Yes it’s true. The verse states that “a good name is better than good oil, and the day of death than the day of one's birth.” (Kohelet - Ecclesiastes7:1)
The Sages compare life to a ship that is going out to sea. When the ship leaves port for the first time people throw streamers, a band plays and a bottle of champagne is broken on the ship’s bow. When the ship returns to port, there is no band and no streamers; only passport control and customs officers await it. In fact, it would be more appropriate to pray when a ship embarks because we do not know what will happen to it on its journey. The time to celebrate is when it returns in peace. Human emotion being what it is, we do not see life and death as a journey. We celebrate a new life and new potential and cry for our loss when a loved one dies. When, however, we consider all the good that the person achieved in his or her lifetime, our mourning is tempered by the knowledge that the ship has returned safely to its homeport.
In reality, the beginning of life should be a time of fear and trepidation, much more so than the end. At life’s beginning, everything is uncertain. We do not know if the soul will succeed in realizing its potential or fall short. At the end of a good life we know that the soul has gone back to its Creator – that it has achieved a tremendous amount while on this earth – but has now retuned to the place it truly desires to be.
