Does the Soul Survive: A Jewish Journey to Belief in Afterlife, Past Lives & Living With a Purpose

Near-death experiences? Past-life regression? Reincarnation? Are these sorts of things Jewish?

With a blend of candor, personal questioning, and sharp-eyed scholarship, Rabbi Elie Kaplan Spitz relates his own observations and the firsthand accounts shared with him by others, experiences that helped propel his journey from skeptic to believer that there is life after life.

From near-death experiences to reincarnation, past-life memory to the work of mediums, Rabbi Spitz explores what we are really able to know about the afterlife, and draws on Jewish texts to share that belief in these concepts--so often approached with reluctance--is in fact true to Jewish tradition.

Does the Soul Survive?: A Jewish Journey to Belief in Afterlife, Past Lives & Living with Purpose by Rabbi Elie Kaplan Spitz combines journalistic reporting, scholarly biblical reading, and the probing self-examination of memoir in service of recounting his journey from skepticism to belief regarding life after death. Spitz, who teaches the philosophy of law at the University of Judaism, carefully describes traditional Jewish views of the afterlife and fearlessly explores the many challenges to those views arising in parapsychology--including near-death experiences, reincarnation, and spirit mediums. In the end, Spitz makes a cogent argument that belief in the afterlife is not, as has often been argued, incompatible with Jewish tradition. Wisely, he grounds his concluding arguments in the present-oriented ethic that guides Jewish devotion: "Our challenge is to use the time we have now to live gratefully and responsibly, knowing that how we choose to live shapes our soul," he argues. "The ability to accept death as part of life provides comfort and the awareness that each day is precious. Our challenge is to make the best of every day in this life." --Michael Joseph Gross