July 14, 2013 Zoe A. Van Raan Chevra Kadisha Practice: An Interrelationship with the Afterlife in Judaism The perspectives of the afterlife in Judaism have had a reciprocal relationship with chevrot kadisha and the chevra kadisha movements throughout history. The specific rituals that the chevrot kadisha implement reflect a belief in the afterlife. Biblical roots of the afterlife and the belief systems therein can be traced throughout the narratives in the Torah. This also includes the Psalms and the Prophets. I suggest that this is the starting point from which all belief systems emerged as we know them in the Western world (as well as other areas of the globe). During Biblical times, decades after the characters in these narratives lived, the historical events and societal transformations informed subsequent transformations in the views and actions associated with the afterlife. Talmudic times, notably what was written in the Sefer Ha’Aggadah, also demonstrate these assertions. A drastic uncovering of Jewish Mysticism in the 1300s allowed for accessible learning about, and opening up, to the probable potentiality of the afterlife. The events that took place during overt times of generalized oppression against the Jews also affected the public perception and belief systems surrounding the afterlife. Examples of these times were the Spanish Inquisition, the Pogroms in Eastern Europe and Nazi Germany. During the twentieth century there was a widespread movement which uncovered, revolutionized and made more steadfast the public’s opinions about the afterlife. There is still a strong movement, the goal of which is to bring back ancient Jewish tradition through various modalities in order to care for the elderly, sick, and bereaved. This movement is re-examining concepts about the afterlife. From an intellectual and religious perspective, Arthur Cohen, in Contemporary Jewish Religious Thought, writes: Eschatology signifies the doctrine of the last and final events that will consummate the life of man and the cosmos and usher in the “day of the Lord.” Such a definition, broad and general as it is, encompasses a considerable variety of classic Jewish belief and undergirds the language of the prayer book insofar as these convey teachings regarding the life that succeeds death, the coming of the Messiah, and the establishment of G-d’s kingdom. Eschatology reflects a constellation of Jewish hopes and expectations of G-d’s working the miracle of the end as he wrought the miracle of the beginning…(Eschatology) reflects a coherent movement of Jewish conviction and elicits a credal reflex that, as often as often as it is obediently delivered, remains nonetheless obscure. There is a thoroughgoing Jewish eschatology, but there is certainly no normative clarity as to the meaning or intention if its formulas. The language of eschatology- promising the gifts of eternal life, the transformation of history, the bringing of the nations to the worship of the G-d of Israel, the emergence of the messianic personage, the apocalyptic end of time and nature, the promulgation of divine kingship and sovereignty, the ransoming of the dead and their restoration of physical and spiritual vitality- all these represent elements of eschatological teaching. During shmira, shomrim typically recite psalms. One intention is to comfort the soul of the recently deceased. It is thought that the soul is in turmoil, and not able to detach itself from the body. During tahara, the participants are cleansing the body of its impurities, preparing the body to resemble the High Priest who is entering into a space to meet G-d. One intention behind the tahara is to prepare the soul to return to its source and to midwife the soul from this life to the next. The biblical roots of chevrot kadisha and the belief in the world-to-come lay the groundwork and identify the basic elements therein. “The biblical text is a historical amalgam, a mélange of centuries of experience, and it is very common to encounter early and later conceptions of the afterlife subtly interwoven within the various strata of sacred writings” (Jewish Views of the Afterlife, Simcha Paull Raphael 42). While exploring the Torah and the biblical time period in order to understand the Jews’ beliefs about the afterlife, it is efficacious to examine the pre-death narratives as well as the burial practices illustrated through the biblical narratives. Some examples include the pre- and post-death recounting of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Throughout the Torah is a common thread which has to do with the intrinsic intertwining of one’s progeny and one’s ancestors. When Abraham died “he was gathered unto his people” (Gen. 25:9). This describes a belief that something does, indeed, transpire after one’s body is no longer alive. In this case a human being is reunited with those who died before, thus implying that they are, indeed, still alive in some sense. Moreover, “it was after the death of Abraham that G-d blessed Isaac his son…” (Gen. 25:11). One inference is that the blessing and the death were related. Rashi states that G-d conferred upon Isaac the blessing that G-d had given to Abraham. These two images depict a reality wherein the connection between ancestors is central to both the dead and the living. This depiction is further elucidated by the fact that when a prominent character in the Torah passes away, their descendants are listed in language such as this character begot this one, this character begot that one, and so on. When Isaac “expired and died, he was gathered to his people” (Gen: 29). Jacob’s death follows his “instructing his sons” and also being “gathered unto his people” as well. (Gen. 49:33). When Jacob is dying, he asks his sons to be buried in a cave, and Joseph instructs his sons to take his bones with them when they leave Egypt. With deliberate precision, Jacob repeats the specific details about the cave, including the names of who were also buried in the cave of Makhpelah. “Through his parting words,” says Raphael, “Jacob communicates to his sons what is essentially a spiritual request: ‘Just as I lived my life as part of an ancestral clan, make sure I am buried with my ancestors’…For Jacob, and for the early biblical Hebrews, death meant entering the ancestral realm of the family tomb so that upon departing from this world he would be ‘gathered unto his people’” (45). Death itself was not seen as a cessation of existence. It was a passage to another realm where departed family spirits existed. The term ‘chevra kadisha’ is derived from the last words of Jacob to Joseph in Gen. 47:28-29. Before blessing Joseph, Jacob requests that Joseph “do kindness and truth with me…you shall transport me out of Egypt and bury me in their (his family’s) tomb.” Kindness and truth, “Chesed v’Emet,” is a common way to describe and name the role of chevra kadisha groups. At this point in history the tasks to be carried out by chevrot kadisha are still performed by family members. The final resting place for their remains were of upmost importance. All three forefathers were buried in the same cave, similar to the current burial practice, in cemeteries, of being buried next to one’s family members. To die, in the language of the Torah, is to return to one’s ancestral family. Indeed, when G-d spoke to the forefathers before the birth of their children, they were promised a land, an inheritance from G-d. Since the manifestation of this land did not occur during the forefathers’ lifetimes, their children were to inherit it. The land was promised to their fathers, though, suggesting that their fathers would still be a part of their world; death is therefore not a finality. No apparent time passed between death and burial, and it was the job of the family (or later, the community), to bury the body. This could be a reference point from which Chevrot Kadisha morphed into existence and held fast to the tradition of burying the dead as soon as possible after death. There are many interpretations of this custom, all of which have to do with the letting go of this world and the supposed suffering that occurs after death so as to meet the Creator and mitigate the suffering. If there was no type of afterlife, there would be no reuniting, just an endpoint. In the later biblical periods, with the more philosophically oriented writings of the prophets and the Psalmist, one begins to see the more overt emergence of notions of immortality and postmortem survival. The words of the Prophets will be addressed later on. “Within Judaism the focus has often been on collective rather than individual eschatology- on the fate of G-d’s chosen nation at the end of time, rather than on the afterlife experience of the individual. In light of the covenant at Sinai, the Israelite people collectively stood in a direct relationship with G-d…” (19). The lack of an overt testimony of a life-into-death life scenario does not prove or disprove anything as far as the biblical belief in an afterlife is concerned. In fact such a depiction would have been incongruent with the fact that mystical depictions in the Torah are intentionally presented in a concealed manner. Additionally, perceiving anything beyond physical form is complex in itself, let alone not being an easy fit for literature. Maurice Lamm, in The Jewish Way in Death and Mourning states, “precisely, this very silence is a tribute to the awesome concept, taken for granted like the oxygen in the atmosphere.