Is there life after death?
What is the nature of our existence?

To know the answers is to find greater purpose, understanding and comfort in our lives - and in our deaths.

With candor, questioning, and sharp-eyed scholarship, Rabbi Elie Kaplan Spitz recounts his own experiences and the firsthand accounts others shared with him propelling his own journey from skeptic to believer that indeed, the soul does survive bodily death.

An inexplicable "mistake" he makes while conducting a funeral; his neurologist wife's startling experience during a channeling session with a medium; the awesome moments Rabbi Spitz encounters at the deathbed of a dying friend...these events and others punctuate his quest to uncover the Jewish tradition's answers about what happens to our souls after death.

Does the South Survive? looks squarely at both sides of the issues (addressing, for example, the discrepancies in afterlife and reincarnation accounts), and an appendix presents a comprehensive view of what Torah and Jewish scholars throughout the ages say on the subject of the immortality of the soul.

Ground breaking and inspiring, this book also gives us thought-provoking ways to live our lives now, in light of the Jewish views on afterlife, in order to cultivate our souls and seize the opportunity to live this life with increasing awareness and generosity.

"Elegantly written . . . Rabbi Elie Spitz's 'journey' will inspire its readers to follow his example and search for what is meaningful in Jewish life and learning."...Elie Wiesel

Near-death experiences? Past-life regression?
Reincarnation? Are these sorts of things Jewish?

With a blend of candor, personal questioning and sharp-eyed scholarship, Rabbi Elie Kaplan Spitz relates his own observations and the firsthand accounts shared with him by others, experiences that helped propel his journey from skeptic to believer that there is life after life.

From near-death experiences to reincarnation, past-life memory to the work of mediums, Rabbi Spitz explores what we are really able to know about the afterlife, and draws on Jewish texts to share that belief in these concepts---so often approached with reluctance---is in fact true to Jewish tradition.

"The increasing interest and faith in survival of the soul may grow into a cultural wave that is as potentially transformative for society as the civil rights movement and feminism. A renewed faith in 'the soul's journeys' will call for a reassessment of our priorities, and will enable traditional religions to renew and transform their adherents."

"Very worthwhile...people do not know enough about the Jewish point of view on death and dying, and people need to know that reincarnation and afterlife is a fact. It's about time and the time is now. This is a brilliant book that keeps you fascinated."

---Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

"A wise, moving, carefully thought out and provocative first-person exploration into the immortality of the soul. Indispensable for anyone who has ever wondered about the mysteries of life before and after this one. A beautiful book."

---Lawrence Kushner, Rabbi-in-Residence, Hebrew Union College; author, Invisible Lines of Connection: Sacred Stories of the Ordinary

"Rabbi Spitz has taken our most profound human question and given us an exciting journey into religious, historical and present-day answers....This inspirational book shows us just how important living our purpose is."

---Carol Adrienne, Ph.D., author, The Purpose of Your Life

"His initial reticence to believe people's stories about life after death and past incarnations...gives this book credibility even for skeptical philosophers like me...Rabbi Spitz has me wondering!"

---Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff, Ph.D., Rector and Professor of Philosophy, University of Judaism