What Happens After I Die? Jewish Views of Life After Death

by Behrman House

Offers a wide spectrum of Jewish responses to the question of life after death.  Classical answers are drawn from traditional Jewish literature. Modern Jewish thinkers, from all denominations in the Jewish community, add their personal notions of life after death.

Genres: Judaism, Jewish

1 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Beatrice Maron Schaeffer]

When my Grandma Mickey passed away (almost five and a half years ago now), my sister connected with our Rabbi and Cantor over the topic of death. They pointed her towards this book, which I don’t think she read in its entirety back then (understandably)…but, when it came time for her to choose our family book club’s next read last month, she suddenly landed back on it. And I’m very glad she did.

True to what the book suggests, and as one myself, Reform Jews don’t really believe in one “right” way of thinking about life after death (or if there even is such a thing). And, as someone who doesn’t think frequently about death in general, it wasn’t until reading this book—and learning about all the ways past and present Jews have thought about the topic—that I really started to think seriously about what my own beliefs surrounding death and life are. In some odd way, I think the overview this book presents made me feel more connected than I have in a while with my Reform roots. I’ll have to unpack that sometime. But, until then, I am looking forward to my book club meeting tomorrow and discussing why we, the finite beings we are, “consciously or unconsciously, possess a profound desire to be infinite.”