ב”ה

What Classical Jewish Sources Say About Chassidei Umot HaOlam and Techiyat HaMetim

One of the great promises of Jewish faith is Techiyat HaMetim, the resurrection of the dead.

Judaism teaches that history is moving toward a final state in which the purpose of creation will be revealed in its fullness. Techiyat HaMetim entails the future reunion of soul and body. But who participates in that resurrection is a separate question.

What does this mean for Bnei Noach? Will righteous non-Jews, Chassidei Umot HaOlam, the righteous among the nations, also rise at Techiyat HaMetim?

The question is important because Jewish sources often speak specifically about Israel when discussing resurrection. At the same time, other sources speak more broadly about “the righteous,” about “the people of the world,” and about those who faithfully fulfill the Divine commandments given to them.

A careful reading of the classical sources reveals a nuanced but significant picture. One source states the point explicitly; several others provide important supporting evidence that resurrection is not, in principle, confined to Jews alone.

A Share in the World to Come

We should begin with an established principle.

Rambam rules that a non-Jew who accepts and observes the Seven Noahide Commandments because they were commanded by G-d through the Torah is counted among the Chassidei Umot HaOlam and has a share in Olam HaBa, the World to Come.[1]

He writes:

כל המקבל שבע מצות ונזהר לעשותן הרי זה מחסידי אומות העולם ויש לו חלק לעולם הבא

“Anyone who accepts the Seven Commandments and is careful to observe them is among the righteous of the nations of the world and has a share in the World to Come.”

This establishes something fundamental. Judaism does not teach that ultimate Divine reward is reserved exclusively for Jews. A righteous non-Jew who faithfully follows the covenant G-d gave humanity has a genuine place in the Divine future.

Which World to Come?

But a share in Olam HaBa does not, by itself, answer our question. Here we must be precise, because the great authorities define “the World to Come” differently.

For Rambam, Olam HaBa is the world of souls, a state of existence without bodies.[2] On his definition, a share in the World to Come says nothing either way about bodily resurrection.

Ramban, by contrast, holds that Olam HaBa in its ultimate sense is the world that follows Techiyat HaMetim, in which body and soul exist together.[3] The Lubavitcher Rebbe notes that this second view is shared by Rav Saadia Gaon, the Raavad, Rabbi Meir ibn Gabbai, the Shelah and the Alter Rebbe, among others.[4]

These definitions must not be blended mechanically. Rambam’s statement that Chassidei Umot HaOlam have a share in Olam HaBa uses Rambam’s own definition of that term; it cannot, by itself, be turned into a proof of bodily resurrection. The argument becomes stronger when an authority who understands the ultimate Olam HaBa as the post-resurrection state explicitly applies that future to righteous gentiles.

That is precisely what the Yefeh Toar does.

The Most Direct Statement

Bereishit Rabbah compares rainfall with Techiyat HaMetim. Rabbi Chiya bar Abba says that rain is in one respect even greater than resurrection:[5]

תחיית המתים לישראל, וזו לישראל ולעובדי כוכבים

“The resurrection of the dead is for Israel, while this [rain] is for Israel and for the nations.”

One might conclude that resurrection therefore belongs only to the Jewish people.

Rabbi Shmuel Yaffe Ashkenazi, the great sixteenth-century commentator on Midrash Rabbah, explicitly rejects that interpretation. In his Yefeh Toar, he writes:

תה״מ לישראל לאו דוקא לישראל כי גם חסידי אומות העולם יש להם חלק לעוה״ב ויקומו בתה״מ. אבל פירושו הוא לצדיקים.

“‘The resurrection of the dead is for Israel’ does not mean specifically Israel, because the righteous among the nations also have a share in the World to Come and will rise at the resurrection of the dead. Rather, its meaning is: the righteous.”[6]

The crucial words are unmistakable:

ויקומו בתה״מ

“They will rise at Techiyat HaMetim.”

This is not a deduction built upon a chain of assumptions. The Yefeh Toar says directly that Chassidei Umot HaOlam will rise.

The reasoning is also significant. The Yefeh Toar invokes their share in Olam HaBa and then states the decisive conclusion explicitly: they will rise at Techiyat HaMetim.

He also gives us an important interpretive key. In this passage, the Midrashic phrase “resurrection for Israel” is explained as referring to the righteous rather than as an absolute exclusion of every non-Jew.

