The first mishnah in this last chapter of Tractate Sanhedrin listed individuals who will have no share in the World to Come. The most recent mishnah listed entire populations that will not merit this future redemption. Several are groups we recognize as undeniably sinful: the generation of the flood, those who built the Tower of Babel, the inhabitants of Sodom in the time of Abraham and Lot. On today’s daf, we arrive at a discussion of the more complex case: the generation of Israelites who journeyed through the wilderness but were barred entry from the promised land. Even the mishnah is unsure what to make of the ultimate fate of this generation. Rabbi Akiva states that they have no share in the World to Come, while Rabbi Eliezer says they do.
The Gemara on todays daf brings a beraita that records a dispute parallel to the one found in our mishnah:
The sages taught: The generation of the wilderness have no share in the World to Come, as it is stated: “In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.” (Numbers 14:35) “They shall be consumed” indicates in this world; “and there they shall die” indicates for the World to Come. And the verse states with regard to them: “Wherefore I took an oath in My anger that they should not enter into My rest.” (Psalms 95:11) — This is the statement of Rabbi Akiva.
Rabbi Eliezer says: They come to the World to Come, as it is stated: “Gather My pious together to Me, those that have entered into My covenant by offering.” (Psalms 50:5) But how do I interpret the phrase “Wherefore I took an oath in My anger”? It must be understood: In My anger I took an oath, and I reconsidered.
Help us keep Jewish knowledge accessible to millions of people around the world.
Your donation to My Jewish Learning fuels endless journeys of Jewish discovery. With your help, My Jewish Learning can continue to provide nonstop opportunities for learning, connection and growth.
The generation of the wilderness refers, broadly, to those who were adults when leaving Egypt, and who died in the wilderness without reaching the land. On the one hand, these are the people who make mistake after mistake. The Book of Numbers reads like a tragicomedy of ruptures and failures, the relationship between God, Moses and the people being tested time and time again. But this is also the generation that stood at Sinai, that saw God revealed before them at the splitting of the sea, that traveled with God constantly in their midst. This generation is a complex mix of rebellious and holy, responsible for both foundational covenant and foundational sin.
This confusing mix of extremes explains the ambivalence reflected in the mishnah and beraita. Rabbi Akiva points to the language of God’s harsh decree — an excess in language that (he interprets) applies not only to barring them from the land, but to barring them from the World to Come. This is the generation that provoked God so frequently and so furiously that God swore to never grant them final repose.
Rabbi Eliezer, on the other hand, seizes upon this generation as the generation of the covenant, those who were brought into an eternal pact with God, and given an eternal promise. Though God may have lashed out against them in anger, God can repeal even divine oaths.
If you know Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Eliezer, their positions are surprising in light of their personalities. Rabbi Eliezer was known for being unyielding and unforgiving. Rabbi Akiva was known to extol the power of teshuvah, repentance. Fascinatingly, the amoraim, rabbis of much later generations, also comment on this:
Rabba bar bar Hana says that Rabbi Yohanan says: Rabbi Akiva abandoned his piety, as it is stated with regard to the generation of the wilderness: “Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem saying, so says the Lord: I remember for you the affection of your youth, the love of your espousals, how you went after Me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.” (Jeremiah 2:2) Now, if others come into the World to Come in the merit of the generation that left Egypt and followed God in the wilderness, is it not all the more so that the generation of the wilderness themselves have a share in the World to Come?
For Rabbi Yohanan, there’s a verse that clearly wins the interpretive battle. In words relayed by the prophet Jeremiah, God recalls the wilderness generation with love because they willingly followed God into the hazardous unknown for the sake of the covenant, which allowed future generations to partake in the World to Come. If this merit enables future generations to be forgiven and enter the World to Come, all the more so the wilderness generation! For these amoraim, while they acknowledge the iniquities and complexity of this generation, they ultimately view its devotion and covenantal relationship as its defining characteristic. The generation that died in the wilderness may not have seen the promised land, but they will see the World to Come.
