The Resurrected Dry Bones

Based upon the Talmudic statement [Megila 31a], the haftara (prophetic reading) for Shabbat Ḥol HaMoed Pesaḥ is Ezekiel’s vision in the Valley of the Dry Bones [37:1-14]. While the Talmud gives no reason for its choice of this chapter, Rav Hai Gaon [939 - 1038] notes that tradition is that resurrection of the dead, the subject of the verses, will take place during Ḥol HaMoed Pesach.

The final verses of the haftara [13-14] are:

And you shall know that I am God, when I have opened your graves, and caused you to come up out of your graves, O My people. And I will put My spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own Land; and you shall know that I God have spoken, and performed it, says God.

In commenting on these verses, Rabbi Yehonatan Eybschutz quotes our Sages’ tradition [Babylonian Talmud, Ketuvot 111a, Otiot d’Rebbi Akiva, letter tet] that resurrection will take place only in the Holy Land. The poetic version of the latter source reads:

At the time of resurrection, the Holy One, blessed be He, will descend from the upper heavens, sit on His throne in Jerusalem, summon His ministering angels and instruct them to wander to the four corners of the world and raise up the four corners of the world to create tunnels in the ground to bring the righteous of the Diaspora to the Land of Israel before Me.

Rabbi Yehonatan takes the approach a step further and comments (as does Malbim, who lived a century after Rabbi Yehonatan) that in Ezekiel’s vision, the Diaspora is equated with graves. Rabbi Yehonatan writes:

It is known to all that the completeness of Jewish life cannot be achieved in the exile, and thus the prophet compares us to dry bones.

Further, Malbim distinguishes between the collective and individual Israel (as does Rabbi Kook), noting that the collective is eternal, while the individual’s eternity is dependent upon resurrection. It is possible that this point explains the connection between the Land and resurrection, since our Sages teach that it is the Land which unites the individual with the nation.

      The Talmud [Sanhedrin, 92b] presents conflicting opinions among Tanaim (authors of the Mishna) as to whether Ezekiel merely saw a prophetic vision (the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda) or actually witnessed the resurrection (the approach of the remaining Sages quoted: Rabbi Eliezer; Rabbi Eliezer, son of Rabbi Yose the Galilean; Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabbi Yehuda, son of Beteira).

Following the opinion of the majority of Tanaim, the authors of the Gemara (Amoraim) suggest five differing identifications of those who were resurrected. Rav posits that it was the sons of Ephraim, who incorrectly calculated the end of the 400 year period of  enslavement and left Egypt for Israel thirty years too early, only to be annihilated by the men of Gat [I Chronicles 7:20-21]. Rabbi Yoḥanan asserts that it was the Jewish lads “whose beauty shamed the sun,” who were exiled by Nebuchadnezzar and killed by the Babylonians in the Dura Valley (see the Talmudic discussion for details). Since God refers to those to be resurrected as “these slain” [v.9], it would seem that the opinions of Rav and Rabbi Yoḥanan are the best fits to the simple meaning of the verses.

Rav teaches that those who died trying to reach Israel will be brought back to life and allowed to live in the Land, while Rabbi Yoḥanan teaches that those who were exiled from the Land and killed outside the Land will be privileged to return to her.