Judaism & Teachings on Life After Death (Edexcel GCSE Religious Studies B): Revision Note

Jewish teachings supporting the existence of life after death

• Jewish people believe in life after death because it is written in the Torah and because it gives life meaning and purpose

• The Jewish philosopher Maimonides wrote about the existence of an afterlife in the Thirteen Principles of Faith

  • The 13th principle of Maimonides speaks of a 'revival of the dead…when it shall please the Creator'

• However, although Judaism has ideas about an afterlife, it does not have a single, agreed-upon teaching about life after death

• Life on earth is viewed as a preparation for the next life

  • How Jews live their life while on earth is considered more important than what may happen in the next life

• The Mishnah teaches Jews that life on earth is preparation for Olam ha-ba, 'the world to come', which many Jews look forward to

• A person's fate in Olam ha-ba depends on how they have lived in this life

• Rosh Hashanah is sometimes called the Day of Judgement as Jews think about their deeds over the last year

  • They believe that at Rosh Hashanah, God judges every person by their deeds and decides their destiny in the afterlife

• There are divergent views among Jews about what happens on the Day of Judgement

• Many Orthodox Jews believe that the Day of Judgement, or Yawm ad-Din, will occur after the coming of the Messiah:

  • Orthodox Jews believe that after they die, each person’s physical body will be resurrected

• Most Jews believe that people who follow God’s laws will be sent to heaven after their body dies

  • Because of the belief most Orthodox Jews have that the physical body will be resurrected in the Messianic Age (when the good will rise from the dead), they do not allow any procedures that would cause damage or destruction of the body after death

  • This means that Orthodox Jews will bury their dead rather than cremate them

• Other Jews, such as Liberal and Reform Jews, may believe in a spiritual resurrection and therefore may allow cremation

• There is no exact description of heaven in Jewish scripture

• The Talmud does speak of Olam ha-ba in connection to the afterlife, and sometimes uses the term Gan Eden (the Garden of Eden), referring to a heavenly realm where souls reside after physical death

  • The term Gan Eden to describe heaven suggests a return to the blissful existence of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before the 'fall'

  • Many Jews believe that people may experience pain and suffering in this world, but that the afterlife will be free of misery

  • Others believe that Gan Eden is not necessarily a physical place but a state of consciousness or a place where the soul feels close to God

  • It is believed that the virtuous will be reunited with loved ones and that their souls will live on

• Jews who have lived a sinless life will be sent straight to Gan Eden. However, it is possible that souls could be sent to Sheol or Gehinnom (or Gehenna)

  • Sheol is a place of waiting where souls are cleansed and purified and is similar to the Catholic view of purgatory

  • Gehinnom is a place to be punished and a place of torment

• There are divergent views about the nature and length of the stay in Sheol or Gehinnom

  • Some believe the souls of those who have committed serious acts of evil - for example, murder, will never move on from this place of torment as they cannot be changed for the better

Jewish responses to non-religious arguments about life after death

• The topic of life after death fascinates both religious and non-religious people

• There are many different theories for what happens after we die

Remembered lives

• Some people have memories of previous lives and say they can recall people and events that they have experienced before. These feelings are known as déjà vu and are used to support the idea of reincarnation

  • Although some Jews find comfort in the idea of reincarnation, and it is written about in some Jewish mystical texts such as the Zohar, it is not an idea emphasised by any of the main Jewish traditions

Paranormal

• This is the belief in a range of other-worldly occurrences including ghosts, visions, voices, and telekinesis

  These events are used to support the belief that people’s spirits or souls survive their bodily death in some form and can communicate from the spirit world with those still living in the material world, directly or through mediums or clairvoyants

  • Because Jews believe in some form of life after death, there are accounts of visions, spirits surviving death and wandering souls in the Talmud and in later Jewish mystical writings.

