ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM

Assistant Editor

welve-year-old David Morris
of Jerusalem often fell into
what appeared to be a trance
and spoke gibberish.
One day, David began
speaking the "gibberish" as he built a com-
plex fortress of wood and toy blocks. His
parents looked on in amazement; then his
father recognized David's creation. It was
a model of the Holy Temple.
His parents recorded David's words,
then took the tape to biblical scholar Dr.
Zvi Hermann. Hermann told the boy's
parents David was speaking ancient
Hebrew, and that he had said, "This is the
king speaking to his people. Follow me, and
I shall lead you to glory!"
Impressed, Hermann began to study
David Morris. He saw that the boy often
spoke ancient Hebrew, and always in the
first person of King David. Finally, Her-
mann decided to take his observations to
Rabbi Yedida Cohen of Israel's Supreme
Religious Council, who, in response, issued
this statement:
"We cannot admit anything openly
because the Jewish faith is based on the
theory that Kind David is the Messiah and
that when he returns to Earth, the
Kingdom of God will prevail."
Whether Morris, whose story is re-
corded in Sybil Leek's book Reincarnation:
The Second Chance, will prove to be the
Messiah is still up in the air.
The Messiah's coming is supposed to
signal the resurrection of the dead, uniting
bodies and souls. According to tradition,
the first to come back to life will be those
buried in Jerusalem.
The idea of the Messiah one day herald-
ing the resurrection of the dead offers lit-
tle comfort to those who want to know now
what will happen after they die. Judaism,
a religion replete with the most extensive
details about how one should live, offers lit-
tle in answering that question.
This may explain why polls, conducted
by George Gallup in the 1950s and 1960s,
show that few Jews believe in immortality.
Gallup's poll shows that 17 percent of
the Jews interviewed believe one's soul
lives on after death. The figure is much
higher for Christians, who are promised an
eternal life after death if they believe in
Jesus. Gallup found that 83 percent of
Catholics, 81 percent of the Baptists and

78 percent of Lutherans believe in an
afterlife.
Though the Mishnah promises every
Jew a place in Olam Haba (the world to
come), no Jewish text really defines what
that world will be like.
Some scholars believe the afterlife will
be a place where one can continually study.
Others say Olam Haba will be constant
peace and closeness to God. Some describe
the world to come as similar to the
moments just before Shabbat.
Maimonides said, "In the world to come
there are no bodies, but only the souls of
the righteous alone, without bodies, like
the angels!'
One Jewish legend has it that paradise
contains "five chambers for various classes
of the righteous" built of cedar, crystal,
olive wood, gold and pearls. It is the home

Gallup's poll shows that 17
percent of the Jews
interviewed believe one's soul
lives on after death.
Eighty-three percent of
Catholics, 81 percent of
Baptists and 78 percent of
Lutherans believe in an
afterlife.

of David and Solomon and Aaron.
And a number of rabbis reject the
whole notion of heaven and hell, saying it
is a Christian influence.
Equally difficult to pinpoint is what
Judaism says about punishment in the
afterlife. Almost all Jewish scholars say
man will be answerable for evil he has com-
mitted in this life, but they're not ready to
send the wicked to eternal punishment.
The rabbis variously describe hell as a
place where a soul will long for, but be
unable to reach, God; a place where souls
simply disappear; and as a temporary
punishment where souls must be cleansed
of sin.
Rabbis often urge the dying to say,
"May my death be an atonement for all my
sins," in an attempt to avoid possible
punishment in hell.
Gehenna, hell, takes its name from a
valley south of Jerusalem, where a

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