Today’s Topic: Ask a Rabbi Anything..LIVE!
In today’s “Ask a Rabbi Anything” we talk about Olam HaBa (the World to Come), reaffirming you Jewish ancestry, what siddur (prayer book) to start with, and much more. Recorded with a LIVE studio audience.
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How can I participate?
I belong to the same Conservative shul I was born into–Beth Yeshurun of Houston, TX.
My questions are probably not very interesting. On one hand, my Hebrew vocabulary is meager and while I know the alefbet, I cannot sound out the words fast enough to say the prayers fast enough to keep up. On the other hand, I read everything I can find in English, including some Talmud and the Zohar (which I don’t always understand!!!) and I know how to observe the holidays. I keep kosher really well. I keep Shabbos somewhat. So my questions are probably not appropriate for this show. I am really good at responding to people who come from Jews for Jesus–so good that they take one look at me and literally run away. I also know a fair amount about Christianity and a little about Hindu and Buddhist beliefs. I tried to read the Qoran but could not make heads or tails of it.
Olam Haba is used in two different ways.
Sometimes it refers to where we go right after death.
Sometimes it refers to the time after the resurrection of the dead, when our souls are again given bodies.
It is not mentioned as such in the Bible. The Bible refers to “She’ol” which is sometimes translated as “the grave” but is also taken to refer to an afterlife rather like the Greek Hades–a shadowy place where people scarcely recall who they were in this life. Both the Greeks and the Israelites got this afterlife concept from the Sumerian idea, called the Great Below.
However, for more than 2000, the idea of a happy afterlife with Gd has been part of Jewish thought.
The reason we don’t emphasize this is that we really cherish THIS life. Only in THIS life can we express our love for Gd by doing mitzvos. Gd NEEDS mitzvos, so this is our chance to do something FOR HIM. Once we reach Gan Eden (Paradise), all we can do is bliss out and receive pleasure. We can no longer have the joy of SERVICE, and we are taught that the joy of service is better than the pleasures of being rewarded for service.
I should mention that the afterlife does not include Hell, which is eternal. However, many rabbis and lay Jews refer to Gehinnom as “hell” although it is really Purgatory and lasts a maximum of one year, according to Akiva. After getting purified in Gehinnom, most people are admitted to Paradise.
I could say more, but never mind.
I keep kosher and celebrate the holidays. I used to invite 15-25 people to my Seder (we read the entire Hagaddah) and also to my Rosh HaShanah table, but I don’t any more. I go to my brother, my child, or my cousin’s instead.
You designed this site for people who are interested in conversion, but I’m already Jewish. Neither of my parents was born in the USA, nor did they go to college. Is it OK if I come here again? I AM curious.