Yearly and Daily Reminders of the Dry Bones

            The theme of the haftara of Shabbat Ḥol HaMoed Pesaḥ is teḥiyat hameitim, resurrection of the dead, as the prophet Ezekiel saw in the Valley of the Dry Bones [37:1-14].

            While the Talmud gives no reason for its choice of this chapter as the haftara, 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 Pesaḥ.

            Based upon the writing of Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe, we can offer an alternate suggestion for our Sages’ choice of this (half) chapter as the prophetic reading for Shabbat of Pesaḥ. Rabbi Wolbe writes:

As difficult as it is for us to envision this great wonder (of resurrection), behold God has provided us a glimpse in this world, with the transition from winter to spring. During winter the trees stand bereft of all fruit and leaves, completely dry without a drop of moisture (as the dry bones which Ezekiel saw), and yet in the spring the trees blossom, leave sprout, and the fruit begins to form. This wonder repeats itself annually, and the believer who observes this is strengthened in his belief in teḥiyat hameitim. 

            Pesaḥ, as the spring festival, conveys the message of renewal and ultimately of resurrection.

            Perhaps Rabbi Wolbe’s insight explains the tradition associating teḥiyat hameitim specifically with the month of Nissan.

            It is of significance that it is specifically Ezekiel, the only prophet whose entire prophetic career took place outside the Holy Land, who sees the vision (or the actual resurrection) in the Valley of the Dry Bones.

            Malbim explains [commentary on Ezekiel 36:12] that the graves which God showed Ezekiel represent the Diaspora, “where the national collective body of Israel dwells in the dark depths,” and Israel’s spiritual resurrection can take place only within the Holy Land. Thus, the order of events is explicit in the verses:

Therefore prophesy, and say unto them: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, O My people; and I will bring you into the Land of Israel. [v.12]

 and then (and only then) [v.14]:

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 fact, we have not only a yearly indicator of teḥiyat  hameitim, but a daily one. Our Sages [Babylonian Talmud, Berachot 57b] taught that sleep is one-sixtieth part of death. It therefore follows that awakening is one-sixtieth part of teḥiyat  hameitim.

            Rabbi Kook explains that human beings are composed of both spiritual and physical aspects, with the ideal being for the physical side to serve the individual’s spiritual development. Thus, sleep is necessary, not only physically, but spiritually as well.  If we see the parallel between sleep and death as being reciprocal, we can understand that just as sleep serves to allow one to prepare for additional days to perfect his spiritual self, so too death serves as the precursor to the spiritual fulfillment which will come with teḥiyat hameitim and the era which is “entirely good” [Maimonides Laws of Repentance 8:1], a world which is entirely spiritual.