The Popularity of Sharing Near Death Experiences

 

I'm been reading a lot about NDE (Near Death Experiences) lately.  There's The Proof of Heaven book by Dr. Alexander, which has been making waves lately.  He was a skeptic until he was critically ill, practically dead, and then he miraculously made a comeback. 

He was a changed man and he shares the otherworldly experiences that changed his way of thinking.  I found some of the descriptions fascinating because they echoed ideas I had learned in Jewish sources.

I'm also reading Forever Ours: Real Stories of Immortality and Living from a Forensic Pathologist with odd, otherworldly stories. 

The Shavuos issue of Ami magazine had an article entitled, I Was Declared Dead about near-death and out-of-body experiences.  The article reminded me of an extraordinary account by someone who became a baal teshuva (picture above) because of his NDE.  You can watch it here.

What puzzles me is when the person who gets to see a vision of what seems to be the Next World, or who gets a visitation from a departed relative, is not Jewish.  Most of these stories have someone being reassured that the world beyond ours is a wonderful place.  I don't have reason to think that all the millions of gentiles who had these experiences are observers of the Noahide Laws.  I wonder what this is about.

Learning from Everyone

In a post one year ago: here a rosh yeshiva is quoted as saying, "Anyone who tells you they are religious because of the next world is fooling themselves and fooling you."

I wonder how he would respond when asked, why is it that Paradise motivates a Moslem to kill himself, or does he not believe that Moslems are firm believers in reward in the next world and live, or die, as the case may be, to attain it?

It is rather incredible how Arab family men say goodbye to their wives and children and then blow themselves up. 

In the spirit of learning from everyone and everything we see, if Arabs are that motivated to drastic action because of belief in the Next World, we need to strengthen our own belief in the Next World.

Loving This World

In a lecture given by R' Yossi Bensoussan, he quotes a speech that a rosh yeshiva of a yeshiva in Israel says to the boys:

"Do you know why I'm religious? I'm an olam ha'zeh'nik. I love this world; I love the pleasures of this world. Because I'm so into physical pleasure, I am a religious Jew. Because if you do this, i.e. Torah and mitzvos, and do it right, you will never feel so high or elated in your entire life. Anyone who tells you they are religious because of the next world is fooling themselves and fooling you.

“I am religious because of the pleasure I get out of it in this world. Of all the materialistic pleasures of this world (and I wasn't always religious), religious life is most pleasurable. As it says “ashrecha v'tov lach” - ashrecha in this world and tov lach in Olam Haba. We don't know anything about the next world, but we know this world."

Interesting, isn't it? I'm old school.  Olam Haba does mean a lot to me.  I have heard numerous lectures by Rabbi Avigdor Miller z'l who spoke so much about preparing for the next world, though he too urged people to be happy in this world by seeing what a wonderful world G-d created.  So I don't accept that rabbi's statement that Olam Haba is not a real reason that motivates us to be religious.  It is not the only reason, but it's a reason!

to be continued

This is Gan Eden

Rabbi Yosef Kahaneman, the Ponovezher Rav, related that in his youth in Lithuania candles were not yet in widespread use. Instead, they used homemade candles which consisted of a small dish filled with oil or kerosene and a wick of flax or cotton.

That winter, 100 years ago, two new things came to the city. First, a candle factory opened that sold real candles. Second, the first Vilna Shas was published which were volumes of Gemara with clear, fine print.

That Purim the community’s gabbaim held a meeting and discussed what to buy the rav for Purim. In addition to the usual food and wine in a basket, they added a new Gemara Bava Basra and two packages of candles. (They could not afford to buy an entire set of Shas).

The Ponovezher Rav was the child who carried the mishloach manos.  It was a heavy load and he felt he was going to collapse from the weight. He placed the basket on the table in relief and stood off to the side. The rav, who was a big talmid chacham, after removing the food and wine took out the packages of candles and then the Gemara. He opened it and looked at the new print. Then he closed it and gave it a kiss. He was very emotional. He broke the silence and said, “Now I know what Gan Eden is – a Gemara from the Vilna Shas and candles to learn it by.”

The load that R’ Kahaneman had carried, so very heavy at first, seemed all at once to be light. From that day forward he carried that same load all his life, working to build yeshivos, to bring Gan Eden to Jews.

There are children, young adults and older people who don’t think learning Torah is Gan Eden. They find it painful, boring, unpleasant. Someone once asked a rabbi – when Moshiach comes we will learn all the time?! That’s awful! That’s gehinnom!

How tragic when a child grows up to feel that learning Torah is gehinnom, the diametric opposite of what it is, Gan Eden.

How sad it is when parents say of their children, “He’s not a learner.”

The truth is, those children haven’t met the person who can show them that learning is Gan Eden.