After One-Hundred-and-Twenty: Reflecting on Death, Mourning, and the Afterlife in the Jewish Tradition (Library of Jewish Ideas, 9)

Hillel Halkin’s After One-Hundred-and-Twenty: Reflecting on Death, Mourning, and the Afterlife in the Jewish Tradition (Library of Jewish Ideas Book 9) is a decent exploration of Jewish conceptions of life after death from the Bible to the present. Halkin is one of the great Jewish thinkers and writers of this time, so this is a good book. However, I would have liked this book to have been a more intellectual treatment of Jewish eschatology, and less about Halkin’s personal experiences related to death and dying. As it is, there is not nearly enough written on the topic – and even Jews very well versed in the books and traditions of the faith find this subject confusing and opaque.

This is a beautifully written book about Jewish views and traditions regarding death and afterlife, woven together with accounts of the author's own experiences with mourning and with contemplating and preparing for his own death. There were some marvelous and, in my view, at least, fascinating Jewish texts included, including a midrash that in paradise everyone is grouped with members of his or her own profession, and Maimonides' view that there will continue to be rich and poor even in the world to come. Halkin is particularly attentive to how Jewish mourning traditions and views of the afterlife evolved over time; the regular recitation by mourners of the prayer known as kaddish, for example, "appears first to have become a daily practice in thirteenth-century Germany, from where it spread gradually to the rest of Ashkenazi Europe and beyond."This material is unavoidably somewhat morose, but Halkin, who was my former colleague at the New York Sun and the Forward, is good, amiable company in confronting it and guiding readers through it. I hope he lives long enough to write more books as edifying as this one.

Clearly written, surprisingly accessible and lightened with charming and poignant personal observations, Mr. Halkin's book was a delight to read.

After One-Hundred-and-Twenty: Reflecting on Death, Mourning, and the Afterlife in the Jewish Tradition (Library of Jewish Ideas)

A very nice review. The book answered many of the questions I had.

Not what I was expecting, namely cutoms, beliefs, and modern practices.

The first (and best) two-thirds of this book surveys Jewish views of the afterlife. Halkin notes that the Torah's oldest books (the Five Books of Moses and the early writings such as Samuel) seem to treat the afterlife as "Sheol"- a realm where all are "gathered to their fathers" and sleep with occasional disturbances, regardless of their conduct in this world. Halkin suggests that this view made sense in a clan society, where people lived in small villages surrounded by their extended family. In such a world, he reasons, being surrounded by your clan after death seems only right (though his view does seem to conflict with the Patriarchs' nomadic lifestyle).By contrast, in Second Temple times and thereafter, Jews moved around the world, became split into factions, and were stuck with foreign oppression. In such a world, being "with your fathers" didn't seem like a practical goal, and punishing bad guys seemed more important. So the ideas of reward and punishment in the afterlife became more prominent.The last third or so of the book is about Halkin's own practices and those of his parents. I found this material less compelling than his historical speculation.

Extraordinary investigation of a topic and history important to not just Jews but everyone interested in "Why and Where". Well written and readable it is both an academic presentation and easily readable for the lay person. I found it not only readable but strangely comforting. I am well on my way to "One Hundred and Twenty" and I do feel more comfortable about the voyage. My wife found the topic daunting and was not interested in the voyage though one day we all show up at the ultimate station. So grab your hat or kipah and take a fascinating pre-journey.

Brilliant writer and well researched!