Jewish Belief of What Happens After Death

The Jewish conception of what happens after death cannot be reduced to a few simple rules and the religion's ambiguity about the question is remarkably different from the approach taken by most other religions. There is "no single biblical view of the afterlife" and the answers that were provided in the rabbinic phase of Judaism, and since that time, have also varied among different communities of believers (Sonsino & Syme 12). Two ideas emerge from the Biblical picture of death. First, it is the life-affirming nature of God that is emphasized. There is little interest in the problem of the afterlife and "the ultimate purpose is to 'sanctify' life here on earth" (Sonsino & Syme 12). Second, death does not consist of the disappearance of the individual entity and people move on, in some way, to another plane of existence. This is reflected in the biblical references to, for example, being "gathered to [one's] kin" after death (Gen. 25:8, 17).

Death takes place either because the natural end of life is reached or because of sin. An untimely death was considered a punishment for sin, while a long life was considered a reward for having behaved correctly. Death was also considered to be final -- without a question of return to the earth. But even if people could not be said to live again the Israelites did not accept the idea of complete dissolution of the individual and the references to the existence of Sheol, a place in which the dead dwell, are quite common in the

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roversy, especially after the Enlightenment, over what 'part' of a human being was immortal -- the soul, spirit, or intellect. But in the modern era the notion of bodily resurrection was rejected by much of the Jewish community (while being retained by Orthodox and many Conservative Jews) while immortality, of some type, was confirmed. This was, as Sonsino and Syme point out, an appealing idea since the belief that something of the individual endures after death was "an assurance that enables [people] to face life with greater courage and hope" (45). Contemporary Jewish thinkers often formulate conceptions of the question that reject the importance placed on the idea of resurrection and stress the non-physical, even non-individual, nature of immortality. Rabbi Bernard Schulweis, for example, argues that the concern with resurrection and reward in an afterlife derives from dissatisfaction with life in this world and he suggests that, since life is the responsibility of the living, the important thing is not to look for something better beyond this life but to make something better of this one. The other world will "compensate the victims of this world," in some people's view, but this can also, according to others, lead peopl

Category: Philosophy - J