21 539 the grave, and lastly, because you are destined to give an accounting for your soul to your Creator ( cheshbon hanefesh ) . ” 39 In other words, the Maharal argues that this dispute is on the highest of levels, but in the last analysis the school of Hillel is correct in affirming that it is better to be born ; however, this is true only ex post facto . Otherwise, the human suffering counted out by Beit Shammai would prevail in the world of pure reason . Since we find ourselves already living in the world, even if not of our own making, a compromise resolution was advanced ( Babylonian Talmud, Eruvin 13 b ) . We must do our best to live the lives we are given in relation to others, and thereby ourselves, in the context we inhabit in the world around us . If this is the case, then the conditions for living a life in which a person is answerable for his own proper name is argued for and affirmed . In a sense, this pragmatic affirmative response that it is better to be born means th...
אל הספר