After One-Hundred-and-Twenty: Reflecting on Death, Mourning, and the Afterlife in the Jewish Tradition

Halkin (Yehuda Halevi) combines an accessible and trenchant exploration of Judaism’s evolving concepts of death with his own struggle with understanding it. He leavens what could be a depressing read with humor, noting that Circe’s instructions to Odysseus on how to reach Hades constitute “rather imprecise directions.” But even that comment has a point: to illustrate the way that the “country of death” was viewed by ancient Greeks and Egyptians as a real place, and to contrast their views of the afterlife with those of biblical Judaism. That comparative analysis continues as Halkin traces the introduction of concepts such as reincarnation into the Jewish tradition, as Judaism borrowed elements from other faiths and philosophies. Even readers generally familiar with the history of Jewish beliefs about death will find his summation of interest. “For the most part,” he notes, “contemporary Judaism has preferred to talk about something else,” and most prominent thinkers don’t deal with the afterlife. Halkin’s frankness about his own difficulties in coming to terms with his parents’ deaths and traditional Jewish rituals such as sitting shiva help make this nuanced quest for meaning personal and affecting. (June)