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timately satisfying," he says. "Now people are asking,
`What is my spiritual essence? There's a spiritual side of
me that's starved.' And concurrent with this, there is a
whole body of evidence by serious researchers that there
is an afterlife. It's hard to just dismiss that evidence out
of hand."
Thanks in part to these broad social changes, people
are beginning to seek out Jewish sources on
Round And Round Again
the hereafter — and they may not like what
And perhaps he shall.
Rabbi Shmuel Irons, a respected Orthodox scholar in they find, Rabbi Irons says. "In the Jewish
Detroit, argues with fervor in defense of the literal res- sense of the afterlife, there is a notion of cul-
urrection — even the occasional reincarnation — of the pability and accountability. People don't want
to be judged. It goes against our liberal think-
dead.
Rabbi Irons, 50, is dean of the Kollel Institute of Greater ing."
Detroit, a graduate-level Torah learning center for rab-
But rabbi, when you say judged ... we al-
bis, and he too has seen a renewed Jewish interest in the ways heard that Jews don't have a "hell.
Olam HaBah, the world to come, which some also have Right?
Wrong. Rabbi Irons' world includes, yes,
called an olam ha'emet, a world of perfect truth.
Throughout much of the 20th century, he says, "for Jews eternal damnation. But, he says with a laugh,
by and large the thrust was toward materialism. They "you have to be pretty bad, you know?"
had come to America from a very difficult material cir-
In a world with right and wrong, where
cumstance, and were determined not to repeat that here. good and evil are not relative, there simply
But in the process, religion became trivialized, spiritual- has to be a hell, he says. "Where is Adolf
ity was de-emphasized. The rabbis from the pulpit did not Hitler, in the frame of things? There is an ac-
countability, and just as there is suffering in
really dwell on spiritual issues.
"When I grew up there was a love affair with the sec- this world, there is suffering in the next world.
ular world. Agnosticism was a means to prove that one It's all based on what you do here."
was an intellectual, but what came out of this was not ul-
Fortunately, he says, we will not be judged
from death."
Neither is Rabbi Davids running from death today. He
has come to terms with its inevitability. But, he adds,
"don't read me as being happy, content, satisfied or at ease,
because I am far from that. I would like to go on living."
The Humanist View
ant to know what
happens when you
die? Nothing hap-
pens. Know why?
You're dead.
That's the firm opinion of
Rabbi Sherwin Wine, the 68-
year-old founder of the Hu-
manistic Judaism movement
and author of numerous books,
including Judaism Beyond God.
"I believe that I will lose con-
sciousness, my body will ulti-
mately be disposed of, and that
will be the end," he says.
"Humanistic Judaism is
based on the idea that the truth
about the world is a function of
evidence, and right now there is
no empirical evidence that there
is life beyond the physical body,"
explains Rabbi Wine, who lives
and works in the metropolitan
Detroit area. "Humanistic Ju-
daism believes that death is real
and finite; we do not believe
there is some spirit that sur-
vives."
Consciousness comes from
the mind, he says, and "the
mind is a function of the body,
W
which is in turn a function of the
central nervous system." When
that goes, you go.
If this is so, Rabbi Wine, why
all this new interest in questions
about the hereafter? "The real
world is very hard for people to
accept, even well-educated peo-
ple in a scientific age," he says.
"The need for an alternative re-
ality and fantasies to make the
world less harsh can be very im-
portant. But even my grandfa-
ther was less naive" than today's
believers.
Rabbi Wine rejects almost all
the traditional rabbinic teach-
ings on the afterlife, from the
resurrection of the dead to the
ultimate judgment of souls. "I
don't think there is a moral
judgment in the universe," he
says. "In biblical times, the
thinking was that there would
be justice on earth. When that
proved false, medieval thinking
created immortality, resurrec-
tion, a judgment after death.
But if there is going to be jus-
tice, it is going to be created by
human beings."
And while his views do not
by measures beyond our reach. "The Vilna Goan, the 18th-
century spiritual leader, said the purpose of life on earth
is to transform one's character," Rabbi Irons explains.
'We're really here on earth for a purpose: to make a change
in ourselves and the world around us."
At the judgment, God will demand of us, "What did you
do with the opportunities you were dealt? Talmud says it
accord with the traditional
teachings, Rabbi Wine argues
that they are as solidly Jewish
as anyone else's. "Judaism could
accommodate both Albert Ein-
stein and the Lubavitcher
Rebbe," he says. "Did they share
a common view of the universe?
I doubt it."
In fact, Rabbi Wine says his
view is perhaps a true reflection where they are at.
of the feelings of the majority of
"I had someone recently who
Jews today. "Jews on
went through a very
the whole are so secu-
difficult leukemia. It
Rabbi S herwin
larized that most, when
Win e of
was very clear that it
you ask them, don't
Birmin gham
was fatal," the rabbi
Tem ple.
think there is a Jewish
says. The hospital's
belief in an afterlife," he
Jewish chaplain
says. "With most fairly
dropped by the patient's room,
well-educated Jews, you would "and he was suggesting that
be embarrassed to even bring `what is happening to you is for
up the subject."
the good, it is part of God's plan,'
Like his rabbinic colleagues, and so on. I don't know, he must
Rabbi Wine is called upon fre- have been pretty Orthodox —
quently to comfort dying con- not many rabbis even talk like
gregants and their families. He that today."
does not temper his views for
The patient kicked the rab-
their sake, and he says they are, bi out of his room.
by and large, grateful. "When
Rabbi Wine then explained
we deal with people confronting to his congregant, "What is hap-
the death of a loved one, the pening to you is unfair, life is
honesty is often refreshing. tough, and I admire you for your
They're sick and tired of listen- courage in dealing with a life
ing to Gan Eden, to this vocab- which is often unfair. I encour-
ulary which is inconsistent with
age people to be strong and
courageous. I try to empower
people, instead of mak.ing them
feel like the helpless victims of
some script that someone else
has designed."
But without a life hereafter,
without a cosmic scheme, some
say, life seems to hold no greater
meaning. To which Rabbi Wine
replies: "The meaning of life
comes from the fact that you are
able to satisfy a large number of
your basic desires, not that you
live forever, What if the after-
life meant eternal frustration?
My question with regard to the
afterlife is, before I sign up,
what's the agenda? What do we
do there? It sounds cosmically
boring." ❑
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