It is said in the name of the Ba'al Shem Tov:
"...There's a teshuvah from the Ramba"m in response to [people of] a certain country... that asked him: 'Teach us our master, if techias hameisim is not explicitly mentioned in the Torah, rather it is proven in various ways in the Gemara, than who is to say that we cannot prove the contrary?'
"The Rambam did not want to answer this question personally, so he instructed his student R. Yehuda ibn Tibbon to compose a reply. The general gist of their reply was as follows: 'Explain to them that if such a doubt has been borne to them, it follows that their souls do not descend from the sons of Avraham, Yitzcak, and Ya'akov, rather from the people of Sedom and Amora...'"
כתר שם טוב אות קפ"ו
See here
this reminds me of the 29th chapter in Tanya where the Alter Rebbe explains Moshe's "answer" to the spies as being an ultimate answer; answering the person--not the question. trough moshe's harsh words their evil disappeared and their soul shined. then when a soul shines,concludes the alter rebbe, there is no need to explain--soul know the truth.
ReplyDeletePretty wild. 70 thousand signatures. That sounds like some sort of metaphor.
ReplyDeleteRambam and ibn Tibbon never saw each others (there is a letter to this effect), so that would mean that Rambam wrote to Provence for ibn Tibbon to write a response...
Where to we see in any of the writing of the Rambam a distinction between souls -- even Jewish or Gentile? As far as I know there is no such distinction in his writings.