Lizzie     October 12  at 9:21am

I’m in an adult Sunday School at the Presbyterian church we recently began attending. We’re reading/discussing a book titled Everything Must Change in which the author, Brian McLaren, critiques a whole lot of stuff about modern Evangelical hermeneutics (or the lack thereof)

One of his big gripes is Christians being so quick to interpret Gospel references to "eternal life" or "the kingdom of God" as necessarily pointing to individual salvation in the afterlife. (Which leads to a dualist understanding of life in the here and now-all things fleshly are "merely" temporal and corrupted, so let’s focus only on the future delights of a perfect heaven.) His point being that many of those terms point to living a transcendent, God-centered life in the here and now.

He takes Christians to task for their ignorance regarding the first-century Jewish understanding of those terms. (I think he’s mainly concerned with the Pharisaic tradition, since the Pharisees actually did believe in a future resurrection and afterlife. But I have to say the author is a bit vague on the details–so I’m not really sure.)

All of this led to lots of discussion/questions about how the rabbinic traditions have evolved over the centuries and what modern Jews believe about heaven, hell, the Kingdom of God, the Bosom of Abraham, Sheol, Hades, whatever terms apply. Basically, everything that might fall under the umbrella of "eternal life."

Someone said, "Does anyone have a conservative Jewish friend who might be willing to act as ‘consultant’ on this? And I was like, hmm, funny you should ask. Does a Facebook-style revived high school friendship count? Since there is not exactly a big Jewish population in these parts (much less a practicing Jewish population), I figured I’d ask you for your take on all of this.

So, I’m curious as to whatever you do know of the "official" teachings on the subject–as well as whatever your own "mishmash" might be.  Sorry to be so wordy. I hope this makes sense.  

Thanks for being Presbyterian Sunday School Consultant of the Week! 

Jane     October 12 at 7:34pm

Okay, I have to admit that I am not so prepared to give you the "official party line" on this question. Afterlife is referenced so rarely in the Torah (that I know of). I do know that the focus is more on how to live in this life. You live righteously, repair the world (Tikkun Olam) and do the mitzvot as commanded in the Torah, to usher in the Messianic period. That is when all the righteous dead shall live again. Reform Judaism rejects the idea of resurrection, which is what that is I guess. That word resurrection just seems so, Christian…

Here are a few basic links:

http://www.jewfaq.org/olamhaba.htm

http://www.religionfacts.com/judaism/beliefs/afterlife.htm

and of course, good old Wikipedia…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_eschatology

Olam Ha Ba (the Life To Come) is one of key disagreements between the Pharisees and the Saducees. I think the Pharisees won over all, right? My ancient Jewish history fails me, sadly…

We (modern Judaism in general) do believe in it. There is Gan Eden (garden of eden, not the one where Adam & Eve lived, just a spiritually perfect place) and something called Genhinom, which I think is a sort of hell or purgatory. If you are evil, when you die you go there, experience some sort of torture until you repent, then after a year, if you have repented, you go to Gan Eden. I THINK. Which is why the official Jewish mourning period is 11 months, so as not to imply it took your beloved dead person a whole year to get to heaven. Seriously.

The opinions stated above may not represent Conservative Judaism, but I think I am close.

My own belief buffet is, it turns out, are a little Kabbalistic (mystic Jewish thought) with some weird multi-culti stuff thrown in for good measure. (this is the part you might not want to share with your class or pastor, it will absolutely discredit the first part, LOL)

Basically, I believe there is no way this is the only existence we have. There has to be more. Perhaps it is like the movie Defending Your Life with Meryl Streep and Albert Brooks–we learn in each life, and get to step up through a series of successively higher or better lives each time, if we have learned what we needed to learn. Of course, this is also a bit Buddhist of me as well… There is a great book called The Jew in the Lotus by Roger Kamenetz that is written about the trend of Jews searching for more mysticism in their lives, through Buddhism. A great read!

When my Dad was sick (dying, it turned out) four years ago, against everyone else’s better judgment, I read The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, which did not depress me in the least. Since perhaps I am perverse by nature, it was actually comforting. I have since then sort of believed (in a mythological, Santa Claus sort of way) that my father is somewhere in his version of really great (no doubt away from my mother, LOL) and has some sort of omniscient knowledge of what is going on in my life, present and past. This is incredibly Me-centric, so perhaps I’d add that the omniscience works for other people and things relating to his life.

Dad would not be one to intervene. Even if he could (a little), I’m guessing he would choose not to. (that whole "no unseemly favors" thing that morally kept him from attempting to fix speeding tickets for family especially offspring, in life)  Perhaps Mom is there also (but in a different corner, LOL), hopefully freed from her illness. She’d be more likely to intervene or say hello. For sure she "hung around" longer after she died. He did not at all.

Then, just for shits and giggles, let’s throw in a bit of the Mexican tradition of Dia de los Muertos. Honor your dead, not that I set up artistic diaoramas or dress up and dance in parades on stilts or anything like that…

But in my head, on occasion, I sort of "gather" my dead (that would be my grandmother, other grandparents I didn’t know as well if it’s an emergency, ha ha, my mom and my dad, and sometimes even an ex-boyfriend’s mom who I know was fond of me), for strength or comfort or perhaps a bit of intervention or wisdom or something. Sort of my spiritual Calvary, I guess…  (in the "send in the cavalry" troops, sort of way, as opposed to "calvary church", ha ha)

Not that I believe that actually happens, but it can’t hurt, right?

