Berachot 18: From Beyond the Grave

Speaking about obligations when reciting the Shema is exempted, the rabbis note that conjugal relations, addressing one's wife conjugal rights, is required.  

Today's daf generally focus on the 'lives' of those who have died.  The stories and arguments that arise from those stories are fanciful and far-reaching at best.  It should be noted that many of the proof texts on how we should treat the deceased come from quotations regarding how we should treat the poor (Proverbs 19:17; 14:31).  We are told that righteous people are considered to be living even after their death, and that wicked people were considered to be dead while alive, and so they continue to be dead after death.  Proof texts come from Ezekiel (21:30)  and from Deuteronomy (17:6), "...the dead shall be put to death."  The rabbis wonder about the dead feeling pain; perhaps they know their own pain but do not recognize the pain of others.

We are told the story of a pious man in conflict with his wife.  He sleeps in the cemetery and hear two spirits speaking about when to plant and reap in the following year.  He follows this advice two years in a row with results that make him stand out from the community. He finally tells his wife why this has happened. She quarrels with the mother of the girl who lies in the cemetery.  When he returns to the grave, he hears the spirits say that they cannot speak any longer for the living are overhearing the dead.  Does this prove that the dead know what will happen in this world?  No, says the Gemara, it could prove that a certain person would arrive the next day, but not anything further.

Many proofs tells stories about how people are able to locate money or objects after the keeper of those things has died.  

It would be fascinating to learn more about how ultra-orthodox academics understand these sections of aggada.  Are they not to be taken as serious tales of the lives of the dead, but of what we long for as those who are still alive?  Are they considered to be something that we were able to understand years ago, when we were closer to the great knowledge of our patriarchs and matriarchs?  Today's average reader can only see these stories as fables at best.  Why are they part of our sacred teachings?  Perhaps our curiosity about the 'lives of the dead' has been thought to be worth saving in and of itself.