Death

DEATH

In the Bible

The Hebrew word for death is mavet (mawet) (Heb. מָוֶת) from the root mvt (mwt). For the Canaanites, Mwt (Mot) was the god of the underworld. Details of the myth of Mot are found in *Ugaritic literature. Mot fought against *Baal, the god of rain and of fertility; he was victorious and forced Baal to descend to his kingdom in the depths of the earth. But Anath, sister of Baal, avenged her brother and killed Mot. In the end Baal and Mot both returned to life, but at different times. Most commentators interpret this myth as a symbol of the changing seasons: Baal dies at the end of the rainy season, while Mot returns to life; the contrary happens when the rains begin again. In the Bible there are traces of such a myth in the belief that death is a destructive force distinct from God (see *Demons and Demonology) with its own messengers (e.g., war, sickness, plagues, cf. Hos, 13:14; Ps. 91:5–7; Prov. 16:14). In Jeremiah 9:20 it is said, "For Death (mawet) has climbed in through our windows, has entered our fortresses, cutting off children from the streets, young men from the squares." Mawet in this verse (see also Isa. 5:14; Hab. 2:5) may be compared to the Mesopotamian demon Lamashtu, who usually attacks children and pregnant women by climbing over the walls and entering through the windows (cf. Paul in bibl., where the widely held opinion that links this passage with the Baal myth is criticized). In the Bible there are two reasons given for man's death: the first states that God made man from the dust of the earth, and to dust he must return (Gen. 2:7; 3:19; Job 10:9). Genesis 3:22–24 gives a second reason: that of sin. By his expulsion from paradise, man was deprived of access to the tree of life, and thus eternal life was lost to him. The sentence of death passed on man in Genesis 3:19, "By the sweat of your face shall you get bread to eat until you return to the ground. For from it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return," is opposed to other biblical passages that speak of the dead who go down into the tomb and enter the region of the dead (Isa. 14:9–12; Ezek. 32:17–32; etc.). Many names are given to this region: *sheʾol, always feminine and without a definite article as is usual in proper nouns, is found in no other language; ʾereẓ ("earth," "underworld"; e.g., I Sam. 28:13; Jonah 2:7; Job 10:21–22), which has the same meaning in Akkadian and Ugaritic; kever (qever, "grave"; Ps. 88:12), whose Akkadian parallel, qabru, is the normal form of designating the world of the dead; ʿafar ("dust"; Isa. 26:6, 19; cf. Gen. 3:19); bor ("pit"; e.g., Isa. 14:15, 38:18; Prov. 28:17; cf. Akk. bûru); shaḥat ("pit"; Ps. 7:16; cf. Akk. šuttu); ʾavadon ("Abaddon"; e.g., Job 28:22); naḥalei beliyyaʿal, "the torrents of Belial" (II Sam. 22:5,6). This region is in the depths of the earth; it is therefore called "the nether parts of the earth" (Ezek. 31:14); "the depths of the pit" (Lam. 3:55); "the land of darkness" (Job 10:21). Note the common Akkadian expressions for the region of the dead: "house of darkness" and "country of no return." The dead all inhabit this country, even those who were not buried (Gen. 37:35; Isa. 14:19; Ezek. 32:17–32; The Epic of Gilgamesh xii: 153). The dead are also called "*Rephaim" – in Ugaritic as well – but the origin of the word is obscure (Prov. 21:16). After death there is no contact between the dead man and his god (Ps. 30:10; 88:6, 12–13). Besides the idea that all the dead share the same unhappy situation, there is the notion that their fate depends on the attention bestowed on them by the living: whether or not they are properly buried, whether or not food or drink is brought to them (but not in the Bible), and, especially, whether or not their names are remembered. In the Bible great importance is placed on *burial, especially in the family tomb (Gen. 47:29–30; 49:29; 50:25; II Sam. 21:12–14). On the other hand, not to be buried at all is a serious punishment (cf. I Kings 14:11; et al.; note the Assyro-Babylonian malediction, "May he not be buried in the earth and may his spirit never be reunited with his loved ones."). Among the unfortunate beings in the next world, Akkadian texts name "the man who has no one to recall his name" (cf. II Sam. 18:18) and "he to whom neither food nor drink is brought"; he is reduced to "drinking fetid waters and eating the food that is thrown out by the living" (cf. The Epic of Gilgamesh xii: 154). Care of the dead is also inspired by self-interest because they can affect the world of the living either for good or for evil and can even foretell the future (I Sam. 28:15–20). In the Babylonian confessions, the spirits of the dead are mentioned along with the gods: "I honored the gods and the spirits of the dead." In the Bible, they were called spirits (lit. "gods"; I Sam. 28:13). The reticence of the Torah on matters concerning the dead is easily understandable. There is nothing about honoring the dead; on the contrary, there are prohibitions about mourning certain persons, and it is forbidden to give them alms (Deut. 26:14) and to consult them. The sacrifices to the dead, forbidden by Deuteronomy 26:14, are linked by Psalm 106:28 to idolatry: "They joined themselves also unto Baal-Peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead." The custom of bringing meals to the dead did not however disappear, and during the Second Temple period, at least in certain devout circles, it was considered a pious work: "Pour out thy bread on the tomb of the just and do not give it to sinners" (Tob. 4:7). Ben-Sira attacks this belief (Ecclus. 30:18). For the Egyptians, the dead plow, harvest, eat, and drink – in short, do all they did while they were alive (The Book of the Dead, 110). This pessimism about the fate of man expressed in biblical and Mesopotamian texts can be most clearly felt in the words with which Siduri tries to convince Gilgamesh that there is no point in seeking eternal life, for "when the gods created mankind, Death for mankind they set aside, Life in their own hands retaining"; and she goes on advising him to enjoy this world (cf. Pritchard, Texts, 90; see also the parallel passage in Eccles. 9:7–10). The two exceptions to the biblical belief that man descends into she'ol and remains there forever are Enoch (Gen. 5:24) and Elijah (II Kings 2:11; cf. the fate of the hero of the Mesopotamian flood story Ziusudra/Utnapishtim). Perhaps this belief is the origin of the psalmist's hope that he would not descend to she'ol (Ps. 49:16). In a Ugaritic epic Anat proposes to give Aqhat immortality, but the latter does not believe in it. Similarly in an Akkadian myth it is related how immortality escapes Adapa because he follows the evil counsel of his father, Enki-Ea, and refuses to eat the bread of life and drink the water of life. Enki-Ea had led him to believe that they were the bread and the water of death (cf. Pritchard, Texts, 101–2). An epithet of Marduk in Babylonian texts is muballiṭ mîti, "he who gives life to the dead"; but the meaning of the expression is rather "he who cures the sick" (cf. Ludlul bêl nemêqi 2:47; II Sam. 9:8; 16:9). In the *Servant of the Lord poems, his sufferings are described as a death. *Resurrection in the true sense of the word is only found in Daniel 12:2, but here too resurrection is a reward and meant only for the people of Israel, while in Isaiah 66:24 punishment of the wicked is eternal, but is not connected with their resurrection. In Ezekiel 37:1–14, the return of Exiles is described as a resurrection from the dead. On the other hand, one should compare this to Genesis 2:19, which states that the body descends to the earth (cf. Ps. 104:29; Job 34:14–15). Whether the spirit of man ultimately goes upward is questioned in the late Book of Ecclesiastes 3:20–21, but 12:7 affirms that "the spirit of man returns to God, who gave it."

