A Conversation With Chabakuk Elisha - Death As An Illusion

A Simple Jew asks:

I noticed that Degel Machaneh Ephraim contains an idea that is remarkably similar to the story you shared from the Beis Yisroel of Ger. In Parshas Tzav, the Degel wrote that in the future there will no longer be any death and that a higher consciousness will allow us to see that the dead are really living.

Do you think the Degel is actually saying that death is only an illusion?

He wrote:

כי יהיה הכל בהתגלות מוחין עילאין אשר הם חיים

Chabakuk Elisha answers:

It's a longer conversation (not for one foot), but it depends on the definition of the word illusion…

A Simple Jew responds:

Perhaps it means that there are different definitions of death. To us, it means that the person is no longer "here". The Baal Shem Tov, however, once said,

"Death is nothing but the passage from one corner of the universe to another."

Using this analogy, when a person walks from one room into another he is no longer "there" in the first room. And, at the time a person dies he goes from one world to the next. He doesn't die, meaning that he ceases to exist, he is just no longer present in his previous location.

Chabakuk Elisha answers:

Definitely true, but that's not all there is to the mashul.

Use of a dream as a mashul needs to be properly understood. If we translate a dream as "something that seemed to, but didn't actually, take place" we would destroy the entire concept of Torah and mitzvos. For this reason I think (I could be wrong though) that the mashul of the dream should be understood as follows:

Dreams are a real experience - dreams can be felt deeply and we truly experience them. Everything that happens in dream is palpable in that "dream realm" -- where the emotions of pain, joy, fear, frustration or hilarity exists in a real way, and may very well have impact on our existence when we are awake. What changes when we wake up is that we find out that it's not the only reality, and the course that was set in that dream is reversible, or need not be continued, etc. The significance being that dreams are not final in relation to our awake state.

So, of course you are right in quoting the Baal Shem Tov's remarks that point to out continued existence after leaving this world, and in addition, I think, the dream mashul of the Beis Yisroel & the remarks of the Degel illustrate our relationship with reality.