Epistle on Resurrection

But first I will say that the entire nation of Israel concurs that human souls are not destroyed when the body is destroyed but remain after the death of the body and are separated from it. And indeed, the great multitudes of the people know this and believe in this, as received from the righteous ones, from the prophets. And indeed, what they have received is in agreement with the texts of the prophetic holy books, as I will explain further, and not with the logical proofs adduced by the philosophers; these are followed by those who say that reward and punishment for the soul is apart from the body. For the proofs brought by the philosophers cannot reach true knowledge, since they have not experienced wonders, and most of them arrived at their conclusions by means of thought [alone]. [ . . . ]

And the prophets said regarding Samuel the prophet, after his death: And Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disquieted me, to bring me up?” (1 Samuel 28:15). This indicates that Samuel’s soul remained after his death, and it was his soul that spoke with Saul. And if one says that those were the words of the witch, speaking about Samuel as if she had revived him and invoked him, and that she lied about everything, and Saul [only] thought that she was correct—as some of the commentaries have explained—the reply would be that when one approaches a text that is clear and interprets it and removes it from its simple meaning, one is making a claim that contradicts the words of the prophet. His claim cannot be accepted. If we accept every interpreter and what they interpret, we would never be able to make a claim from scripture. Perhaps he will likewise explain away: In the beginning, God created (Genesis 1:1), And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, as well as the splitting of the sea and all the other wonders. All of these can be interpreted and removed [from their simple meaning], and so the whole Torah would be abolished. Rather, everything that is in the text must be taken in its simple [literal] meaning, if it is not contradicted by a true logical proof or by tradition.

And you might say that this case is illogical [when it claims] that the witch was able to revive the dead, as one cannot do such a thing. Furthermore, if we maintain that a [mere] witch can revive the dead, doubts regarding the wonders of the prophets will arise. Our reply is that we did not claim that the witch revived the dead, and Samuel did not rise up [from the dead]. Indeed, we said that what spoke with Saul was Samuel’s soul, but that is not a wonder or a change in the way of the world. We already know, from the true stories, that the dead speak with one another and speak with the living and tell them the future and about hidden matters. For example, the Talmud relates the story of one righteous man who slept in the graveyard and heard two spirits talking to each other, and they told him what would happen in the world. Or the story of Samuel when the money for the orphans went missing and he went after his father to the graveyard, and asked him about the money for the orphans, and his father told him [b. Berakhot 18b]. The whole story is well known. There are quite a few like it in the Talmud. One should remember that the souls of the dead speak. And when one asks, “Who is it that speaks?” and proceeds to interpret these stories not in their simple meaning but by some other interpretation, one thereby contradicts the Talmud, because the claim that the dead speak and talk is taken from this story, and the claim is supported by it.

One might propose the following difficulty: it does not stand to reason that spirits speak, as they have already been separated from the body and do not have mouths. The reply would be that anyone who says that must also claim that the incorporeal angels did not speak with the prophets, since they are immaterial and do not have a mouth. However, would he deny that God spoke with Israel on Mt. Sinai, since He is beyond physical description and a mouth? This is the opinion of some of the philosophers and those who follow their opinions. In contrast, the sages refer to the speech of spiritual beings and their ability to speak without a mouth. And in the holy writings there are many instances of angels speaking, among them: And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire (Exodus 3:2), and others like that. And the sages often mention cases where they heard a heavenly voice. If so, the spiritual angels’ ability to speak is the same ability of speech that the spirits have.

According to this, we maintain that when it says: Samuel said to Saul (1 Samuel 28:15), it was Samuel’s soul that was speaking with Saul, as implied by scripture, which the prophet wrote at God’s word, and it is not correct to reinterpret it. Samuel already indicates as much when he said, “Tomorrow shall you and your sons be with me” (1 Samuel 28:19), and this came true.

And though there are those among the scholars who said that Samuel came to life but not through the actions of the witch, in order to deceive Saul, and to bring his terrible end upon him, this is a statement that is contradicted in two ways. First, it implies that the Creator would create a new wonder that follows the witch’s erroneous beliefs, and thus bring about doubt in the prophets—as a wonder would no longer be indicative of his faith, since a wonder can evidently be performed without the prophet’s faith. And second, it is already clear from the verses that Saul did not see Samuel. He asked the medium what his form was like, and said, “What does he look like?,” and she told him what he looked like and said, “An old man is rising, wrapped in a coat,” and it was then that Saul knew it was Samuel [see 1 Samuel 28:14]. He understood that it was Samuel from the words of the witch, and if his body had [actually] risen, he would have seen him, and he would not have had to ask the witch what he looked like.

Source: Moscow State Library MS 209.