CHAPTER SEVEN - Death and Mourning: End of Life Questions

THE JEWISH LIFE CYCLE
By Steve Israel

C: Educational Activities

35. Confronting Koheleth [Section 16]
(One hour)

Individually, participants are asked to write a sentence about death, beginning with:
“This is what I think about death…”

Participants should tape up their page around the walls of the room.
Larger sheets of blank paper should be pinned up under these statements.

All the participants walk round and may relate to any of the statements that they want to, by writing their reactions to the statement underneath it (on the larger piece of paper).

Each group member then retrieves his or her own original statement.

In the group, a discussion should follow in which people should talk about their ideas and the reactions that others had to their ideas, whether they agree or disagree.
Explain that is very important that there should not, however, be any element of judgement of others' ideas. This is to ensure that it is a comfortable forum to bring up ideas.

Following this, the group is asked to read together the statement of another Jew from many years ago, on his attitude to death, indicating that the text represents the thoughts of an author some two and a half to three thousand years ago. The text is from Koheleth (Ecclesiastes); according to Jewish tradition, the author was a weary King Solomon writing near the end of his life but that this is questioned by modern scholars.

There is a time for everything
And a season for every activity under Heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die…

I thought… Man’s fate is like the animals: the same fate awaits them both –
As one dies, so dies the other.
All have the same breath…
All go to the same place,
All come from the same dust and to dust will return.
Who knows if the spirit of man rises upwards
And the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?
So I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him?
Koheleth, 3

In pairs, the group should try and understand what the text is saying and should attempt to rewrite it in their own words. To conclude, each pair should create a slogan catching the main intent of Koheleth’s words as they understand them.

Together as a group, all these slogans should be written up on posterboard.

• Explore the opinions of Koheleth.
• What do the participants think of his ideas? Concentrate on the last two sentences.
• Is the “message” of death that people should focus on life?
• What does this mean?

To wind up, the facilitator can address this approach as one of those that exist within Judaism, while there there are others that may differ. It is possible to suggest that this might be a suitable idea for today and one on which to close.