The God Squad: Do you want to know your death day?

Q: I don’t know if destiny is in the hands of God. If God is all knowing, He at least knows when we’ll die. Did He set the date I guess is the question? My question is if you are a member of the God Squad wouldn’t your prayer be that you hope your number will be up as soon as possible to enjoy the benefits of heaven? – (From M)

A: Two huge questions:

Why don’t I want to go to Heaven right now?

Do I want to know my death day in advance?

The first of your questions…

I believe in Heaven. I call it The World To Come but it is the same place that Christians call Heaven. I believe that we are composed of body and soul and that death is only the end of our bodies. I believe that after bodily death our souls are reconnected in Heaven with the souls of those we have loved and lost and with those ancestors who came before us long ago. I believe that the beauty and joys of Heaven far surpass any of the beauty and joys we experience during our embodied life.

However, I am willing to wait for Heaven because I want to honor the gift of ensouled bodily life. God gave us a span of time when we can experience the bodily joys of life like all animals and the spiritual joys of life like all human beings created in the image of God.

The only joys Heaven can provide are disembodied spiritual joys and count me among those folks who believe that God is somehow behind the joys of a pastrami sandwich or a perfect cookie or a hug from my grandchildren or a cool breeze on a hot day or sinking a 30-foot putt. I know there are higher pleasures but there are real pleasures waiting for us in this life.

An old teaching from the old rabbis says that we will be held to account in Heaven for all the (legitimate) pleasures we were offered here in this life but did not accept.

I also believe that Heaven will include a reckoning for all my sins and although I hope I am way down the list of the world’s most notable sinners, I am not anxious to re-live or explain or suffer for all the moments in this life when I foolishly ignored the better angels of my nature.

So, I can wait for Heaven.

As for your second question…

I do not think God has picked out a set date for our death. Suicide, fatal drug addictions, a life of violent crime, and other fatal decisions we make using our free will to cut short our lives all prove to me that we can alter whatever plans God might have for our natural demise.

However, as with all things theological, I could be wrong. It is certainly possible that God has factored in our free will decisions and has used infinite divine wisdom to calculate our actual day of death. If that is so, I definitely, positively, absolutely do not want to know that date with destiny.

The first reason I would never want to know the date of my death is that it would take all the striving and ambition and effort out of my everyday life. I would not want to strive for anything if my death day was near, and I would probably succumb to indolence if my death day was far off. I think there is a positive motivation for one’s deeds when one feels deeply the fragility of life. Living every day as if it was my last is the best way I know to live every day.

As the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu wrote about the proper attitude to life with all its finitude,

“Be content with what you have

Rejoice in the way things are

When you realize there is nothing lacking

The whole world belongs to you.”

On the war…

Thank you for your kind appreciation of my column on the war. I have nothing more to say right now. Tragedies of this magnitude smother clear-headed reflection. Thick pain will do that. Still, I came across these brief words from the literary critic George Steiner in his book, “Language and Silence,” that perfectly sums up the one thought that I cannot remove from my mind,

“Somewhere the determination to kill Jews, to harass them from the earth simply because they are, is always alive.”

(Send ALL QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS to The God Squad via email at godsquadquestion@aol.com. Rabbi Gellman is the author of several books, including “Religion for Dummies,” co-written with Fr. Tom Hartman. Also, the new God Squad podcast is now available.)