Add some magic (Magik?) of the Wiccan sort, a fair amount of Mother Earth-matriarchal-based ancient beliefs from pre-Judeo-Christian monotheism, and of course the Catholic guilt-based dash of going to hell in a hand basket whenever I am mean.  (even if it’s funny)

You asked…

What I do very wholeheartedly admire and adhere to are the rituals around Jewish death and mourning. Having been through it I am here to tell you they are set up incredibly well. From the death to caring for the body to burial, then shiva and saying kaddish and other mourning rituals, I think my religion did a great job of setting that up. Everything up to and including the burial is done to honor the dead person.  Everything after the mourners leave the cemetery and ritually wash their hands, is for the mourner. For eleven months.  

Phew. That’s a mouthful, or rather, a keyboard full.

Tag, you’re it….

Lizzie     October 13 at 10:26am

Wow–thank you. So much more in-depth an answer than I expected. I want to respond (am chomping at the bit to respond!), but I have midterms to finish preparing and a kid who I suspect has mono. Or, at the very least, a raging strep infection. We had to cancel the college visit, and today promises to be a crazy day of doctor’s appointment, lab visit, test-writing, and soccer practices. Oy gevalt.

Metaphysical ruminations must wait until some of the physical stuff is addressed here. Looking forward to taking up the thread again after I get through my teaching/grading marathon for this week.

Lizzie     October 17 at 8:14am

First time this week I’ve had a chance to write back about your Jewish (and personal) theology responses/explanations.

I never knew that Jewish tradition had its own version of Purgatory. More in common with my Catholic background than I’d ever thought. Is Gen-hinom the same thing as Gehenna? I’m familiar with that term.

Isn’t it interesting that Resurrection would seem such a Christian term? Since it was so much a matter of debate during Jesus’s time (between Pharisees and Sadducees), I’ve come to think of it more as a Jewish one (at least, first-century Jewish, which I guess know more about than the modern version) I always think of Mary’s textbook answer to Jesus when he tried to comfort her by telling her that her dead brother Lazarus would rise. "Yes, Rabbi, I know that I will see my brother again in the Resurrection of the Last Day." (or something very much like that)

That’s from John’s gospel (ch. 11). (I’m particularly fond of John’s gospel, since John was referred to as "the disciple whom Jesus loved." He was writing as not only an eyewitness to Jesus’s ministry, but as his intimate friend.

But anyway, I’d always thought that Resurrection was a big deal to the Jews (and also a matter of fierce debate in the time of Jesus–esp. since the Zealots wanted to concentrate on earthly political power rather than pie-in-the-sky afterlife stuff.)

So, the focus is on righteousness in this life–and then it’s sort of a matter of trust that the rewards will come and His chosen people don’t have to worry too much about details of that future existence?

Does one have to follow the law perfectly to be considered righteous? Again, drawing on my own derivative understanding of Judaism on that matter–that is, the part that Paul (formerly Saul the Pharisee) discusses righteousness in his letter to the Romans.) Can anyone be righteous enough to satisfy the requirements of the Law? And, thus, to go anywhere but Purgatory (or worse)?

Your comment that it’s hard to imagine that this life is all there is resonates with me. My search in my mid-20’s began in earnest because I was approaching the age when my mother died–and somehow in my weird (catastrophic-thinking) way I assumed that I would also die in my 20’s. It seemed too absurd to think that we are just the sum of our chemicals and electrical impulses–and that we must be made for something more lasting than 70-80 years of maturing, reproducing, working, and generally schlepping around in this temporal bubble. In my most agnostic or pagan moments, I could believe just about anything except annihilation at the moment of death.

The idea of living again and again in the effort to advance to higher enlightenment confuses and terrifies me. If you forget each past life, how in the world could any just Arbiter hold you accountable to know how to do better? It seems like the cruel Sisyphus myth, where he’s almost got that boulder up the hill–only to have it come rolling back down to the bottom to be pushed up (almost) again.

I’ve marked The Jew in the Lotus as a recommendation on my book list. It sounds interesting.

I loved your ruminations about what the afterlife/paradise might look like for your father (away from your mother . And your mom off in her corner–freed but not as quick to let go as your dad. I think that’s one of the trickiest things about this whole heaven question. What’s paradise for you might be the furthest thing from it for me–so then, how could it be a place of reunion?

Did you ever read C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce? It was a wonderful (and wryly funny) book about that very question. (Of course, Lewis, being a very orthodox Christian, had his own theories on how that all works out.)

I would very much like to believe that those who loved us who have passed on are able to guide and encourage. When I read the letters that my mother had written to my father while he was in basic training, I thought how much I’d like to have someone with her wit and intelligence chatting with me inside my head every now and again when I needed motherly advice. In orthodox Christianity, of course, there is no such communion between the dead and the living. The only kind of supernatural communion (for the living) is between the soul and God (or, horrifyingly, a personal Satan and his evil minions).

I will have to continue this later, since my anniversary festivities are now beginning for the day. That’s probably enough for one mouthful anyway.