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The Jewish humorist, Isaac Asimov, has told the story of a Yiddish play being performed in a little theatre on New York City’s Second Avenue …

During the play, the curtain fell suddenly and the manager stepped on stage to make the following announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, I regret to have to tell you that the great and beloved actor Mendel Kalb, has just suffered a fatal heart attack in the dressing room, and we cannot continue.” Whereupon, a formidable-looking woman rose from her seat in the balcony and cried out, “Quick, give him some chicken soup.”

The manager spoke up: “Madam, the man is dead. What good would chicken soup do?” And the woman shouted back, “What harm?”

What harm, indeed! No earthly harm for sure. Death brings an abrupt end not only to the pleasure of this world but also to the pain of this world.

In the literature of ancient Greece there is the story of two pious youths whose mother prayed…