N EWS
To All Our
Relatives
and Friends,
Our wish for a
year filled with
happiness,
health and prosperity.
To All Our
Relatives
and Friends,
Our wish for a
year filled with
happiness,
health and prosperity.
I
Is This Life
All There Is?
DENNIS PRAGER
Special to The Jewish News
DR. WILLIAM & MAXINE STOLER
To All Our
Relatives
and Friends,
Our wish for a
year filled with
happiness,
health and prosperity.
NORMAN & KATHY STRICOF
May the coming
May the coming
year be filled
year be filled
with health and
with health and
happiness.
happiness for
all our family
and friends.
GEORGE VINE & FAMILY
IDELLE&ERNIE NENRTH,DEBBY &DENNIS
SUSIE & CRAIG ROSENBERG
May the coming
May the coming
year be filled
year be filled
with health and
with health and
happiness for
happiness for
all our family
all our family
We wish our family and friends a
very healthy, happy and prosperous
New Year
and friends.
and friends.
SHIRLEY & MAURICE NEEMAN
PHILIP & RAE OLENDER
BEN • SALLY PASMAN
We wish our family and friends a
very healthy, happy and prosperous
New Year
vann 111115 Inv?
11I1DTt 111111 1] w'
to all
our friends
and relatives.
to all
my friends
and relatives.
DR. & MRS. BERNARD TOFT
MIKE, KEN, ALYSSA
NAOMI TRAGER
Best wishes for a
happy, healthy
New Year.
Best wishes for a
happy, healthy
New Year.
Plantation, Florida
LENA RICHTER & FAMILY
SHARIL, JEFF, AIMEE
& SAMANTHA ROBY
We wish our family and friends • a
very healthy, happy and prosperous
New Year
Best wishes for a
happy, healthy
New Year.
Best wishes for a
happy, healthy
New Year.
JOAN & JERRY PENFIL
SIDNEY & SHIRLEY RIGER
LEW & ANNE ROSE
THE NESSELS - MARTIN, SANDRA, CARYN, DANA & ARI
We wish our family and friends a
very healthy, happy and prosperous
New Year
RUTH & NATE OLESHANSKY
We wish our family and friends a
very healthy, happy and prosperous
New Year
ROZ & SID PELTON
92
DANIEL t MURPHY
Oakland County Executive
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1989
S
ome time ago, I at-
tended a funeral at
which a prominent
rabbi officiated. To probably
everyone present, there was
nothing unusual; the service
was traditional Conservative
and the rabbi's remarks
about the deceased were
moving.
Then at the grave site, the
rabbi spoke about Judaism's
attitude toward death.
"Judaism does not believe in
a life after death," the rabbi
said. "Rather, we live on in
the good works we do and in
the memories of those we
leave behind!' As this is what
most contemporary ' Jews
believe, few people at the
funeral would have found
reason to take particular
notice of these remarks. But
"It defies logic to
hold that the non-
physical God would
create a world
whose only reality
is physical."
I was furious. The rabbi had
told Jews, at a moment when
they were most impres-
sionable, a profound untruth.
Any Jew who says that
Judaism does not believe in
reality beyond death is offer-
ing his own, not Judaism's
beliefs.
Now there is nothing wrong
with a rabbi or any Jew offer-
ing his own views. Having
some non-traditional views
myself, I certainly can respect
views that differ from the
tradition. But simple intellec-
tual honesty demands that
whenever a Jew represents
Judaism, he make it clear
where the views he espouses
differ from that of thousands
of years of Jews and Judaism.
As regards a 'hereafter,
Judaism is not at all am-
bivalent. (See the 11th
chapter of the Talmudic Trac-
tate Sanhedrin„ and
Maimonides' Thirteen Prin-
ciples of Faith.) As the entry
under "Afterlife" in the En-
cyclopedia Judaica begins:
"Judaism has always main-
tained a belief in an afterlife!"
Now, it is certainly true
that Judaism gives us no
details about what happens
after death. And it is equally
true. that Judaism wants
Jews to preoccupy themselves
with this world; Judaism has
always had contempt for