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They Serve Bagels in Heaven by Irene Weinberg

They Serve Bagels in Heaven

One couple's story of love, eternity, and the cosmic importance of everyday life

by Irene Weinberg

Pub Date: Dec. 10th, 2001
ISBN: 978-1493618668
Publisher: CreateSpace

A memoir and treatise on faith, love, and life after death.

Weinberg (Love’s Eternal Marriage, 2012) presents a new edition of her book, first published in 2001, exploring the ramifications of her husband Saul’s tragic death in an automobile accident, which she survived. Shortly after the tragedy, Weinberg received a strong spiritual message telling her that she should “be loving and kind to everyone.” As she physically recovered and grappled with her grief, she encountered several mediums and spiritual healers who hinted that Saul might still be with her in spirit. She eventually found her way to a healer who claimed to have direct messages from Saul. In his messages, Weinberg says, Saul explained life beyond the grave, the nature of Heaven, and human beings’ true purpose on Earth: “Your soul purpose is the gift you came here to share with the human race, no matter how simple or grand it may seem,” he said. “It also involves the personal relationship lessons you came here to learn this time around.” For Saul and Irene, he said, this lesson took the form of multiple lives spent as soul mates, spanning major events of world history and the specific history of the Jewish people. These stories add narrative drama to a book that mainly serves to explain Weinberg’s ideas on how people can come to grips with the concept of life after death, and how they can live better lives on Earth. The prose is straightforward, with little literary or aesthetic embellishment, but it makes the ideas easy to understand. However, the author gives little attention to her own personal, emotional experiences, aside from the details necessary to set the scenes, and this somewhat obscures the story of her emotional journey. That said, this is a big-hearted, earnest memoir that shows Weinberg’s clear desire to help readers. Believers in spiritualism and life after death will find plenty of food for thought.

A compassionate, creative and well-intentioned memoir.