In Talmud and Midrash

Though so complex a subject as death was inevitably not dealt with by the rabbis in an unequivocal way, their discussions on the subject incorporate a series of closely interconnected doctrines. Death itself, though imbued with mystery – contact with the corpse, for instance, meant defilement in the highest degree – was thought of as that moment of transformation from life in this world to that of the beyond. In terms of the mishnaic image, "This world is like a corridor before the world to come" (Avot 4:16), death is the passing of the portal separating the two worlds, giving access to a "world which is wholly good" (Kid. 39b).

At death the soul leaves the body with a cry that reverberates from one end of the world to the other (Yoma 20b), to pass into a state of existence, the exact nature of which was a matter of considerable dispute amongst the rabbis (cf. Shab. 152b–153a; Ber. 18b–19a; Maim. Yad, Teshuvah 8:2, and the critical remark by Abraham b. David of Posquières (Rabad); see also *Afterlife, *Body and Soul, *World to Come). Whatever the nature of the world beyond, it was generally accepted that there the dead reap the deserts of the acts they performed while alive, that they were free from Torah and the commandments (Shab. 30b), and that death served as an atoning process (Sif. Num 112). One confession formula before death, particularly prescribed for the criminal about to be executed, is "May my death be an atonement for all my sins" (Sanh. 6:2). The atoning value of death received greater emphasis after the destruction of the Temple, with the abolition of sacrificial atonement, so that complete forgiveness for more serious sins was dependent, despite repentance, the Day of Atonement, and suffering, on the final atoning value of death (cf. the discussion in Urbach, Ḥazal, 380–3).

