67. Erub. 19 a.
68. As to the latter, a solitary opinion in Moed K. 27 a.
70. Pes. 54 a.
71. Rosh haSh. 17 a.
69. See Appendix XIX.
72. Sanh. x. 3;
106 b.
Such, then, was the final Judgment, to be held in the valley of Jehoshaphat by God, at
the head of the Heavenly Sanhedrin, composed of the elders of Israel.73 Realistic as its
description is, even this is terribly surpassed by a passage74 in which the supposed
pleas for mercy by the various nations are adduced and refuted, when, after an
unseemly contention between God and the Gentiles - equally shocking to good taste
and blasphemous - about the partiality that had been shown to Israel, the Gentiles
would be consigned to punishment. All this in a manner revolting to all reverent feeling.
And the contrast between the Jewish picture of the last Judgment and that outlined in
the Gospel is so striking, as alone to vindicate (we re such necessary) the eschatological
parts of the New Testament, and to prove what infinite distance there is between the
Teaching of Christ and the Theology of the Synagogue.
73. Tanch. u. s. i. p. 71 a, b.
74. Ab. Z. 2 a to 3.
After the final judgment we must look for the renewal of heaven and earth. In the latter
neither physical75 nor moral darkness would any longer prevail, since the Yetser haRa,
or 'Evil impulse,' would be destroyed.76 77 And renewed earth would bring forth all
without blemish and in Paradisiacal perfection, while alike physical and moral evil had
ceased. Then began the ' Olam habba,' or 'world to come.' The question, whether any
functions or enjoyments of the body would continue, is variously answered. The reply of
the Lord to the question of the Sadducees about marriage in the other world seems to
imply, that materialistic views on the subject were entertained at the time. Many
Rabbinic passages, such as about the great feast upon Leviathan and Behemoth
prepared for the righte ous in the latter days,78 confirm only too painfully the impression
of grossly materialistic expectations.79 On the other hand, passages may be quoted in
which the utterly unmaterial character of the 'world to come' is insisted upon in most
emphatic langua ge.80 In truth, the same fundamental divergences here exist as on other
points, such as the abode of the beatified, the visible or else invisible glory which they
would enjoy, and even the new Jerusalem. And in regard to the latter,81 as indeed to all
those references to the beatitudes of the world to come, it seems at least doubtful,
whether the Rabbis may not have intended to describe rather the Messianic days than
the final winding up of all things.
76. Yalkut i. p. 45 c.
75. Ber. R. 91.
77. But it does not seem clear to me, whether this conjunction of the cessation of
darkness, together with that of the Yetser haRa, is not intended to be taken figuratively
and spiritually.
78. Babha B. 74 a.
79. At the same time, many quotations by Christian writers intended to show the
materialism of Jewish views are grossly unfair. Thus, for example, Ber. 57 b, quoted by