DEUT1707 We have further learned (Sanhedrin 90a), "Every Jew has a share in the World to Come, as the pasuk says, (Yeshayahu 60:21), 'Your people will all be righteous and will inherit the land forever.' [However,] the following are those who have no share in the World to Come: one who denies that the resurrection of the dead derives from the Torah, one who denies that the Torah was given by Hashem, and an epikoros." [The conventional explanation for this word is heretic, apostate, nonbeliever, i.e. one who denies a tenet of Judaism. However, Bartenura (Avos 2:14) says that it derives from the word hefker, one who denigrates the Torah and the learners of Torah; this is how Rabbeinu Yonah understands the term here.]. Through this passage, our Sages, z"l, have exhorted us in the tenet that the belief of the resurrection of the dead derives from the Torah, and that it is one of the principles of the Torah. One of the places where the resurrection of the dead is noted in the Torah is in [this verse], "I bring death and I bring life; I strike and I will heal." Concerning this, our Sages, z"l, said (Pesachim 68a): "We might think death as mentioned here refers to one person and the bringing to life refers to another [I.e., The birth of a baby]. Therefore, the pasuk says,' I strike and I will heal'--just as the striking and healing refer to one person, so too death and bringing to life refer to one person."
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