I rarely use this forum to discuss religious ideas, mine or anyone else's.
However, lately I have found myself both asking and being asked about my ideas
of forever. So, consider this forewarning. In this post I am unpacking both,
my
personal understanding of a Jewish after-life as well some
of my
personal ideas and questions on the topic. I will write Hebrew words
and phrases in transliteration (phonetic spelling) and I will supply short
definitions as needed.
If this is not your cup of tea feel free to skip this post and to the rest
of you please feel free to share your own thoughts or ideas from your belief
systems. This is not meant to be a definitive answer, merely an unpacking of
ideas.
A Jewish Frame of Reference:
Jewish texts make very few references to an after-life or what may happen
after death. This is because Judaism is focused on actions far more than
beliefs. The result is that our texts describe the
mitzvot (commandments)
we are expected to fulfill in this earthly life. Successfully living toward
this purpose brings reward, failure
may
bring punishment, whether either will continue after death, or whether anything
occurs after death, is not considered relevant to the task of living.
Neither the
Torah (the Jewish Bible), nor the
Talmud (Rabbinic analysis
of the laws that inform Jewish daily life and practice) discuss an after-life
in any detail. There are references to
Olam Ha-Ba (the world to come) but
whether that is one that exists in a heavenly realm or is simply a reference to
a future time on earth is unclear. Neither view is considered the definitive
Jewish position on the matter.
In the Mishnah (a written redaction of Jewish traditions
referred to as the Oral Torah) we
find the majority of the texts referencing Olam Ha-Ba (the world to come) both as descriptions of the
messianic
age (
a time of universal peace
and brotherhood on the earth, without crime, war or poverty) or to
describe an after-life.
Mishnah
(chronicled
Oral Torah) tractate
Moed
Katan (
essays within Mishnah
and Talmud) teaches us "
This
world is like a hotel. The world to come is like a home." However, even in imagining an eternal home we are told 'Better one hour in repentance and good deeds in this world than all
the life in the world to come.” Pirkei Avot (
essays within Mishnah and Talmud) reaffirming our
actions here should be the focus of our efforts.
What did Jewish Sages Think Forever Would
Look Like?
References to a heavenly after-life are few. Ideas of what a heavenly world
to come might look like differ widely and while there are very few references
to heaven there is even less said about an eternal punishment or hell.
The concept of hell was never extensively developed in Judaism. Its origins
are in a specific site (a physical and decidedly earthly location), the
Valley
of Gehinnom, a valley that was the site of a heathen cult whose rituals
included burning children, ( II Kings 23:10 and Jeremiah 7:31) and even the souls
who find themselves in this valley are not expected to stay any longer than 12
months. (Babylonian Talmud, tractate Eduyot 2:10)
Throughout our history our sages have taken strong, sometimes bold,
positions of what to expect from eternity, much of which informs Jewish thought
today:
·
Rabbi
Akiba states clearly that any punishment that is part of an after-life is
not eternal.
·
Moses Maimonides
(aka: Rambam) maintained that the pious of all the nations of the world have a
portion in the world-to-come. (Jews and Non-Jews alike)
·
Babylonian Talmud, tractate Taanit suggests that
the righteous will sit at golden banquet tables and lavish banquets are
described in the Babylonian Talmud, tractate Baba Batra.
·
Johanan
Ben Nappaḥa tells us that the three central activities of life in the
world-to-come are celebrating Shabbat, enjoying sunshine, and making love.
From these early descriptions it seems clear that there is an expectation
that we will inhabit our bodies again.
However, Judaism considers our bodies and souls
as completely integrated, much like the first being God created:
“God
created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female
He created them” Perhaps this is why sacred texts refer to the “soul of
man” as “her,” but where the soul resides at the end of an earthly life until
it is reunited with a new body or its original earthly form is less clear. Contemporary rabbis and scholars have offered their own interpretation of an
after-life.
·
Rabbi Milton Steinberg wrote of the lasting
influence of each individual on the world. This, he claimed, is our immortality.
“Death cannot be and is not the end of life. Man transcends death in many
altogether naturalistic fashions. He may be immortal biologically, through his
children; in thought, through the survival of his memory; in influence, by
virtue of the continuance of his personality as a force among those who come
after him; and ideally, through his identification with the timeless things of
the spirit.”
·
Rabbi Roland B. Gittelsohn promoted a different
variation of biological immortality. “Our bodies no longer live after death,
but they are then transformed into other kinds of life. The energy and chemical
elements from our bodies go into the soil, where they help make flowers grow
and directly or indirectly provide food for plants, animals, and human beings. So
as we come from nature, so we return to nature.”
·
Rabbi Bernard S. Raskas took these two concepts
and joined them in his writings. “I was with my people when they were part of
the exodus from Egypt. I stood with them at Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments.
The pronouncements of Isaiah pound in my blood. The sayings of Akiba are sealed
in the cells of my brain. The message of Maimonides is part of my mind. I
experienced the Holocaust and shared in the agony of my people. I participated
in the birth of modern Israel and the ecstasy of my people for I am a Jew, a
corporate part of my people. I say this, not in arrogance, but in awesome
humility. As a member of the Jewish people, I am immortal.”
My Incomplete Thoughts on an After-Life
To be honest, until recently I
hadn’t really given forever much thought. I am preoccupied with the here and
now, sometimes to the point of not fully considering the outcomes of choices I
make daily – so you can see how life after death might not make it on to my
radar too routinely.
As part of my Jewish education I was
familiar with the contemporary rabbi’s positions mentioned above, which I read
as not mutually exclusive of one another, and had adopted as the most
reasonable expectations about what we can
know happens after death.
As for the Talmudic sages, I am
indifferent regarding gold furniture or lavish banquets, but Rabbi Akiba,
Rambam, and Johanan Ben Nappaḥa do each envision a world to come that I’d be
more than happy to take part in. Again their ideas are not mutually exclusive
of one another, they seem to have reasonable expectations about the process of
transitioning from this life to the ones they describe, and so if it turns out
theirs is the more accurate description of a world to come I am prepared to
spend eternity this way.
When I have considered the
possibilities of an after-life I have primarily thought of it as a function of
our ability to imagine. This is a powerful and well developed skill, even in
very young children. We visualize other worlds daily in this life. Over the
course of history we have imagined cures for disease, responses to famine, the
ability to fly, and in time each has become part of our reality, so why not
forever?
Certainly this could be an extension
of the Jewish ideal to create paradise on earth, but I do not think it has to
be limited to that concept. People are rich in imagination and resourcefulness.
What could be a more natural culmination of those human traits than turning a
lifetime of experiences and ideas into a “world” we create to sustain the final
remnants of our minds/souls as our bodies cease to function.
Is there more, less? Probably, I am
still new to this line of thinking and I am hoping to hear your thoughts regarding possibilities I have not even considered imagining
yet…
