Judaism INsight Out #88 –

The Book of Life & The After Life As We Approach

Rosh Hashanah – Beginning The Days of Remembrance

I cause death and I bring to life

Deuteronomy 39: 32

Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the (10) Days of Remembrance culminating with Yom Kippur. Judaic thought is during this period one is written or not written into the book of life. Notice the book of life – which implies ‘this life.’

There is very little direct reference – if at all in Torah (though not Talmud) about an afterlife as Torah is about life – in contrast to then Egypt which was preoccupied with death (The Pyramids – tombs, The Book of The Dead, etc.).

But there is indirect proof of an afterlife in the Torah:

Recall – when Hashem offered to Moses after the Golden Calf fiasco to start again with Moses as the leader – Moses countered that if so – wipe him out of the book of life (so to speak).
When Abraham, Isaac, Moses etc. ‘died’ the sequence wasn’t ‘he died, he was buried, he was gathered to his kin’ but rather ‘he died, he gathered to his kin, and then buried!’
The sequence of “I cause death and I bring to life,’ rather than “I bring to life and I cause death.’

I wonder, wonder who, who-oo-ooh, who
(Who wrote the Book Of Life)

Tell me, tell me, tell me

Oh, who wrote the Book Of Life
I’ve got to know the answer
Was it Hashem up above

(Oh, I wonder, wonder who, mmbadoo-ooh, who)

(Who wrote the Book Of Life)

(Chapter One says to obey him)
(You obey him with all your heart)
(Chapter Two you tell him you’re)
(Never, never, never, never, never gonna de-part)
(In Chapter Three remember we’ll do, harken & enhance
(In Chapter Four you screw up
(But he’ll give you another chance for repentance))

(Oh, I wonder, wonder who, mmbadoo-ooh, wWho)
(Who wrote the Book Of ((Continued)) Life)

Apologies to the Monotones song “The Book of Love”

Still for the doubters, who may or may not believe in Hashem and an afterlife, there is the oldie but goodie Pascal’s Wager

Per “Pascal’s Wager” it is in one’s own best interest to behave as if God exists, since the possibility of eternal punishment in hell (or forever with Hillary Clinton, Al Sharpton, Nancy Pelosi (sans Dove Bars, etc.) outweighs any advantage of believing otherwise.

In This Life