Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D,
Sept. 17, 2019
A few years ago, (along with Rabbi Daniel B. Syme) I wrote a
book, entitled “What Happens After I Die?” (1990). (Obviously this was not
based on personal experiences!!!). In it, we identified a number of popular beliefs
in the Western world. In reality, no one knows exactly what happens after you breathe
your last, and everyone speculates.
In the early biblical period, people believed that death is
final, and after you die, you go down to a place called Sheol, where you
live a shadowy kind of existence (Gen. 37: 35; Isa. 14:9 and many others).
Later on, a few new beliefs emerged, such as : a) Resurrection.
One of the most popular view in Rabbinic Judaism is that after you die and
buried, your soul survives for a long time until it comes back united with your
old body. It is not known when or from where this idea entered Judaism but our
texts show that it appeared towards the end of the biblical period (See,
Ez.37), and became a prominent belief in the rabbinic literature. From Judaism,
the idea entered Christianity, and from there into Islam. So, it is possible to
say that it is the most popular belief in the Western world.
b) Transmigration of souls. According to this view,
after death, the soul remains active but at some point, it enters into a new
body, and the person returns to life. There are no references to this view in
the Bible, but it became very popular among Jewish and non-Jewish mystics, and
especially in the Zohar (13th century Spain, by Moses de Leon), the
classic text of the Jewish Kabbalah.
c) Immortality. Others, however, denying that the
body can come back to life at all, have advocated
the belief that after death, the only thing that remains is your work, your
name and reputation, asserting that, as the poet Hugh R. Orr, put it, “They are
not dead who live in hearts they leave behind.”
The consequence of your belief in this area has a great deal
to do with what is done with the body after death. If you believe in
resurrection or even in reincarnation, then it makes sense to bury the body,
and wait for the time when it will come back to life. The gravestone also gives
the remaining family a physical mark for periodic visits. Now, waiting for the
body to revifive can take a very long time, if at all. Rabbinic sages state
that this will happen when the Messiah comes at the end of days; Christians
assert that this will occur when Jesus returns to earth. Muslims affirm that on
the Day of Resurrection, namely, the Day of Judgment, some will end up going to
paradise and others to hell. Judaism and Christianity also teach a similar
lesson. However, if you do not believe in any of these return possibilities,
then cremation becomes a valid alternative. In this scenario, the cremains are
buried or discarded, and you only have a memorial service at an appropriate
location and time.
In my case, I affirm this last alternative, because I do not
believe in resurrection or that I will ever come back. It is enough for me to
assume that whatever good I did in my life, the teachings that I have imparted,
the books and articles that I wrote will continue to exist in the memory of family
and friends and, perhaps, in some library around the world.
What do you believe will happen to you?
