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Thursday, October 24, 2024

Afterlife activities and foreshadowing shadows in Sefer Chasidim (and the Talmud)

FOR SUKKOT ETC.: Hoshana Rabbah: Delivering Judgment and Night of the Dead (Dr. Emilie Amar-Zifkin, TheTorah.com).
On Rosh Hashanah, our judgment is written; on Yom Kippur, it is sealed; and on Hoshana Rabbah, it is sent out to be fulfilled. It is said that on the night of Hoshana Rabbah, those judged to die that year will lose their shadows. Sefer Chasidim relates that, in a final plea for forgiveness, even the spirits of the dead rise from their graves to pray for the living.
The latter story is based on one in the Talmud that takes place on the eve of Rosh Hashanah.

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