  • However, many modern Jews would explain these experiences as metaphorical or psychological

Logic

• This is used to prove that death cannot possibly be the end. Otherwise, life on Earth does not make sense

• People describe near-death experiences which provide some evidence to support this idea: people have reported experiencing an out-of-body experience where they saw a bright light or appeared to be floating above their body, or saw dead relatives

  • For many Jews, belief in the teaching of the scriptures would mean accepting that it is logical to believe in some form of life after death.

  • This idea underpins the writings of the Jewish philosopher Maimonides, who used logic in the Thirteen Principles of Faith to explain that the soul would continue in some form after death and posited a 'revival of the dead…when it shall please the Creator'

Reward

• Many people, even non-religious people, believe that if they live a good life on this earth, they will be rewarded somehow afterwards

  They think that there must ultimately be some system of justice that will even out the inequalities and unfair aspects of life in this world, even if there is not a god judging everyone’s actions

  • Jews would accept that there is a reward for living a good life in this world

  • However, there are divergent opinions about the nature of the reward that awaits in the afterlife, with some believing in a literal heaven-like realm (Gan Eden), others accepting a spiritual realm (Olam Ha Ba) and some Jews accepting the need for a period of atonement (in Sheol ) before their reward

Comfort

• Many are comforted by the idea of life after death where they will experience a better existence if they are struggling or suffering in this life

  • Jews can take comfort in the idea of life after death being like the Garden of Eden (Gan Eden), a place where there is no more suffering

  • However, the mourning process when someone passes away in the Jewish tradition (Shiva) is focused more on comforting the bereaved family and friends, rather than thinking about the fate of the person who has died. This is in keeping with the idea that it is more important to focus on this life than the afterlife

Meeting loved ones who have passed away

• People want to believe that when they die, they will be reunited with loved ones they have lost

  • Although the idea is not laid out clearly in Jewish teachings, this is a common belief for Jews who hope to be reunited with loved ones in Gan Eden

Judaism: The significance of the belief in life After death

• While belief in life after death is not the central focus of Judaism, it still holds deep significance for many Jews

  • It is written about in the Torah, the Talmud and the Thirteen Principles of Faith

• It gives life on this earth meaning and purpose

• It gives Jews a powerful motive for keeping the mitzvot and living a good life to receive the reward of Olam Haba and avoid being condemned on the Day of Judgement (Yawm ad-Din)

• It shows them that death is not the end and that they need not fear it, which will provide comfort

• It gives Jews hope that they will have a better life in the future, which for some Jews may be in the Messianic Age

  • Hope that there will be justice for those who have suffered in this life has been of great comfort at many stages in the history of the Jewish faith, because of all the persecution that has been suffered

Jewish responses to arguments against life after death

• Many non-religious people do not believe that there is any such thing as life after death. 

• They would say that there is only this life and that death is the end

Lack of evidence

• No one has ever returned from the dead to prove the afterlife is real

  • Judaism would say that the religion rests upon faith, not just on empirical proof. Many aspects of Judaism, like all religions, require faith in things that cannot be empirically proven

Fraudulent claims

• Some people have tricked others into thinking there is a way to contact loved ones who have passed, which takes advantage of vulnerable people who are grieving

  • Jews would say that while some stories may be fabricated, that does not mean all are

  • Even though there are frauds, it does not detract from the truth that there is an afterlife and does not counter the evidence of centuries of religious teachings and people of good faith who have followed these teachings throughout history

Social control

• Some people think that religions use ideas of heaven and hell, reward and punishment, as a way to give them control over people’s behaviour, as the famous philosopher Karl Marx observed

  • Jews would say that, unlike some religions that focus on the afterlife, Judaism emphasises the importance of this life, so the afterlife is less of a 'tool' to control their behaviour

  • They would also say that belief in the afterlife actually gives meaning and purpose to their lives, providing comfort and the hope of justice

The body decays and that is the end

• Atheists and humanists believe that this life is all there is and that there is nothing beyond death. Life after death is impossible

  • Although there is not one unified belief in life after death and the nature of existence in the afterlife, Jews would certainly say that there is a form of life after death

  • They would point to Jewish teachings such as Ecclesiastes to support their belief that they will live on in some form: