THE SHAMANIC COSMOLOGY OF EL MALEH RACHAMIM PART 1

OUR SOULS CAN WANDER AFTER DEATH

What happens to a person after they die?  Many indigenous earth based societies have a great concern that the community needs to help the deceased person its proper home, lest it inappropriately hang around with the living and make a mess. Judaism shares this concern, and we can see it in El Maleh Rachamim, “God is full of mercy”, a prayer we recite for the soul of a deceased Jew at his or her funeral and then again 11 months later at their unveiling. The prayer is said to originate in the Ashkenazi communities of Europe in medieval times (JPS Guide to Jewish traditions).

The possibility of a soul not finding its resting place is present in the text of the prayer.  A copy of the text can be readily found online.  The prayer begins with beseeching a merciful God to provide a “sure rest” for the deceased of the soul.  Praying for a sure rest only makes sense if we believe in the possibility that the soul could wander looking for a home. The prayer then says that the soul deserves this honor of dwelling amongst the pure and the holy ones because of Tzedekah, charity, given in the memory of the soul.  So what if no Tzedekah is given?  The logic of this prayer suggests concern that the soul might not ascend to the realm of the pure and holy ones. 

The prayer continues by praying that the “Master of Mercy” will “tie his or her soul with the rope of life.”  That’s a really interesting phrase.  What does it mean?  The concern behind this is that it is possible for a soul to wander aimlessly, somehow disconnected to the proper order of things, somehow disconnected to the “rope of life.”  If we weren’t afraid of being adrift, we wouldn’t pray to be tied.

Our ancestors certainly believed that souls could wander without a home.   Tales of possession of a living person from a soul wandering and looking for a home were common in our tradition. This is well explored in the wonderful book by (J.H Chafes Between Worlds. Think also of the concept of the dybbuk, which is basically a soul who has not taken up its proper place in the cosmos.

The next part will take a look at our role in the journey of the deceased and the absence of appropriate religious specialists.