Translation by Yakov Tzemach
Each encounter with death strengthens the notion that death is infinite and eternal, leaving one to contemplate the temporal and finite nature of life. These feelings could lead one to belittle this world, and to view it as merely a stepping stone to heaven.
The Zohar through discussing Jacob's death, reveals the secret of eternal life, which according to the Zohar, is attained through this world. No, the Zohar is not referring to some form of amulet such as “the sorcerer’s stone” from the Harry Potter series, that has the power to grant longevity. Even supernatural longevity, the Zohar says, cannot overcome death, for even if a person lived a thousand years, upon reaching his dying day, he would feel as though he had lived but one day (Zohar Vayechi 223b). The secret to attaining eternal life is however, not in how many years one lives, but in how one conducts his life:
Rabbi Joseph says… It is not written, “And the day of Israel’s death neared,” rather the “days” (Bereishit 47:29). On how many days does a person die? In one hour, in one moment, one dies and leaves this world. Rather we learn as follows: When God wants to return to Himself the spirit, all the days that the person has lived in this world are come before God… Praiseworthy is the man whose days come before the King without embarrassment and not a single day is cast aside. (Zohar Vayechi 221b-22a)
The Zohar opens with a question: Why does the verse say “days,” plural, as opposed to the singular “day” to reflect that the date of death ? The Zohar explains that the Torah is not dealing with the date of death, but rather with what happens at the time of death. When one ascends to the heavens, each and every day of his life goes up with him. The days that we live in this world - for better and worse – don't disappear, but each day along with the unique significance and content that we endow it, accompanies us forever.
To a certain extent, this is also true psychologically. Each of us is who he is on account of his life-story, of the experiences he has made, and the actions he has taken. Therefore, even if we do not remember what occurred in the past or are unaware of what has happened in our life, these life-events are still engrained in our body and soul.
However, the Zohar’s insight is not only psychological. Days hold enduring meaning, and the Zohar goes so far as to define the relationship between our days and our identity. According to Judaism, each person has a Neshama, a soul, that is his internal essence. The Neshama is eternal; it existed before the person was born and continues on after he dies. Mary Russell once mused how contemplating a human corpse and experiencing the void of life is the greatest proof that living man has a soul (Mary Russell, Children of God, pg. 400).
The Zohar tries to understand the difference between the state of the Neshama before it enters this world, as opposed to after it leaves this world. Through this the Zohar grapples with the age-old question: What is the meaning of life? The Zohar proposes that the days become an eternal “garments” to the soul. The Neshama is the internal essence, life in this world is its practical expression. Therefore, a person's life story is likened to a garment, as just like through one garment's, through the life story one expresses himself.
The Zohar teaches that after the physical body disappears, the identity that one formed for himself over the course of his life adorns his soul. It follows that life in this world is eternal in the sense that man’s eternal identity is comprised of all the days he lived, and they accompany him eternally. The body disintegrates, but man’s true identity is determined by his inner essence and the way in which he lived his life.
The body, the soul and what is between them
The Zohar proposes a new perspective from which to address the difficult questions each individual must ultimately ask himself: What is life? Who am I? There are those who say that man is body and soul. There are spiritual outlooks - mostly eastern - that try to free man from the constraints of the physical world in order to reach the inner soul. The Zohar claims that man is not the coming together of body and soul, but the union of soul and life. The body eventual disintegrates, but life - in the sense we mentioned earlier as the life story - is eternal.
This outlook on life after death returns us to the ideas of “Doing” and “Being.” While “Being” is represented by the Neshama, by the inner reality, “Doing” is everyman’s personal narrative. This insight can help resolve a paradox brought down in Pirkei Avot:
Rabbi Jacob says this world is like a corridor to the next world. Fix yourself in the corridor in order that you can enter into the palace… greater is one hour of repentance and good deeds in this world than the entirety of the world to come, and greater is one hour of bliss in the next world than all of this world. (Avot 4:16-17)
In the beginning of the Mishna it sounds as though Rabbi Jacob wants to negate the inherent significance of life. This world is only a means to achieve true meaning in the future, in the next world, in which a single hour of bliss is greater than the entirety of this world. However, immediately afterwards, he asserts that the corridor, in fact, holds more importance than the palace itself: “Greater is one hour of repentance and good deeds in this world than the entirety of the world to come.”
According to Rabbi Jacob, despite the fact that in certain regards the world to come is exalted beyond the physical realm, there are specific opportunities unique to this world - namely, the ability to “do.” We can only change through doing; this change has implications on our eternal identity.
The outlook which lends such deep meaning to every day is intrinsically very demanding. It requires man to take responsibly, to live each and every day in a most exacting way, to fill each day with positive content and not let a single day waste away. The Zohar poignantly describes the danger of missing these opportunities:
Each and every day a proclamation goes out, but no one pays attention. We learn that these are the days of man. On the day that he descends to the world, they are all present and wander into the world, descend and caution the person, each day individually. When each day arrives it cautions the person (and when even so) he sins on that day. The day ascends with shame and bears testimony. (Zohar Vayechi 224a)
According to the Zohar, not only is there a daily proclamation, but each day is the proclamation itself. Each day is potential yearning to be actualized. Each day implores man to live life to its fullest potential. Sometimes man is inattentive and squanders the potential embedded in that day.
The movie Groundhog Day tells about a person who each morning wakes up to the previous day, the day he had seemingly just completed. The hero of the movie never manages to progress to the next day, but instead relives the same day over and over again, until he brings out its full potential. In real life, unfortunately, there are no second chances. Each day is a unique opportunity that will inevitably be actualized or squandered.
The Zohar goes on to explain the verse describing Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, “And they knew that they were naked” (Bereishit 3:7). They were “naked” because already on their first day of existence they sinned and ate from the Tree of Knowledge. Therefore, the Zohar explains, they had no “garments,” thereby rendering themselves “naked.” On the other hand, the Zohar learns from the verse that describes Abraham as “old [and] coming in days” that in death he the merited to have his days accompany him.
The Zohar teaches us the true meaning of eternal life and instructs us how to attain it. Only in this world can we attain eternal life and it is our obligation to form our eternal identity throughout our respective life story. Our identities are comprised of our life experiences, defined eternally upon death, thereby granting enduring value to each day from which we have built our eternal legacy.