Transcription:
Death is very much a part of life, and death is not an end. Death is a transition. Jewish theology teaches that after life in this world concludes, life in the next world begins. Death is not an end, it’s a transition from life in this world to life in the next world. The next world looks very different than this one does. This is a physical world, and we have a physical body and we perform physical deeds. The next world, we’re told, we’re taught, is a spiritual world, and we don’t have a body. The neshama, the inside, the essence of who we are, our soul, is what is predominant in the next world. Death is not an end, it’s a transition. And you’ll see, I tell the people that I’m working with, that you will continue to love your loved one, even after they’re gone, because they’re not gone. As long as you’re alive, they’ll live in your heart, they’ll live in your head. They will become a part of you in a way that you heretofore had not even imagined. I mean, my father is gone for 40 years. I still hear his voice. It’s amazing to me. I was talking to my son just the other day, and I opened my mouth and my father came out. Things that he taught to me, things he told me decades ago, take on a whole different relevance when you’re teaching your children, when you’re passing on the legacy of your loved ones. Death is a misnomer. It’s not an end. It’s a transition. And there’s a continuity from one generation to the next that transcends death. Love transcends death. Wisdom transcends death. And we are all a bridge between the generation that passed and the generation that comes after us. We believe that generations are intertwined, that every individual serves as a bridge between the generation that came before them and the generation that will follow. When an individual passes away and their soul goes to the next world, we believe that if we embody the teachings that they gave us, that it has an impact on the soul and will elevate the soul ostensibly closer to G-d, higher and higher in the next world, coming closer and closer to G-d, and the divine bliss that that entails. There’s no question that it’s very powerful and very emotional when one can see that you’re passing on teachings that you received from generations that have passed on to the next generation. There’s a continuity. There’s a sense that life is a continuum and that there’s meaning and purpose in the way we live our lives.