In one of your answers, I read that at the time of the Talmud were Jews, who were able to raise the dead. Are there records of Jewish sources, that any person able to raise the dead? If so, where can I read? I think that none of the people can not resurrect some of the dead, in what would be a high level it may be, it can only Gd.


Lena, Munich




Rabbi Answer:

The fact that the Talmudic sages could raise the dead, according to a treatise Avodah Zarah (10 b). There are reports that this knowledge possessed even the "smallest" of the sages. "If necessary," our sages used this knowledge in practice. So, for example, in the same place, in the tractate Avodah Zarah, says Rabbi Hanina ben Hama revived the dead. In addition, in Tractate Megillah (7 b) it is written that revived Rabba Rabbi Zera.


However, your statement that God only can raise the dead - is also true. And this statement we can already see in the Talmud. The Talmud in Tractate Taanit (2a) states that "Three Keys (Gd) is not referred to the facilitator: Clear key, the key and the key mothers resurrection of the dead."




Between these two places in the Talmud there is no contradiction, because the resurrection is of two "species":


The first type - the resurrection of a man who died (ie, his heart stopped), but the body has not yet begun to decompose. Revive a man "easier." We can assume that the sages of the Talmud, even the "smallest" of them, to be available this kind of resurrection. [1]


The second type - the resurrection of the dead, whose body had already begun to decompose. It is much "harder" because it is not enough to return to life - we must also re-create his body (or the part that is beginning to decompose). This revival, of course, very surprising and hard posyagaemo. And this resurrection mean that will happen in the future for all the saints, have surprised the Roman emperor as given in the treatise Sanhedrin (90 b): "You (the sages) say that will revive the dead in the future, but because their body has already turned to dust, as well as the dust may come to life? "[2].


It is the resurrection of the dead is available only to God [3], because "He blessed be his name - Source of Life, the Giver of life to all the living" (quote from the book Ramchal "Mesilat Yesharim", part 26). [4]


[1] It is important to stress that, of course, only available to the Creator all things that are done in the world, because he - the only master of the world and without His will nothing can happen. Saying that the sages available one or another kind of resurrection, I mean that sages can become messengers of the Creator to resurrect a particular person.


[2] The Talmud is that the daughter imperetora asked the Jewish sage Rabban Gamliel, who was asked this question, give her a chance to answer it. Daughter imperetora allegory said: "In our city there are two craftsmen - one is able to create jars of clay, and the other out of the water." "Which one is considered to be of higher rank?" - rhetorically asked the emperor's daughter. And she also said: "There is no doubt, the one who can sozdovat jugs of water, as if it can create the vessels out of the water, of course, that he could create from clay." This allegory of the daughter of the Emperor intends to explain that if the Creator can make a man out of the water (in fact the embryo emerges from the seed, which is similar to the water), how much more will he be able to create (restore) a man of clay (from the dust of the earth).


[3] If you pay attention to all three "key" associated with the new creation - the rains needed for plant growth; a woman in labor - we are talking about human birth; the resurrection of the dead - the creation of man again after his body decomposed.


[4] However, it is important to emphasize that the "key" the resurrection of the dead may be submitted in special cases in the hands of man, as it was in the prophets Elijah and Elisha. Ramchal in the book "Mesilat Yesharim" (Part 26) writes that the "key" can be transferred to such a person who is completely "clings" to the Almighty. Handing over the keys a man so close to the Creator is not considered a "transfer".