That reading is strengthened by a statement in the Talmud.

“Resurrection Is for the Righteous”

In Ta’anit 7a, Rabbi Abbahu contrasts rainfall with resurrection. Rain falls upon both the righteous and the wicked, while:

תחיית המתים לצדיקים

“Techiyat HaMetim is for the righteous.”[7]

Taken alone, this statement does not tell us whether “the righteous” includes righteous gentiles. But the Yefeh Toar effectively answers that question for us. He arrives at exactly this category and explicitly includes Chassidei Umot HaOlam among those righteous people who will rise.

The Talmud therefore supplies the category; the Yefeh Toar tells us who can be included within it.

Righteous Among the Nations in Rabbinic Literature

The broader rabbinic background is important. Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:3 discusses distinct eschatological fates for the generation of the Flood, the generation of the Dispersion and the people of Sodom.[8] By itself, this does not prove that righteous gentiles are resurrected; it does show that rabbinic texts distinguish among non-Israelite groups rather than treating them as a single undifferentiated category.

The more direct statement appears in the Tosefta. Rabbi Yehoshua teaches that there are righteous people among the nations who have a share in the World to Come.[9]

The Bavli (Sanhedrin 105a) reads the Mishnah’s treatment of Balaam in accordance with Rabbi Yehoshua: gentiles who “forget G-d” are excluded, implying that gentiles who fear G-d do have a share in Olam HaBa.[10] Rambam later codifies the category of Chassidei Umot HaOlam. This still concerns Olam HaBa, however, and is not yet a standalone proof of bodily resurrection.

A Striking Passage in the Zohar

The Zohar adds another dimension. In Zohar I, Vayera 108a, the fate of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah is discussed. The text states:

אבל אלין דסדום ועמורה לא יקומון

“But those of Sodom and Gomorrah will not arise.”[11]

These are the same people named in the Mishnah. What is striking is the reason given.

The preceding opinion grounds Sodom’s exclusion in its extraordinary cruelty: its people did not sustain the poor with food and drink, withheld tzedakah, and blocked the paths of others. In measure-for-measure fashion, future life is withheld from them.

The argument is therefore not simply, “They were not Jews, so they will not rise.” Their conduct is the focus of the passage.

Rabbi Abba, however, then voices a different opinion:

כלהו בני עלמא יקומון, ויקומון לדינא

“All the people of the world will arise, and they will arise for judgment.”[12]

On Rabbi Abba’s view, resurrection is therefore universal, at least as a summons to judgment. The passage still does not say that every person who rises will share eternally in the perfected life of the righteous.

“Some Will Rise and Some Will Not”

A second Zoharic passage is equally significant. In Zohar II, Vayakhel 199b, the story of Jonah inside the great fish becomes a metaphor for death, burial and resurrection. When the time of Techiyat HaMetim arrives, the Zohar says:

כדין כל קברייא יקיאו לאינון מתייא דבהון לבר

“Then all the graves will cast out the dead who are within them.”[13]

The Zohar then asks how this can be reconciled with verses indicating that certain dead will not rise. Its answer is remarkable:

כל עלמא יתסון גרמין בבי קברי, אבל מנהון יקומון ומנהון לא יקומון

“Throughout the world, the bones in the graves will be restored; some will rise and some will not rise.”[14]

The language is broad: כל עלמא, “the entire world.” The distinction is not formulated simply as “Israel rises; the nations do not.” Instead, the Zohar speaks about the world as a whole and then distinguishes within humanity: מנהון יקומון ומנהון לא יקומון, “some will rise, and some will not rise.”

Immediately afterward, the Zohar adds:

זכאה חולקהון דישראל

“Fortunate is the portion of Israel.”[15]

Israel clearly retains its unique covenantal status. But that unique role does not erase the wider horizon described in the preceding lines.

Each According to the Torah Given to Him

One of the most profound discussions appears in Avodat HaKodesh by Rabbi Meir ibn Gabbai, one of the great early Kabbalists.

Ibn Gabbai himself understands the ultimate World to Come as following resurrection.[16] This creates an obvious question about Chassidei Umot HaOlam: if they are said to have a share in that world, how is that share realized for those who have died?

