I’m sorry I didn’t get to these questions Michael vdG asked a bit sooner, I got busy with a project, also these questions are a bit more difficult to address. Basically, these are questions we don’t ask or need to ask. Christianity developed a totally different mindset from Judaism and therefore many questions from a Christian elicit the response: “Huh?”
Q: What is the role of God in your life?
A: God IS. God is God. God can be experienced as both transcendent and immanent. Some say God can be described only by listing what God is NOT. Here are some efforts to describe God:
Thirteen Attributes of God’s Merciful Name found in Exodus 34:6-7
Adonai, Adonai, el rachum v’chanun, erech apayim v’rav chesed v’emet, notzayr chesed l’alafim, nosey avon vafeshah v’chatah-ah v’nakey.
Adonai, The Eternal, the compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and full of loving-kindness and truth, assuring love to thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and error and pardoning.
JPS 1917 Translation:
6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed: ‘The LORD, the LORD, God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth;
7 keeping mercy unto the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and unto the fourth generation.’
From Hosea Chapter 2:
And I will betroth thee unto Me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness, and in justice, and in lovingkindness, and in compassion.
And I will betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness; and thou shalt know the LORD.
I am a Jew and therefore a child of God.
Q: If there is no Heaven or Hell, No Eternal Reward or Punishment, why live a Godly life?
A: Because we’re supposed to do so! It’s the right thing to do and the essence of being a Jew. Even a Jewish atheist can do it.
Q: Is Judaism materialistic rather than spiritual? Is it only about life on this earth?
A: Judaism does not separate between material and spiritual as Christianity does. Everything (and especially the material) is spiritual. Judaism has prayers for going to sleep and waking up, for eating and excreting, even for seeing beautiful things in the world.
There may be an afterlife, indeed the Rabbis of the Talmud insisted on one, but we don’t speculate too much about what it is or is not. Our focus is NOW. We Jews were commanded to leave Egypt and its ways. Christianity returned to the Egyptian model of obsession with death and afterlife.
Here are several versions of a story which comes in both Jewish and Eastern versions:
Someone visits both Heaven and Hell. In both places, the residents have arms which cannot bend. In Heaven the residents feed each other but in Hell the residents refuse to feed each other.
http://www.beingjewish.org/magazine/spring2005/article2.html
http://www.balagokulam.org/kids/stories/heavenhell.php
http://www.dancingleaves.com/allison/stories/nana/nans_wish.html
http://media.radiosai.org/Journals/Vol_04/01NOV06/heavan_hell.htm
kwanumzen.com
Another Jewish story about Heaven:
“The Oheler Rebbe glimpsed into Gan Eden. There he saw the Sages busy studying. He was a little disappointed not seeing all the delights he had envisaged. “Is this all there is?” he asked. He then heard a voice saying: “You’ve got it wrong. You think the Sages are in Heaven. – No! Heaven is in the Sages.” (Peer ve kavod p12a)
Some Pirkei Avot Citations Related to Life, Death and the Afterlife
Chapter 1 Mishnah 3.
Antigonus of Socho received the Torah from Shimon the Righteous. He used to say: Be not like servants who minister unto their master for the sake of receiving a reward, but be like servants who serve their master not upon the condition of receiving a reward; and let the fear of Heaven be upon you.
Chapter 2 Mishnah 1:
Rabbi Judah the Prince said:…..Reflect on three things and you will never come to sin: Know what is above you –a seeing eye, a hearing ear, and all your deeds recorded in a book
Chapter 2 Mishnayot 5 & 7-8:
5. Hillel said: Do not separate yourself from the community; and do not trust in yourself until the day of your death. Do not judge your fellow until you are in his place…..
7. Moreover he saw a skull floating on the surface of the water and he said unto it: Because you drowned others they drowned you; and those that drowned you will eventually be drowned.
8. He used to say: …If a man has acquired a good name he has gained something which enriches himself; but if he has acquired words of the Torah he has attained afterlife.
Chapter 2 Mishnah 15.
Rabbi Eliezer said….Repent one day before your death….
Chapter 2 Mishnah 21.
