A booming voice demanded the attention of about 75 people at a lecture Sunday night on “Life and Afterlife in the Hebrew Bible.”

Jay Holstein, professor of Jewish studies in the School of Religion at the University of Iowa, sparked interest for a class he will be teaching at Iowa State this spring.

Holstein will teach a three-credit course, “The Jewish Experience,” Religious Studies 355x, as a visiting scholar next semester on Tuesdays from 3:40 to 6 p.m.

The course will focus on Hebrew Bible themes and how those themes appear in the Jewish experience, particularly the Holocaust.

Afterlife was Holstein’s main topic of discussion.

He said there are only “lightning references” to the afterlife in the Hebrew Bible, which is what Christians call the Old Testament.

“The Hebrew book is the bedrock of Judaism,” Holstein said. “The one model of afterlife is covered by the dust of time. It is assumed. No where is it described.”

During the speech, Holstein suggested that when a Jew dies, he or she goes to Sheol, a place of “shadowy existence.”

Holstein said he believes people remain conscious of their surroundings after they die, but they are dependent on living relatives to determine the quality of that consciousness.

“There is no Messiah in this afterlife model,” Holstein said. “This is it. Forever in Sheol. It’s a wonderful model. True or false, how could I possibly know?”

“Rest in peace is no better than your worst day on earth,” Holstein said.

Holstein said in order for people to rest in peace in Sheol, their children must remember the people properly, which includes following the Ten Commandments generation after generation.

He said he sees the Tenth Commandment as nearly impossible to keep.

The New Revised Standard Version Bible, Exodus 20:17, states the Tenth Commandment as, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

Holstein said the Jewish afterlife model he described surfaces in Deuteronomy 5:25-33, where reference is made to a dead man.

He said the Hebrew Bible is the only product we have of a society that lasted 1,500 years.

“It’s the tip of an iceberg,” Holstein said. “To read the Hebrew Bible is to be aware of your ignorance.”

Holstein said it is as important for Jews to read the Hebrew Bible now as it was when Moses first received the law from God.