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Nidah 70

70b

1. TESHUVAH AFTER A HEAVENLY DECREE HAS BEEN ISSUED
   • Question: The Gemara cites two verses with contradictory implications regarding the way Hashem deals with sinners. One verse implies that He wants them to die, and the other verse implies that he does not desire their deaths. The Gemara explains that He does not want them to die when they do Teshuvah, and He desires their deaths if they do not do Teshuvah.

     TOSFOS (DH Kan b'Oseh Teshuvah) points out that in the Sifri, the same contradiction is answered by saying that He does not want them to die before the heavenly decree has been issued, and He desires their deaths after the heavenly decree has been issued. Our Gemara, then, must mean that even after the heavenly decree has been issued, Hashem does not want the person to die if he does Teshuvah.

     Does this not contradict the Gemara in Rosh Hashanah (17b)? The Gemara there says that Teshuvah does not help an individual after the heavenly decree has been issued. Teshuvah only helps for an entire community at that point.

   • Answer: Tosfos answers that our Sugya is in accordance with the opinion of Rebbi Yitzchak (Rosh Hashanah 16a), who disagrees with the above-mentioned Gemara and maintains that even an individual's Teshuvah is effective after the heavenly decree has been issued.

2. HASHEM'S FAVOR BEFORE THE HEAVENLY DECREE HAS BEEN ISSUED
   • Question: The Gemara cites two verses with contradictory implications with regard to whether or not Hashem shows favor (that is, He acts with mercy even when the letter of the law calls for strict justice). One verse says that He does not show favor, and the other verse says that He does show favor. The Gemara answers that He shows favor before the heavenly decree has been issued, and He does not show favor after the heavenly decree has been issued.

     TOSFOS (DH Kan Kodem Gezar Din) asks that the Gemara in Berachos (20b) gives a different answer for the same contradiction. In Berachos, the Gemara answers that the verse that says Hashem shows favor is referring to the Jewish people. He shows favor to them because they are conscientious to recite Birkas ha'Mazon even after eating only a Beitzah sized piece of bread.

   • Answer: Tosfos answers that the Gemara in Berachos agrees with the answer that our Gemara gives. It is merely adding that Hashem shows favor to the Jewish people before the heavenly decree has been issued because of their conscientiousness with regard to Birkas ha'Mazon.

     This answer has significant implications. According to Tosfos' understanding, the Gemara here is saying that Hashem show favor only before the heavenly decree has been issued, and only to the Jewish people.

     (If we understand Hashem's "favor" to mean that He responds to Teshuvah and Tefilah, this implies that Teshuvah and Tefilah only work for Jews and not for non-Jews. A non-Jew who does Teshuvah and who prays to Hashem is not entitled to Hashem's mercy even before the heavenly decree has been issued! This is especially difficult to understand since we find non-Jews who merited Hashem's mercy through their Teshuvah and Tefilah, such as the city of Ninveh. Perhaps Tosfos understood that with Ninveh Hashem took exception to the general rule, pardoning them in order to teach the Jewish people a lesson.)

3. THE NEW BODIES OF THE RESURRECTED
   • Question: The Men of Alexandria asked Rebbi Yehoshua ben Chananya whether the son of the Shunamite (who died and was revived by Elisha the Prophet) would be Metamei like a Mes after he was revived. Rebbi Yehoshua replied that only a dead person is Metamei Tum'as Mes, and not a living person like the son of the Shunamite. They then asked him if the dead people who will eventually be resurrected will require Haza'ah to be become Tahor from Tum'as Mes. He responded that when they come back to life, we will deal with that question.

     Why did the Men of Alexandria not ask the same question that they asked regarding the son of the Shunamite with regard to the dead people who will be resurrected -- will a dead person who is revived be Metamei Tum'as Mes,? And conversely, why did they not ask whether the son of the Shunamite will require Haza'ah?

   • Answer:
     1. The Men of Alexandria, being philosophers, did not accept the possibility that the Ribono Shel Olam could bring about a change in the physical reality of this world. They thought that he could not turn a dead person into a fully living person before the eventual resurrection of the dead. They therefore concluded that one of two things must have happened to the son of the Shunamite: (1) Either he was never brought back to a state of full life. It just looked like he was walking and talking, but he was actually still dead. In that case, he would be Tamei even after being "brought back to life." (2) Or else, the son of the Shunamite had never really died. If so, of course he would not need Haza'ah nor would he be Tamei.

     2. (Their question about Lot's wife may have been based on the same premise. They thought that either (1) she had been whisked away and replaced by a tower of salt, in which case it would not be Metamei, or else (2) the pile of salt was really just a dead woman that looked like a pile of salt, in which case it would be Metamei. They didn't entertain the possibility that Hashem had transformed a living woman into a tower of salt.)

     3. The men of Alexandria knew that the resurrected dead will certainly be brought back to life in the World to Come, and at that point they could no longer be Tamei like a dead person. Their question was only whether the resurrection would be accomplished by simply reversing the process of disintegration by rebuilding people's bodies from a pile of dust. If this was the case, the newly resurrected would need Haza'ah since they had come into contact with the Rekev (dust) of their own dead bodies during the resurrection, rendering themselves Tamei. On the other hand, perhaps Hashem will put people's souls into entirely new bodies, not bodies re-conditioned from dust. If so, they will not need Haza'ah since they had no physical contact with Tum'as Mes. (M. Kornfeld)