Reply #46: My rabbi taught me differently

[Meshuga]

My rabbi taught me a different way of looking at this 'book of life' and 'book of death' metaphor.

During the High Holidays some of us are going to have our name written in the 'book of life' and some are going to be written in the 'book of death'. Not literally, but this is a way of saying, "hey, some of us are not going to be here next year so here is an oportunity to heal some wounds in case your name might end up in this so called 'book of death' this year".

The way I see is to remind people to ask for forgiveness to someone you hurt or fix something you are doing wrong in your life before you die, since after death you will not get another chance.

So, on Yom Kippur, we Jews spend the day in the synagogue, fasting, thinking on ways of improving our lives, and sincerely asking for forgiveness to people we hurt.

This past Yom Kippur, our rabbi talked about the story of Alfred Nobel who was lucky to read his own obituary since a French newspaper published it erroneously. This obituary condemned Alfred Nobel for his invention of the dynamite and stated, "Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday."

This obituary made Alfred Nobel want to change his legacy so he set aside the bulk of his estate to establish the Nobel Prizes.

A Jew is supposed to live for this life (as opposed to an afterlife) and worry about what is going to be written in his/her obituary. Not live in fear of an afterlife which we don't even know whether it exists or not. Living for salvation after death is a Christian idea.