He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say: It is not incumbent upon you to finish the task. Yet, you are not free to desist from it. If you have studied much in the Torah much reward will be given you, for faithful is your employer who shall pay you the reward of your labor. And know that the reward for the righteous shall be in the time to come.
Chapter 3 Mishnah 1.
Akavya ben Mahalalel said: Reflect upon three things and you will not come to sin. Know from where you came and where you are going and before whom you are destined to give account and reckoning. From where have you come?–from a putrid drop. Where are you going?–to the place of dust, worm, and maggot. Before whom are you destined to give account and reckoning?–before the supreme King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be he.
Chapter 3 Mishnah 15.
Rabbi Elazar of Modiim said: If a man profanes things which are sacred, and offends the holidays and puts his fellow to shame publicly, and makes void the covenant of Abraham our father, and teaches meanings in the Torah which are not according to Halachah, even though he has a knowledge of the Torah and good works, he has no share in the world to come.
Chapter 3 Mishnayot 19 & 20:
19. Rabbi Akiva said: All is foreseen, but freedom of choice is given. The world is judged in goodness, yet all is proportioned to one’s work.
20. Rabbi Akiva used to say: All is given against a pledge, and the net is cast over all living; the shop stands open and the shopkeeper gives credit and the account book lies open and the hand writes. Every one that wishes to borrow let him come and borrow; but the collectors go their daily rounds and exact payment from man with or without his consent; for the collectors have that on which they can rely; and the judgment is a judgment of truth; and all is made ready for a feast.
Chapter 4 Mishnah 13.
Rabbi Eliezer ben Jacob used to say: He who performs one commandment acquires for himself one advocate, while he who commits one transgression has gotten for himself one accuser. Penitence and good deeds are as a shield against punishment.
Chapter 4 Mishnah 19.
Rabbi Yannai used to say: It is not in our power to explain the well-being of the wicked or the sorrows of the righteous.
Chapter 4 Mishnayot 21 & 22:
21. Rabbi Jacob used to say: This world is like a hallway to the future world. Prepare yourself in the hallway that you may enter into the banquet hall.
22. He also would say: Better is one hour of penitence and good deeds in this world than all the life of the world to come. Better is one hour of spiritual repose in the world to come than all the life of this world.
Chapter 4 Mishnayot 28 & 29:
28. Rabbi Eleazar ha-Kappar used to say: Jealousy, lust, and ambition remove man from the world.
29. He also used to say: They who have been born are destined to die. They that are dead are destined to be made alive. They who live are destined to be judged, that men may know and make known and understand that He is G-d, He is the maker, He is the creator, He is the discerner, He is the judge, He is the witness, He is the complainant, and it is He who will in the future judge, blessed be He, in whose presence is neither guile nor forgetfulness nor respect of persons nor taking of bribes; for all is His. And know that everything is according to the reckoning. And let not your evil nature assure you that the grave will be your refuge: for despite yourself you were fashioned, and despite yourself you were born, and despite yourself you live, and despite yourself you die, and despite yourself shall you are destined to give account and reckoning before the supreme King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He.
Q: Why suffer so much?
A: I don’t understand your question.
Michael’s Clarification: The Jewish people have suffered throughout history. Time and time again, Jews have been persecuted. If there is, however, no chance of an afterlife, why bother? And not just for Jews, but for all individuals: life is full with suffering. What makes it worthwhile for many, is the notion that one day, all will be good. You don’t seem to have that. How do you then, get inspired to deal with setbacks, with suffering? And how do the Jewish people as a whole fight back against oppression and persecution time and time again?
A: Expectation of an afterlife helps some Jews do justly and remain Jews I’m sure, but this expectation is not necessary for everyone. Yes, life is full of suffering but can also be full of joy.
We can believe that one day all will be good without expecting that we will exist individually at such a time. In most cases, those Jews who became Christians out of persecution continued to be persecuted by Christians. I doubt that very many Jews have ever become Christian out of belief – it was generally to get a job, go to university, or even stay alive. Islam, being more purely monotheistic, is more palatable to Jews than is Christianity. As for Fighting Back – we just DO! BTW, did you know that the Dalai Lama put that same question to a group of Jewish scholars?
I also emailed lots of information on books to Michael – I’ll let him post them if he likes.