Death and birth are viewed as parallel processes: just as man is born with a cry, tears, and a sigh, so he dies. He is born with his fist clenched as if to say "the whole world is mine," and he dies with open hands as if to say, "I have inherited nothing from this world" (Eccles. R. 5:14). The rabbis considered that there were 903 forms of death, the most severe way of dying being from asthma, or croup, which is compared to a thorn being torn out of a ball of wool, and the lightest is described as "the kiss of death," specially reserved for the righteous, which is like a hair being removed from milk (Ber. 8a; BB 17a; see *Death, Kiss of). The way in which a person dies, and the day on which he dies, were thought to be significant as good or bad omens for the deceased. Thus, for example, should he die amid laughter, or on the Sabbath eve, it is a good sign, whereas to die amid weeping, or at the close of the Sabbath, is a bad omen (Ket. 103b). To die from a disease of the bowels is considered a good sign (Er. 41b), no doubt because the suffering involved was thought to cleanse a person of his iniquities. Thus it was said that many of the righteous died from bowel illness (Shab. 118b), this being an opportunity for any sins they may have accumulated to be purged before their entrance into the next world (cf., however, what was said above about the "kiss of death"). One description of the death process relates that when the dying man sees the angel of death, who is covered all over with eyes and stands above his pillow with drawn sword, he opens his mouth in fright, whereupon the angel lets fall a drop of gall suspended on the end of his sword. Swallowing this, the person dies, and because of this drop, his corpse gives off a bad odor (Av. Zar. 20b). At the moment of death the righteous man is vouchsafed a vision of the Shekhinah, the Divine Presence (Num. R. 14:22; Zohar, Midrash ha-Ne'elam, Gen. 98a).

Concerning the very necessity of death there was some dispute amongst the rabbis. On the one hand there is the rather extreme view, which did not win general acceptance, that death was the wages of sin: "There is no death without sin" (Shab. 55a), and it is the inevitable fate of man only in that no man is sinless, "… there is not a righteous man upon earth, that … sinneth not" (Eccles. 7:20). Even Moses and Aaron died because they had sinned (Shab. 55b). The few exceptions, the really righteous such as Elijah, were thought not to have died (Lev. R. 27:4; Eccles. R. 3:15), or in other cases to have died only as a consequence of the machinations of the serpent in Eden, who caused Adam to sin and thus bring death to the world (Deut. R. 9:8; Shab. 55a; in the Talmud this view is ascribed to those who maintain that death is not dependent on sin, but the impact of the original passage is unclear; see Urbach, op. cit., 376–7). In this vein it is said that "charity delivers from death, not merely from an unnatural death but from death itself " (Shab. 156b), and that did not the truly righteous request their own death, they would not die (Mid. Shoḥer Tov, Ps. 116).

On the other hand an older view, stemming from the tannaitic period, stresses the inevitability of death, its naturalness as part of the very fabric of the world since creation. Thus when God had completed the creation of the world He saw that "it was very good" (Gen. 1:31), concerning which R. Meir remarked, 'it was very good,' that is death" (Gen. R. 9:5; see Maimonides' comment on this passage in Guide, 3:10). The idea behind R. Meir's enigmatic statement would seem to be that death is an integral part of the natural order, making way for new life and continued creation. The naturalness of death is also explicit in the saying that the angel of death was created on the first day of creation (Tanḥ., Va-Yeshev 4; see also BB 10a, where death is described as the strongest thing in the world). The Mishnah in Avot (4:22) stresses: "Those who are born will of necessity die … for perforce you were created … born … live, and perforce you will die." According to this view sin only hastens death, but does not cause it in the first place. Lack of sin therefore either enables a man to reach his predetermined span of years, thus saving him from an untimely demise, or helps him to live longer than his allotted span (Shab. 156b).

These arguments concerning the inevitability of death or its dependence on sin turn on several factors, among them possible interpretations of the account of Adam's sin in Genesis. According to one view Adam brought death into the world by disobeying God and eating the forbidden fruit. The Children of Israel had an opportunity of overcoming the power of death when they received the Torah at Sinai, but they lost this opportunity when they sinned with the golden calf (Mekh., Ba-Ḥodesh 9; Ex. R. 32:1; cf. also Num. R. 9:45). The way Adam's sin was interpreted amongst the amoraim may have been influenced by apologetic considerations, particularly the need to negate the Pauline doctrine of original sin as an inheritance from Adam to all mankind (Rom. 5:12). Perhaps the view that each man's sin causes his own death is influenced by the need to stress individual responsibility as opposed to the Christian position that in Adam we have all sinned (ibid.).

