Does the Soul Survive?: A Jewish Journey to Belief in Afterlife, Past Lives & Living with Purpose

Near-death experiences? Past-life regression? Reincarnation? Are these sorts of things Jewish?With a blend of candor, personal questioning, and sharp-eyed scholarship, Rabbi Elie Kaplan Spitz relates his own observations and the firsthand accounts shared with him by others, experiences that helped propel his journey from skeptic to believer that there is life after life.From near-death experiences to reincarnation, past-life memory to the work of mediums, Rabbi Spitz explores what we are really able to know about the afterlife, and draws on Jewish texts to share that belief in these conceptsso often approached with reluctanceis in fact true to Jewish tradition.The increasing interest and faith in survival of the soul may grow into a cultural wave that is as potentially transformative for society as the civil rights movement and feminism. A renewed faith in the souls journeys will call for a reassessment of our priorities, and will enable traditional religions to renew and transform their adherents.from the IntroductionRabbi Elie Kaplan Spitz approaches the familiar in unfamiliar ways. A spiritual leader and scholar specializing in topics of spirituality and Judaism, he teaches, writes, and speaks to a wide range of audiences. He has served as the rabbi of Congregation Bnai Israel in Tustin, California, for more than a decade and is a member of the Rabbinical Assembly Committee of Law and Standards. A graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary and Boston University School of Law, Rabbi Spitz is the author of many articles dealing with spirituality and Jewish law, and teaches the philosophy of Jewish law at the University of Judaism. He lives in Tustin, California, with his wife, Linda; they are the parents of Joseph, Jonathan, and Anna Rose.