First Day of Shavuot

Batya Ordin, May 19, 2010

Chag Sameach.  I’d like to speak about today’s Haftorah which has intrigued me for a long time.  I refer to this vision of Ezekiel as the “psychedelic” Haftorah.   Ezekiel begins with a description of four celestial creatures holding up the throne of God.  These creatures defy the imagination with four animal faces each, wings, human hands, spinning wheels below them, the rims of which are covered with eyes.

Though these images are astonishing, the idea of celestial creatures is not unfamiliar to us.  Every Shabbat morning during Shacharit we recite “El Adon”, the last line of which states “Tiferet U’Gedulah, Serafim Veofanim Vechayot Hakodesh”.  “The Serafim, Ofanim, and [other] Holy Creatures declare God’s wonder and greatness.” 

These dazzling and bizarre creatures are not the focus of this drash, however.  Rather, let’s turn to v.22 where Ezekiel describes the Presence of God:

“Above the heads of the creatures was a form: an expanse with an awe-inspiring gleam as of crystal was spread out above their heads.”

He continues:

 “There was a radiance all about Him.  Like the appearance of the bow which shines in the clouds on a day of rain, such was the appearance of the surrounding radiance.  That was the appearance of the semblance of the Presence of the Lord.”

Those of you who know me, know that I am a pretty down to Earth person.  I like to think of myself as someone involved more in the “pots and pans” of Judaism rather than the esoteric.  But to quote my favorite television show, today I would like to “boldly go where no one has gone before”.  I’m going to speak about the afterlife where God’s radiance abounds.

My interest in this topic began several years ago when sadly, my Orthodox friend and neighbor lost her grown daughter after a long bout with cancer.  She loaned me a book by Dr. Brian Weiss, head of Psychiatry at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami.  His book Many Lives, Many Masters is a study on the subject of reincarnation.  For two or three years, she and I passed dozens of books on related topics back and forth across the street.  These books were written by respected professionals: physicians, psychiatrists, academics, scientists, and Rabbis and I found this subject matter very compelling.

Let me share with you a story of two elderly friends: Moishie and Chaim.  They made a pact that whoever passes away first would come back and tell the other what it’s like.  Eventually, Moishie passes away.  Sometime later, to his surprise, Chaim hears his name being called. 

“Chaim, Chaim”. 
“Moishele, is that you?” 
“Yes, it’s really me.” 
“So nu,” asks Chaim.  “What’s it like?” 
“It’s beautiful.  There are birds chirping.  The sky is blue with light fluffy clouds floating by.  There is a lake with crystal clear water, rolling hills, green grass.” 
“And Moishele, what do you do all day?” 
“Well, I get up, I eat a piece of fruit from the tree, I go for a walk, I have sex, I take a nap.” 
“Wow, so that’s Heaven”. 
“Heaven?  What Heaven?  I’m a moose in Idaho!”

Harry Houdini promised his fans he would come back after death and tell them what it’s like.  No one has heard from him so far.

But in today’s world with CPR and defibrillators, we have brought people back from death.  In a time where data is shared globally, we have thousands of accounts of what happens to people between the time they are pronounced clinically dead and the time they are resuscitated.  The term "near-death experience" was coined by Dr. Raymond Moody, a physician at the University of Virginia, in his book Life After Life in 1975.  From a strict medical standpoint, these people should have seen or felt nothing. Surprisingly, they did not experience a black nothingness, but to the contrary, a very rich, vivid procession of sensations. 

According to Moody, a full-blown near-death experience happens something like this:

“A person, say, has a heart attack… The chest pain is excruciating, and he passes out. What seems like moments later, he awakens to find himself floating above his body, where he watches the paramedics administering CPR.  He tries to stop them, but it becomes obvious that they can't hear him.  Suddenly, a tunnel appears…[and] he finds himself zooming up it with the whooshing sound of speed…

His trip ends in a garden…glowing with unearthly light. He looks at his own hands and realizes that he too is composed of light. [Relatives who had died earlier] approach him. They are glowing too.  All of them are happy to see [him], feelings they are able to express nonverbally with their warmth…A master Being of Light appears…he is so bright and loving that the visitor feels drawn to him.

With more love and caring than this visitor had ever felt from anyone on earth, the master Being of Light engulfs him with his Presence, taking him on a three-dimensional review of his life.  Not only does he see everything he has done to anybody, but he feels everything as well. In addition to experiencing the way he felt when it happened, the visitor [feels every emotion he caused others to feel by his actions]… the Being of Light compassionately communicates to the person what he did right and wrong and indicates things he might do in the future.

The person wants this experience to go on forever. He doesn't want to leave the Being of Light's bosom [but] is given no choice. He must return.   Suddenly, he feels himself sucked back into his own body, where he becomes a changed person. The type-A behavior that made him edgy, angry, a workaholic is now gone.  Replacing these traits is a thirst for knowledge, feelings, and the expression of love that astonishes the people who knew him [before].”

The near-death experience crosses all geographic, socio-economic, religious, gender and cultural boundaries.  Even very young children report these experiences.

How do we explain all of this?  Could near-death experiences be explained as hallucinations?  A lack of oxygen in a dying brain?  The brain simply shutting itself down?   Medications?  The research disproves all of these alternative theories.

If a person is looking down onto their own body, seeing, hearing, thinking, yet the brain is in a state of clinical death, where are these perceptual and cognitive activities taking place?  This is clear evidence for the existence of a transcendental part of the human being.  It points to the existence of a soul.  