His response goes to the heart of the Noahide covenant. He writes that the righteous among the nations are those who have fulfilled the Torah given to the children of Noah:

חסידי אומות העולם הם אשר קיימו כל תורת בני נח שהן שבע מצות שנצטוו

“The righteous among the nations are those who fulfilled the entire Torah of the descendants of Noah, the Seven Commandments that they were commanded.”[16]

Then he offers a beautiful formulation:

אלה כתורתם ואלה כתורתם

“These according to their Torah, and those according to their Torah.”[17]

Ibn Gabbai’s comparison is covenantal. Jewish righteousness is measured through the Torah commanded to Israel; the righteousness of Bnei Noach is measured through the commandments given to them.

The numerical difference between 613 commandments and seven is therefore not his decisive criterion. The issue is fidelity to the Divine command actually given to each.

Ibn Gabbai then asks:

למה לא נאמין שיזכו אל תחיית המתים הואיל וקיימו תורתם

“Why should we not believe that they will merit the resurrection of the dead, since they fulfilled their Torah?”[18]

The force of the argument is clear: a righteous Ben Noach is evaluated in relation to the Divine Torah commanded to him, not according to commandments that were never imposed upon him.

Ibn Gabbai later offers an alternative possibility: perhaps some references to righteous gentiles in Olam HaBa concern those who are still alive when the era of resurrection arrives and who continue living into that perfected age.[19]

One of the two resolutions he offers is especially significant. It leaves open the possibility that a righteous Ben Noach who has died may merit resurrection precisely because he faithfully fulfilled the Divine Torah commanded to him.

A Necessary Qualification: Rav Saadia Gaon

Not every major treatment of resurrection addresses the nations directly. Rav Saadia Gaon is an important example.

In Treatise 7 of Emunot veDeot, Rav Saadia defends a resurrection “in this world” at the time of redemption. In R. Yosef David Qafih’s Hebrew translation, he writes: שה׳ יחיה מתי עמו בזמן הישועה — “that G-d will revive the dead of His people at the time of salvation.”[20] His discussion is therefore framed primarily around Israel.

That Israel-centered framing should not be converted into an explicit exclusion that Rav Saadia himself does not state.

Moreover, Rav Saadia treats the final recompense of Olam HaBa separately in Treatise 9,[21] and the Rebbe lists him among the authorities who understand the ultimate World to Come as following resurrection.[4]

Rav Saadia is therefore best cited here as a qualification in scope: a major classical treatment can discuss resurrection in specifically Israel-centered terms without directly answering the separate question of Chassidei Umot HaOlam.

This is precisely why the Yefeh Toar is so valuable for our question: he addresses the apparent limitation of resurrection to Israel head-on and explicitly includes righteous gentiles.

Why Must the Dead Rise at All?

At this point, a deeper question arises. Why does Judaism need resurrection? If the soul survives death and can enjoy spiritual closeness to G-d, why should it ever return to a body?

This is where an important letter of the Lubavitcher Rebbe helps illuminate the subject. In a letter from the summer of 5705 (1945), written in reply to Mr. Elchonan (Elchanan) Cohen of New York, the Rebbe discusses the deeper meaning of Techiyat HaMetim.[22]

Although the letter speaks broadly of resurrection as a stage in the “perfection of the human species,” it does not explicitly rule on Chassidei Umot HaOlam. It should therefore be used to explain the meaning and necessity of bodily resurrection, not as the primary proof that righteous Bnei Noach will rise.

The Rebbe explains that resurrection carries two aspects: a level in the perfection of the human species, and a level in receiving reward for living according to the will of the Creator. In truth, he adds, the two are one.[23]

Human perfection cannot ultimately consist of abandoning the physical world. G-d created a physical world for a purpose: to have a dwelling place in the lower realms. The goal is not for the soul to escape creation, but for creation itself to become a dwelling for G-dliness.

The culmination of history therefore requires body and soul together.

Body and Soul Share the Mission

The Talmud tells of a king who appointed two guardians over an orchard. One was blind and the other lame.[24]

The lame man could see the fruit but could not reach it. The blind man could walk but could not see. Together they solved the problem: the lame man sat upon the shoulders of the blind man, and together they took the fruit.

