the second sound all the dead will return to
life and gather at the al-maḥshar (“the gathering place”). Later
Muslim tradition states that this gathering will take place in
Jerusalem (see below): Allah will come to the judgment with
a host of angels; the scales will be set up for the exact weighing
of the good deeds (7:7–8) and “no soul shall be wronged at
all” (21:48); the books of the deeds of every individual will be
opened and the reckoning made (10:62; 80:11–15; 89:7–12); Al-
502 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6