Pemikiran Yahudi Mazmur 142:8: Akeidat Yitzchak & Duties

The third group of people, namely believing Jews, who while steadfast in their belief, would still welcome specific statements in the Torah concerning afterlife, need to appreciate the following. Afterlife is much more than a promise held out in return for specific religious observances. Man's superiority over other creatures on this earth could hardly be demonstrated by anything other than the survival of his soul. Solomon grapples with the problem in the book of Kohelet, and concludes that this is the only thing which makes man stand out over the animals. "Who perceives that the spirit of man is the one that ascends on high, while the spirit of the beast descends down into the earth?" (Kohelet 3, 21) David and many others do not tire of expressing their longing for the blissful state of afterlife. Abigail refers to it, the Talmud is full of references to it. When one reads the promise of reward in our Parshah, one finds at the end, after the mundane rewards have been listed, "I will place My Residence amongst you." For the believers this is enough. For the scoffers nothing would be enough, since they only believe what their own eyes have seen, anyways.

(2) When one contemplates the severity of the tribulations that befall a man in this world such as hunger and thirst, cold and heat, sickness, accidents, worries, which one has no assurance against until death. When an understanding person puts all this to heart, and he realizes how weak he is, how limited and helpless he is from protecting himself from all of this, he will recognize his predicament. He is not only similar to a prisoner in this world, he truly is a prisoner! And so he will humble himself like the humbling of a prisoner who is placed in a dungeon, and who has no strategy or ability to free himself without his master's consent, as written: "May the cry of the prisoner come before You" (Tehilim 79:11), and "Bring my soul out of prison"(Tehilim 142:8).