Eternal Life

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live forever, to never die?  I know as I am now living in the second half life, assuming that fifty is the midpoint, I start to chant the Jewish blessing as an incantation, "May you live to 120".  It is based on the most often cited sources in Bereishit  (Genesis) 6:3 and in Devarim (Deuteronomy) 34:7.  The age of Moses upon his death is given as 120, and the text explains, "his eye had not dimmed, and his vigor had not diminished."  That is also important, that we live a long healthy and happy life.  The idea being that life is so enjoyable that we do not want to leave.

Author,  Dara Horn has given us a novel that will keep you thinking about living for eternity for quite some time after you put the book down.  As I finished this novel, Eternal Life, I sat wondering what it would be like to continue to live on as those I love in my life were not.  It is something many of us have thought about as we age or get sick, wondering if it would be possible to stay the same age or find a cure to keep us alive longer.  Right off the top of my head I think of instances where we dream of ways to stay young.  Ponce de Leon and the myth we learned about his search for the fountain of youth and Dorian Gray and his portrait hanging in the attic, after realizing his wish to remain young and let the portrait age is coming true.

That is similar to the premise of this book.  The plot is based on the idea that Rachel and Elazar are two young lovers living during the first temple time.  Rachel, the daughter of a scribe and Elazar, the son of a high priest.  They are star crossed lovers who have to hide to spend time together because they would not be permitted to marry.  When Rachel is married off Zakkai this relationship should end but of course it does not and Rachel finds herself pregnant.  The son is born as Zakkai's and then as a small boy becomes deathly ill.  To save his life Rachael and Elazar vow their lives for his.  They agree without understanding that they will never die.  They will continue to live forever while those around them age and pass on to the next life.

Thus begins the extremely long and fruitful lives of both Rachel and Elazar, who between other lives they are leading meet up again throughout the centuries.  They never stay together, but marry others and bear children in each new century, each leaving a long legacy of children, grandchildren and so on.  Each time they start life over again young, and learn new things as science and time move on, living through wars, disease, modern medicine and computers, right up until today with social media and bitcoin.

In a way it seems like starting to read a new book.  Each time you pick up a book, it is like a new relationship.  You open it full of the expectations. You read the first chapter with anticipation and hope that you will fall in love.  The plot draws you in and you are hooked.  It is exciting to come back to it each day, when you have finished your other work.  Time passes and you are in the middle and fully attached, then the end approaches and you are starting to read slower and dreading the experience coming to an end.  When it is over you are both at peace and fulfilled by the enjoyment of it and sad that it has come to an end.  Then you reach to your bookshelf or to-read pile and pick up the next book and the process begins again.  Would this be similar to living forever, while others around you do not?

Dara Horn has created her both an enticing novel that is enjoyable just on the P'shat level of reading a fascinating plot.  She also has given the reader an interesting D'rash to contemplate. Thinking about what it would be like to live through all the changes in history.  To be immortal when those around you are still mortal.