When judgment came, neither could excuse himself on the grounds that he was incapable of acting alone. The deed had been committed by both. So too, says the Talmud, body and soul form one human being.

The soul without the body cannot perform physical mitzvot in this world. The body without the soul cannot perform Divine service at all. Human avodah is accomplished through their partnership, and so ultimate judgment and ultimate reward involve both.

In a note to the letter, the Rebbe observes that this teaching explains only part of the question: why reward should come to body and soul together. The deeper question is why the highest good should come to the soul specifically when it is clothed in a body.

His answer is the one given above. The body is not merely a temporary instrument used by the soul. Physical creation itself is part of G-d’s purpose. The final redemption is therefore not the rejection of physicality, but its transformation.

Israel’s Unique Role and Humanity’s Shared Future

None of this diminishes the unique role of the Jewish people. The Torah gives Israel a special covenant, 613 mitzvot and a particular responsibility within the Divine plan. The Zohar itself declares: זכאה חולקהון דישראל, “Fortunate is the portion of Israel.”

But uniqueness does not require exclusivity in every aspect of the future world.

The Noahide covenant is itself Divine. A Ben Noach who serves G-d according to that covenant is not standing outside the Torah’s vision of humanity. He is fulfilling his own place within it.

This is perhaps the beauty of Ibn Gabbai’s phrase: אלה כתורתם ואלה כתורתם, “each according to his Torah.” The Jew serves G-d through the covenant given to Israel. The righteous non-Jew serves G-d through the covenant given to the descendants of Noah.

The missions are different. The Creator is One.

So, Will Righteous Bnei Noach Rise?

The sources allow us to answer carefully.

The strongest and most explicit statement is the Yefeh Toar:

כי גם חסידי אומות העולם יש להם חלק לעוה״ב ויקומו בתה״מ

“The righteous among the nations also have a share in the World to Come and will rise at Techiyat HaMetim.”

The Yefeh Toar’s conclusion cannot simply be attributed to Rambam, whose definition of Olam HaBa is different. Rather, the Yefeh Toar himself makes the crucial move: he invokes the share of Chassidei Umot HaOlam in Olam HaBa and then states explicitly, ויקומו בתה״מ, “they will rise at Techiyat HaMetim.”

The Tosefta and the Bavli (Sanhedrin 105a) establish the broader rabbinic category of righteous gentiles who share in Olam HaBa. The Zohar then shows that bodily resurrection is not portrayed as intrinsically limited to Jews: Rabbi Abba says that “all the people of the world will arise” for judgment, while another passage speaks of restoration “throughout the world,” with some rising and some not.

Avodat HaKodesh supplies the underlying logic. A righteous Ben Noach who has fulfilled the Divine Torah given to him has fulfilled his own covenant with G-d. Why, asks Ibn Gabbai, should such a person not merit resurrection?

Ta’anit supplies the category “the righteous,” and the Yefeh Toar explicitly includes Chassidei Umot HaOlam in it. Rav Saadia’s Israel-centered treatment is important context, but it is not an explicit counter-ruling on righteous gentiles.

And the Rebbe’s letter helps us understand why bodily resurrection matters in the first place: the ultimate purpose of creation is fulfilled not by abandoning the physical world, but by perfecting it.

The most defensible conclusion is therefore specific. At least one major classical commentator, the Yefeh Toar, states explicitly that Chassidei Umot HaOlam will rise at Techiyat HaMetim. Avodat HaKodesh explicitly offers the same possibility from the integrity of the Noahide covenant, and the Zohar demonstrates that resurrection is not conceptually confined to Israel alone.

For righteous Bnei Noach, the implication is profound without erasing distinctions. The Jewish and Noahide covenants remain different, yet faithful service of G-d within the covenant actually given to a person can belong to the Torah’s vision of the perfected future.

Further sources: Rambam, Iggeret Techiyat HaMetim; Rambam, Commentary on the Mishnah, introduction to Perek Chelek.


