The belief in the Resurrection of the Dead has been formulated in the
Mishnah (Sanhedrin x. i) as an essential creed: “He who says that the
belief in the Resurrection of the Dead is not implied in the Law has no
portion in the world to come.” There is no doubt that the Almighty has
the power to give fresh life to the body in which life has been
extinct. We set no limits to the Omnipotence of God. But it is
different if we ask whether it is the Will of God to give new life to
the dust and ashes of the dead, and to restore the soul to the dead
body in which it has dwelt before. Maimonides substitutes the
Immortality of the Soul for the Resurrection of the Dead, and has been
vehemently attacked by those who had a different opinion. He defended
his view in an essay called מאמר תחיית המתים, “On the Resurrection of
the Dead,” in which he attempts to prove that the Agadoth and Midrashim
in depicting the future life employed figurative language, but in
reality meant only a spiritual life, without any material enjoyment.
Saadiah defends the literal interpretation of “Resurrection of the
Dead” (Emunoth ve-deoth, VII.), and believes that the event will take
place at the time of the final redemption (גאולה אחרונה). Rabbi
Jehudah ha-levi, in Cuzari, though mentioning this principle, seems to
understand it as identical with the Immortality of the Soul. The king,
who was at first surprised at the scarcity of references to the future
life in our prayers, confessed his complete satisfaction, after having
heard the exposition of our prayers by the Jewish scholar. “I see,” he
says, “that I was in error; those who pray to have the Divine light
vouchsafed to them during lifetime, who long to see it with their own
eyes, and to attain to the degree of prophecy, they certainly seek
something better even than the future life, and they who attain it may
be sure that they will also enjoy the blessing of the future life; for
if the soul of a man, troubled by the wants of the body, is
nevertheless cleaving to the Divine glory, how much more may this be
the case after the soul has left this body!” (III. 20).