When the blind have a near-death experience, they report “seeing” both this world and the next.  Dr. Kenneth Ring, Professor of Psychology at the University of Connecticut has done research on near-death experiences of the blind.  Those who died in surgery, for example, were asked to describe the surgery room, the hospital and other environmental factors, which a blind person would not be able to do.  They were blind before their death and they are blind after resuscitation, yet during the interim period some can describe what only a sighted person can perceive.  Vision can be impaired in the physical body, but when the soul is separated from the body this impediment is removed because the soul does not depend on the physical body for vision.  The soul is perfect even if the body is impaired.

Every aspect of the near-death experience has parallels in Jewish tradition.  Let’s look at a few of the correlations:

Immediately after death, the person finds him or herself floating above their body.  Our tradition teaches that “for three days, the soul hovers over the body”.  The Talmud also states “the dead one knows all that is said in its presence until the grave is filled in.”  Our entire mourning and burial rituals are based on the assumption that the soul is present.  This is why, for example, the body is watched over before burial and never left alone. 

The tunnel with the whoosing sound of speed?  A Midrash asks, “How does the soul depart?...Like the sound of rushing waters.”

What about being greeted warmly by our departed family members?  The death of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Ishmael, Aaron, and Moses are described with the conspicuous phrase “and he was gathered to his people.”  Abraham was the first of the patriarchs to be buried in the Cave of Machpeilah.  Who, then, was he gathered to?  Obviously the phrase “gathered to his people” cannot be talking about the physical cemetery.  Similarly, Aaron and Moses were buried alone, and still it says that each was “gathered to his people.”  The Midrash states explicitly: “All souls go forth and are gathered each one’s soul to the generation of his father’s and to his people…when the soul goes forth from the body, then the righteous come to meet them and say “Come unto Peace.”

Now, the life review:  Jewish tradition speaks of the “sefer hachaim”, the Book of Life, where all deeds are recorded.  The Talmud states that a person’s own soul testifies at one’s judgment after death.  According to the near-death accounts, it’s not a literal book of life, but more like a 3D sensa-round movie that is played where each experience is re-experienced in the fullest detail.  Interestingly, the near death experiences of children typically do not include a life review.  This is consistent with the Jewish teaching that children are not responsible for their sins until the age of bar or bat mitzvah.

It is seeing the Being of Light that connects the near-death experience with today’s Haftorah.  In a Midrash commenting on Shemot, when Moses asked God to show him His glory, he was told that “Man cannot see me and live; however, when he ceases to live here [i.e., when he dies], he will see Me.”

Let’s compare to Ezekiel’s vision of the light to some near-death accounts.  In his description of the Presence of God, Ezekiel seems to be searching for words to describe the intensity of the light: “in appearance like sapphire”, “a gleam as of amber”, or “what looked like fire”.  People who have returned from clinical death have also expressed the inadequacy of words to describe the light they encountered.  In the following account, listen for the same kind of struggle for words that Ezekiel seemed to have:

“At first I became aware of beautiful colors which were all the colors of the rainbow.  They were magnified in crystallized light and beamed with a brilliance in every direction.  It was as if all this light was coming at me through a prism made by a most beautiful and purified diamond, and yet at the same time it was as if I were in its center…even now when I try to describe something so beautiful I am mute with awe.  There are no words in any language to describe such grandeur.”

Before we say Yizkor tomorrow, let us consider one person’s experience of what happens once we leave our physical bodies:

“In the middle of one circle was a most beautiful being.  It was neither a man nor a woman, but it was both.  I have never before or since seen anything as beautiful, loving and perfectly pleasant as this being.  An immense, radiant love poured from it.  An incredible light shone through every single pore of it’s face.  The colors of the light were magnificent, vibrant and alive.  The light radiated outward.  It was a brilliant white superimposed with what I can only describe as a golden hue.  I was filled with an intense feeling of joy and love.  I had the overpowering feeling that I was in the presence of the source of my life and perhaps even my creator.  In spite of the tremendous awe it inspired, I felt I knew this being extremely well.  With all my heart I wanted to embrace and melt into it as if we were one….”

When someone dies, we often say they have gone “to their eternal rest”.   If we accept the idea that we merge with the Divine light of unconditional love, then we can take comfort that our loved ones are experiencing that love and peace after leaving this world.

Now, what do we do with this information?

There is much focus today on “mindfulness”, or being present in the moment, taught by the Buddhist traditions through yoga, meditation, and so forth.  I believe this is the focus of Judaism as well.  When we go from the weekday to Shabbat we move from the realm of doing to the realm of being.  In the book of Kohelet, the most familiar portion is the phrase, “LeKol zman, v’et lechol chafetz tachat hashamayim”.  “A season is set for everything, a time for every experience under heaven”.  In this world, we encounter each emotion, each life experience in its own time.  And they all have a place and time in our lives.  We say Shehecheyanu thanking God for bringing us to each new moment. 

As Jews, we do not long to expedite our reunion with the Divine Light.  We are here now to experience all that God has given us in this Earthly world.  But when it is time to go, I hope that I will merge with Ezekiel’s brilliant psychedelic light of God’s Presence and unconditional love and not discover myself as a moose in Idaho.

Chag Sameach.

Partial Bibliography

Jewish sources:

Astor, Yaakov, Soul Searching

Spitz, Rabbi Elie Kaplan, Does the Soul Survive?

Near-Death Research:

Atwater, P.M.H., The New Children and Near-Death Experiences

Atwater, P.M.H., Beyond the Light: What Isn't Being Said About Near Death Experience: from Visions of Heaven to Glimpses of Hell

Atwater, P.M.H., Coming Back To Life: The After-Effects of the Near-Death Experience