Thread by @jorosenfeld

Thread on this remarkable teaching from the Sod Yesharim:

The Rabbis taught that one who denies that “the resurrection of the dead is from the torah” will take no part in the resurrection of the dead.
Death does not mean actual death, but rather the myriad struggles and concealments of this world that taste like death.

“Resurrection of the dead” is the question of: how can i move beyond the struggles and concealment of this world that make like so difficult? Once i have tasted the death of concealment, how can i find a renewal of life?

The renewal of life must come “from within the torah” itself. The torah of a person is the struggle and the effort and pain and the patience through which a person made it through the darkness and concealment of their lives. Each person writes their own torah of their experience.

Someone who denies that “resurrection” comes from THEIR own torah- meaning their own struggles - makes a cut between their past experience of concealment and their future experience of renewal. As if to say, my new found level of comfort has nothing to do with my previous pain.

Any feelings of redemption and comfort are only valuable if their are built upon our past experience of struggle and concealment. Without the preceding darkness of death, there is little value to the light of life that grows from within the darkness itself.

That is why the Rabbis teach us, that in the future, those who died with blemishes and imperfections will be resurrected with those same blemishes and imperfections. To show that the person who has found new life is the same person who experienced death.

The thing that determines who we are is the struggle, the concealment, the lack, the blemish, the deficiency that we experienced in the darkness of death. Each person with their own particular point of concealment.

When we experience personal redemption, new life, more hope, we will still hold on to the memory of the struggle and the darkness. It is this memory of pain, the memory of our own personal “torah” that will make the light of life that much greater and intense.

Our future self is not some separate thing, distant and removed from the brokenness of our past self; rather it is the same self, now containing the multitude of darkness and light working together. No experience will pass away, no struggle will be forgotten, it will elevate us.