By Rabbi Avriel Rabenou, MSc. MBA

Sources and Notes

  1. 1. Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Melachim uMilchamot 8:11.
  2. 2. Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Teshuvah 8:2.
  3. 3. Ramban, Torat HaAdam, Sha’ar HaGemul.
  4. 4. Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, Igrot Kodesh, vol. 2, Letter 200, note 23 (Hebrew edition). The note lists Rav Saadia Gaon, the Raavad, the Ramban, R. Meir ben Todros HaLevi, Avodat HaKodesh II:41, the Shelah and the Alter Rebbe as interpreting the Sages’ description of Olam HaBa in Berachot 17a (“no eating or drinking… the righteous sit with their crowns on their heads”) as the state following resurrection, in contrast to Rambam, Hilchot Teshuvah 8:2, who applies it to the world of souls.
  5. 5. Bereishit Rabbah 13:6: “תחיית המתים לישראל, וזו לישראל ולעובדי כוכבים.”
  6. 6. R. Shmuel Yaffe Ashkenazi, Yefeh Toar to Bereishit Rabbah 13:6, §2: “תה״מ לישראל לאו דוקא לישראל כי גם חסידי אומות העולם יש להם חלק לעוה״ב ויקומו בתה״מ. אבל פירושו הוא לצדיקים.”
  7. 7. Babylonian Talmud, Ta’anit 7a: “תחיית המתים לצדיקים.”
  8. 8. Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:3 (Sanhedrin 107b–108a in the Babylonian Talmud).
  9. 9. Tosefta Sanhedrin 13:1–2 (subdivision varies by edition), recording Rabbi Yehoshua’s view: הא יש צדיקים בעובדי כוכבים שיש להם חלק לעולם הבא — “There are righteous people among the nations who have a share in the World to Come.”
  10. 10. Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 105a, which reads the Mishnah in accordance with Rabbi Yehoshua and distinguishes gentiles who “forget G-d” from those who fear Him.
  11. 11. Zohar I, Vayera 108a: “אבל אלין דסדום ועמורה לא יקומון.”
  12. 12. Ibid.: “כלהו בני עלמא יקומון, ויקומון לדינא.”
  13. 13. Zohar II, Vayakhel 199b: “כדין כל קברייא יקיאו לאינון מתייא דבהון לבר.”
  14. 14. Ibid.: “כל עלמא יתסון גרמין בבי קברי, אבל מנהון יקומון ומנהון לא יקומון.”
  15. 15. Ibid.: “זכאה חולקהון דישראל.”
  16. 16. R. Meir ibn Gabbai, Avodat HaKodesh, Part II (Chelek HaAvodah), chs. 41–42. Ch. 41 develops Ibn Gabbai’s broader understanding of Olam HaBa as the post-resurrection state; ch. 42 applies that framework to Chassidei Umot HaOlam and states: חסידי אומות העולם הם אשר קיימו כל תורת בני נח שהן שבע מצות שנצטוו. Igrot Kodesh, Letter 200, note 23 cites II:41 for Ibn Gabbai’s broader position on Olam HaBa.
  17. 17. Ibid.: “אלה כתורתם ואלה כתורתם.”
  18. 18. Ibid.: “למה לא נאמין שיזכו אל תחיית המתים הואיל וקיימו תורתם.”
  19. 19. Ibid., continuation of the discussion concerning Chassidei Umot HaOlam and the future era.
  20. 20. Rav Saadia Gaon, HaNivchar BeEmunot UveDeot, trans. and annotated R. Yosef David Qafih (Jerusalem, 5730/1970), Treatise 7, §§1–2. Qafih’s Hebrew translation reads: “שה׳ יחיה מתי עמו בזמן הישועה” (“that G-d will revive the dead of His people at the time of salvation”). The work was originally written in Judeo-Arabic.
  21. 21. Ibid., Treatise 9, on recompense and the World to Come.
  22. 22. Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, Igrot Kodesh, vol. 2, Letter 200, summer 5705 (1945), to Mr. Elchonan (Elchanan) Cohen of New York; first published in Kovetz Lubavitch No. 9, p. 57.
  23. 23. Ibid., section A: resurrection as a stage in “the perfection of the human species” and in receiving reward for conduct according to the will of the Creator.
  24. 24. Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 91a–b, the parable of the blind and lame guardians; cited in Igrot Kodesh, Letter 200, note to section A.

© Copyright, all rights reserved. If you enjoyed this article, we encourage you to distribute it further.

Our blogs may contain text/quotes/references/links that include copyright material of Mechon-Mamre.org, Aish.com, Sefaria.org, Chabad.org, and/or AskNoah.org, which we use in accordance with their policies.