“It is impossible to escape the thought that [humanity] is equipped for more than just life here on earth. We do not know what that more is and we may never know, but its essence is the fact that death cannot be the end of life.”
The theme of Rabbi Olan’s February 4, 1962 radio sermon was immortality. Some people affirm the idea of life after death as a matter of faith. For those looking beyond theology, Olan quoted leading humanists and scientists. Ultimately, there is no proof that the soul continues after the death of the body. But then again, the question of immortality cannot be dismissed simply.
“The idea of immortality is integral not only to the nature of
man, but to the universe itself as best we know it.”
(Rabbi Olan quotes Omar Khayyám, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, James George Frazer, Charles Darwin, Don Miguel de Unamuno, William Makepeace Thakeray, Seelye Bixler, and Rabbi Leo Baeck.)
Rabbi Levi A. Olan: The Conscience of the City 