That both the wicked and the righteous die was explained as follows. The wicked perish so that they should cease angering God, while the righteous die so that they may have rest from their continual struggle against the evil inclination which has no power over them after death (Gen R. 9:5). As noted, the process of dying also may serve the righteous as a means of ridding themselves of their sins (see also Tosef., Yoma 5 [4]:6). Nevertheless, though mortality affects both wicked and righteous alike, the rabbis were sure that the whole quality of their respective lives, on this earth and in the hereafter, differed greatly. For the wicked are considered as if dead while still alive, and the righteous even in death are called "living" (Ber. 18a, b; Tanh., Berakhah 7).

Laws and Customs

Jewish tradition emphasizes respect for the dying and the dead, and deference for the last wishes of a dying man, of adherence to such last wishes: the final requests of Jacob (Gen. 49:29), and Joseph (Gen. 50:25), and the advice of David (I Kings 2:1–9) were all faithfully heeded and observed. The Talmud states that the oral testament of a goses (גּוֹסֵס – the term applied to a dying man) has the same legal force as written and witnessed instructions (Git. 13a; see also *Gift, *Wills). The permission to transgress the Sabbath in order to ease the discomfort of the dying, however slender their chances of recovery, is not affected by the talmudic dictum that "most gosesim die" (Git. 28a). A dying person should not be left alone, and it is a great mitzvah to be present at yeẓi'at neshamah ("departure of the soul"). A candle is usually lit in the presence of the goses to symbolize the flickering of the human soul. A sick person, nearing his end, should be encouraged to confess his sins before God. He is urged: "Confess your sins. Many confessed their sins and did not die, and many who did not confess died; and as a reward, should you confess, you will live." (D 338:1; see also Sanh. 6:2, and Shab. 32a). Should he not know a formula of confession, he should be told to say, "May my death be an atonement" (see Sanh. 6:2). This rite may be performed on a Sabbath and on holy days, but should not take place in front of women and children because it would cause them distress and thus trouble the sick person (Sh. Ar., YD 338:1). One brief confession reads: "I acknowledge unto Thee, O Lord my God, and God of my fathers, that both my cure and my death are in Thy hands. May it be Thy will to send me a perfect healing. Yet if my death be fully determined by Thee, I will in love accept it at Thy hand. O may my death be an atonement for all my sins, iniquities, and transgressions of which I have been guilty against Thee" (Sh. Ar., YD 338:2). The confession should end with the recital of "Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is One" (Deut. 6:4). The formulas of confession recited on the Day of Atonement are also used (see *Al Ḥet, *Ashamnu, *Confession). Death is presumed to occur when breathing appears to have stopped and when the absences of the peripheral pulse, the heartbeat, and the corneal reflex have been ascertained. Those present recite the blessing Barukh Dayyan ha-Emet ("Blessed be the true Judge"; Bayit Ḥadash, Tur, OḤ 223; see also Ber. 59b). The body must then be left untouched for about eight minutes. During this period, a feather is laid across the lips; those present watch carefully for the slightest sign of movement. When death is finally established, the eyes and mouth are gently closed by the eldest son or the nearest relative. Jacob was assured that Joseph would perform this final filial service (Gen. 46:4). The arms and hands are extended alongside the body, and the lower jaw is closed and bound before rigor mortis sets in. The body is placed on the floor, feet toward the door, and is covered with a sheet. A lighted candle is placed close to the head of the body. In the house of the dead it is customary to turn all the mirrors to the wall, or to cover them. Water standing in the vicinity of the corpse is poured out (Sh. Ar., YD 339:5). The custom may have originated in superstition; but it may also be a method of announcing the death to avoid actually having to articulate the bad news. None of these services discharged for the dead, however, should be performed for a goses (ibid., 339:1). A dead body should not be left alone. It must be guarded constantly, whether on weekdays or the Sabbath, until the funeral, and, in pious circles, the Book of Psalms is continually recited. Various reasons have been advanced to explain the custom of watching the dead, which is apparently very ancient. It may have originated in a desire to keep away evil spirits, or to protect the body from rodents and body snatchers. It became a mark of respect for the dead who must not be left either defenseless or unattended.

DEATH

In the Bible

In Talmud and Midrash

Laws and Customs

ORIENTAL CUSTOMS

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