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He will swallow up death for ever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces. And the dust returneth to the earth as it was, and the spirit returneth unto God who gave it. (Isaiah 25:8) | |
Return, O my soul, unto thy rest; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. (Ecclesiastes 12:7) | |
For Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears and my feet from stumbling. I shall walk before the Lord in the lands of the living. For with Thee is the fountain of life; in Thy light do we see light. (Psalms 116:7-9) | |
I shall not die but live, and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chastened me sore, but He hath not given me over unto death. (Psalms 86:10) | |
Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will enter into them, I will give thanks unto the Lord. (Psalms 118:17-18) | |
Even when they have died, the righteous live. (b. Berakhot 18a) | |
You will find that in this world when man rejoices, his joy is never perfect. If he rejoices when children are born unto him, he also is troubled by the thought that they may not endure. But in the world to come, God will destroy death for ever; and then joy will be unalloyed. ‘Then will our mouth be filled with laughter and our tongue with song’ (Psalms 126:2) (Yalkut Shimoni Emor No. 654) | |
The righteous will not rest from labor, neither in this world nor in the world to come; for it is said: ‘They will go on from strength to strength’ (Psalms 84:8). (b. Berakhot 64a.12) | |
The hope of immortality is the strength of our life. Without the promise of life beyond the grave, our life on earth invites despair. Whenever we yield to the fear that our earthly labor will some day cease for ever, we lose the courage to overcome circumstance, and lack the will to resist failure. If our toil is but for a day, we cannot build. But if, as our sages assure us, we may labor on beyond the accident of death into eternity, then no failure is irreparable, no task is too great. When we may include infinity in our plans then no aim is unattainable, no vision is too exalted. | |
We tend to doubt our immortality whenever life defeats us. When our plans go awry and our efforts fail, when friends disappoint and solitude grows bitter, then our strength seems to vanish, a sense of our frailty overpowers us and there comes the dread that all our hopes will soon be quenched in an eternal darkness. Our disappointments and our discouragements engender the fear that our life will end in a final defeat and the grave will win its ultimate victory. The terror of death grows from our failures in life. | |
Yet when each morning dawns and our strength is renewed, when our efforts succeed and the spirit of God, calling to our souls, reveals our innate divinity, then our life again seems triumphant and indestructible. Hope revives and we see our spirit entering, beyond the grave, into the gateway of greater life. Death loses its sting and the grave its victory. When life is strong we foresee our immortality. | |
We are poised between despair and hope. Each day our failures bring the terror of the grave and our victories bring intimations of immortality. We have ever before us both life and death. It is for us to choose the hope of life eternal; to depart from fear and to be strong in faith; to assert to our failing hearts that we shall not die, but live, and declare for ever the wonders of God. | |
Our hopes are not delusions, for God is just and merciful. He would not bid us toil in His name, and then deny us the joy of completing our work. He would not bid us prepare in this antechamber of eternity, and then close against us the doors of His eternals halls. Since His mercies endure for ever, He would not bid us sow in tears, without permitting us to reap in joy. We may trust in His love. We have known bereavement and the pain of death. He will comfort us. He will destroy death for ever and wipe the tears from every face. Though the cords of death encompass us, we will yet walk before Him in ‘the land of the living,’ | |
Eternal Father, who ordainest life, our dwelling place in all generations, Thou placest a bound upon our earthly existence, and callest us forth from the storms of life unto Thy tent of peace. Thou hast destroyed death for ever by breathing into us a living spirit. Though our dust return to the earth, the spirit which Thou gavest, returns unto Thee. We thank Thee, O Father, for Thy law of life. We thank Thee for each new morning when our awakening from sleep brings us a vision of immortality; for each springtime which teaches us that death is but a brief rest presaging a newer life. We thank Thee for the spirit which brings us nearer to Thee, and bids us seek to live in the light of Thy countenance. | |
O Source of all power, grant us strength to trust in Thee. We need Thy help; for our failures discourage us and we fear the terrors of the grave. Beloved ones depart from us and we are bowed down in grief. O send Thine assurance that Thou wilt deliver our feet from stumbling, our eyes from tears, and our souls from death. Grant us the undying hope that, though Thou dost chasten us, Thou wilt not abandon our souls unto the grave, but Thou wilt open unto us the gates of righteousness that we may live in the radiance of Thy presence for ever. Amen. |
“Immortality” is the thirty-third prayer found in ברכה ותהלה Blessing and Praise: A Book of Meditations and Prayers for Individual and Home Devotion (CCAR 1923), pp. 111-114. Unfortunately, we do not yet know of a resource providing clear attribution of authorship for any of the prayers in this volume.
Source(s)
“Immortality (CCAR 1923)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication.
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