Immortality of the Soul (2)

THE PITFALL: FORSAKING THIS WORLD

The greatest danger posed by the belief in the immortality of the soul is manifest in our conflict with Christianity.  This belief can form the basis for a society which despises this world and searches for a safe haven in the world to come.  Judaism teaches that we must not build the world to come at the expense of the destruction of this world.  If put into practice, the ramifications of the belief in the immortality of the soul would be catastrophic.  The Church, particularly during the period of its reign in the Middle Ages, preached faith in the world after death, where one can find solace from all the misery of this world.  Consequently, it abandoned this world in the hands of flesh and blood rulers, who used it for the satisfaction of their evil desires.  What emerged was an unholy pact, in which the kingdom and the Church divided up the world, a pact, whose drawbacks far outweighed its benefits.  Thus, the idea of redemption, translated into perfecting this world under the rule of God, clashed with the faith which spoke only of the world to come and thus abandoned this world.  In addition, the belief in the immortality of the soul at times became a tool of deception in the hands of dishonest connivers.  Judaism refused to pay this high price for the belief in immortality.  It insisted that this belief should not come at the expense of the perfection of this world, but rather as its complement.

     The image we described earlier, of lights shining in the daytime, is, to my mind, illuminating.  Rav Kook tells us that in the time of the Second Temple, with the decline of prophecy, the loss of political independence, and the consequent decline of the hope of altering society and the world, the belief in the immortality of the soul became more prominent.  This was precisely the time when Christianity was drawing its sources from Judaism.  Christianity saw itself as drawing from the world of the bible, while it differed with Judaism regarding the Oral Law.  Herein, explains Rav Kook, lies one of Christianity's fundamental errors.  Judaism draws from both sources, the vision of the prophets and the teachings of the Sages.  Christianity's great failure stemmed from the fact that it drew its inspiration from that state of weakness, in which the totality of life was already inadequate.  It grasped the personal, heavenly idea, thus losing the biblical vision of the perfection of the world.  This renunciation was tragic and impaired all human development.  Only the entirety of perspectives of faith can bring blessing to mankind and truly perfect the world under the rule of God.

THE OCCULT AND ITS DANGERS

The danger we have spoken of until now is not the only one we faced.  There is another pitfall that we have known since the times of common idol worship, and continues to accompany us to this very day.  This danger is expressed most noticeably in the belief among certain nations that the souls of the dead can be gods.  This belief was common, for example, among the Romans, but is also present in many Far Eastern cultures.  In less extreme manifestations of this phenomenon, the souls of the dead became a source of sorcery.  The Torah strongly objects to such beliefs, and the story of Shaul at Ein Dor is a classic example.  Despite the changing times, these phenomena have not disappeared, and continue to express themselves in various forms of spiritism.  The Torah objected to any communion with spirits and forbade these practices under the general title of consulting the dead.  The belief in the immortality of the soul oftentimes became a source for superstitions, a focus which detracts from man's true spirit, his intelligence and freedom.  Reacting to the sense of uncertainty engendered by this world, the search for the spirits of the dead endangered prophecy, the search for communication with God.

     I would like to discuss the dangers of the occult through the example we mentioned earlier, the story in the book of Shmuel about the medium in Ein Dor.  The verse says that the medium was frightened when she saw Shmuel.  Whatever our interpretation might be, the medium was clearly surprised when she succeeded!  The verse [Shmuel I 28:12] tells us: "And the woman saw Shmuel and she cried out in a loud voice, and the woman said to Shaul, why did you trick me, for you are Shaul?" Only then did she realize that it was Shaul who was standing with her this whole time.  The Talmud in tractate Sanhedrin tells us that whereas all the dead would rise upside-down, Shmuel arose in an upright position, and that is why the woman was frightened.  It seems to me that the Talmud's statement is based on what was a common practice among the conjurers.  It is reasonable to assume that they used a simple principle of physics, the principle of the "camera obscura," which explains the way the camera and the eye function, a principle which the Ralbag discovered and explained.  Imagine we made a hole in the wall of a dark room and make a hole in the wall, thus connecting it to another room, which is brightly lit.  When a person walks around and light comes through that hole a very primitive form of film projection has been achieved.  However, according to very simple optical principles, the pictures will be upside down, just as our eyes actually see reality as an upside-down image.  Most of the cases of conjuring of the dead were frauds.  They used this method in order to fool people.  Therefore, the souls that they "conjured" always appeared upside-down.  In the case of Shaul, when the medium saw Shmuel appear upright, she realized that this time it was real.  Shmuel appeared in a vision, but later the interactions continue without a medium.  Shmuel did not appear for the medium; he appeared for Shaul.

     This hypothetical analysis of the Talmud's comments is an example of an important rule regarding mystical phenomena.  Although, they contain an overwhelming percentage of lies, tricks and illusions, they also contain some truth, truth that is couched in trickery.

(Translated by Gila Weinberg)