What do modern Jews believe happens to people when they die?

Question

According to the Old Testament, people go to a shadowy place called Sheol when they die. What do modern Jews believe?

(No racism please, particularly with bad spelling and grammar!)

Answer 1

One of the biggest surprises in Judaism is that the Bible, the foundation of the faith that led to both Christianity and Islam, has nothing to say about what happens after you die. Heaven, hell, purgatory, reincarnation.... these are all concepts foreign to Torah, though not necessarily foreign to Judaism. The Bible itself is concerned specifically with how to live in this world and the idea of an afterlife hasn't been central to Jewish belief.

Many Jewish teachers suggest that basically nothing happens after death but that our souls and bodies will be resurrected when God decides it's time. There are images of Jerusalem of Gold that will manifest in that messianic time. No one seems to know what will happen then.

Jewish mystical tradition suggests that after you die, you travel deep into the cave of the patriarchs where you encounter Adam, appearing as a being of light. after reviewing your life, you spend up to a year in gehenna (purgatory) - perhaps during those eleven months when your relatives are reciting kaddish - and then you either move up to a higher level of paradise or you return to Earth in a process called gigul (the Jewish notion of reincarnation) to complete more mitzvot.

There is a great image that after death, everyone listens to Moses teach Torah. For the righteous, this is heaven; for the wicked it's hell.

There is a very famous folktale where in both heaven and hell, human beings sit at tables filled with wonderful foods, but they can't bend their elbows. In hell the people are perpetually starved, since they can't bring the food to their mouths; in heaven each person feeds his neighbor.

Answer 2

It depends on the Jew. Some believe that the righteous go to a place like the Christian heaven, others believe that they will be resurrected when the Messiah comes, some believe in reincarnation. Some believe that the wicked may be tormented by demons and some believe that they are destroyed at death.

Answer 3

There really isn't much dogma about it, and it's not a big part of our religion. Some believe in heaven. Others believe that you sort of go to sleep untill the Messiah arrives. There are also those who believe in a type of reincarnation.

There's just not a lot of information about the afterlife in our bible, and our religion focusses on making a better life here and in this life. So we just don't think about it that much.

Answer 4

what's going to take place would be that all of us stay in peace. it is not lots the messiah himself that we are looking forward to by using fact the messianic age. we haven't any concept of the messiah being divine, so we actual is basically no longer worshipping him, and that's basically no longer something like christianity. i'm unsure what you advise approximately all of us who has died - i ask your self in case you have become puzzled with the Christian concept of messiah who Christians could desire to have self assurance in as a fashion to be 'saved'? Judaism does not have this form of concept. all of us (Jewish or no longer) has a place interior the international to return in the event that they have led a good existence, consistently have, consistently will. The messiah makes no difference to that. by using fact the Jews do no longer assume they're precise approximately each thing, i'm very uncertain what you advise on your further info. via the way - the messiah isn't a huge concentration for Judaism, so don't be shocked that we've not provided you with an entire theological argument approximately all this. Judaism isn't Christianity with Jesus, and it won't grow to be like Christianity if the messiah comes. Our messiah won't artwork miracles (different than insofar as peace sounds like a miracle from right here), is basically no longer divine, is basically no longer worshipped. that's an entire distinctive ball-game.