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Like other spiritual traditions, Judaism offers a range of views on the afterlife, including some parallels to the concepts of heaven and hell familiar to us from popular Western (i.e., Christian) teachings. While in traditional Jewish thought the subjects of heaven and hell were treated extensively, most modern Jewish thinkers have shied away from this topic, preferring to follow the biblical ...
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- Afterlife
Still, in other sources, the World to Come refers to the...
- Does Judaism Allow Organ Donations
Do Jews believe in Hell? I am not planning any trips there or anything, but I have heard conflicting reports about its existence. Answer: We do believe in a type of Hell, but not the one found in cartoons and joke books. Hell is not a punishment in the conventional sense; it is, in fact, the expression of a great kindness.
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On the other hand, Judaism is not about “Do this and you get a ticket to heaven.” The Mishnah tells us that we shouldn’t be “as servants who serve their Judaism is not about “Do this and you get a ticket to heaven.”master so that they will receive a reward.”1 It’s more like “Here’s the program. If we all work on this together, look at what we can a...
Jews call the collection of sacred Hebrew works from Moses to Ezra “Tanach.” Tanachcertainly does not comprise the totality of Judaism, but it does provide the roots and origins of everything Judaism contains. Reading through Tanach, you won’t find much about heaven. But you will repeatedly get the sense that there’s an elephant in the room. Readin...
Eventually, there came a time when little could be taken for granted anymore and everything had to be set down in writing. The Mishnah is the original and most authoritative collection of Jewish law, redacted in the Roman Era. Talmudis an elaboration of the Mishnah. Both were composed at a time when Jews were already dispersed throughout two massiv...
As mentioned above, Jews generally don’t talk of “heaven.” Instead, Jews talk about Gan Eden (the garden of Eden)—as in “Mom is glad to be back with Dad in Gan Eden.” Jews also speak about Olam Ha-ba (the World To Come)—as in “You could lose your place in Olam Ha-bafor saying things like that about people.” To complicate matters, the two terms Thin...
Gan Eden, as we said, coincides with the current phase of our reality—a world in a state of becoming. These are workdays—working towards a world in its ultimate state of being. You can think of Gan Edenas the natural consequence of death for a dedicated worker. Let’s say a soul was heavily engaged in good deeds and Torah study in this lifetime. Pro...
This is what history is all about—a process of gradual refinement, removing the bad and embracing the precious good until the world can be the way it was meant to be from the start. It’s a process called tikun, as in the term, Tikun Olam. The program for refining this world is called Torah and mitzvahs. The more mitzvahs we do, the more refined thi...
That’s what we call Olam Ha-Ba—the World To Come. It’s really this world, but in its ultimate state. After everything has been repaired and perfected in the messianic era, the souls of all that had a hand in that tikun will return to live eternal life in the reconstructed bodies they occupied when they did their work. This is called Techiyat Ha-Mei...
Back to that Mishnah we mentioned at the beginning: Meaning that every Jew is born with a Every Jew is born with a share in Olam Ha-Ba.share in Olam Ha-Ba, but through certain misdeeds, a soul can forfeit that share. One who knows and understands what Olam Ha-Bais all about, but denies its truth, cuts himself off from the experience. The same goes ...
“The righteous of the nations have a share in Olam Ha-Ba,” states the Talmud45 , and although “The righteous of the nations have a share in Olam Ha-Ba.” there is some debate, this is the final ruling of Maimonides.46 It makes sense. You don’t have to be Jewish to fulfill the divine purpose for which you were created, just as being Jewish doesn’t me...
- Tzvi Freeman
Dec 16, 2021 · At the same time, a majority (62%) say they also believe in hell. While a quarter say they don’t believe in either heaven or hell, only one in six Americans don’t believe in any kind of afterlife.
- STEWART WEISS
The Second Book of Enoch, meanwhile, states that both Paradise and hell are accommodated in Shehaqim with hell being located simply "on the northern side". Maon ( Hebrew: מָעוֹן, Tiberian: Māʿōn , Dwelling/Habitation): [ 15 ] The fourth heaven is ruled by the Archangel Michael , and according to the Talmud , Hagigah 12, it contains the heavenly Jerusalem , the Temple , and the Altar .
The Soul and Heaven in Judaism. One of the fundamental beliefs of Judaism is that life does not begin with birth, nor does it end with death. This is articulated in the verse in Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), “And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to G‑d, who gave it.”1
Still, in other sources, the World to Come refers to the world inhabited by the righteous immediately following death–i.e. heaven, Gan Eden. In this view, the World to Come exists now, in some parallel universe. Heaven and Hell. Indeed, the notion of heaven and hell may be the most ambiguous of all Jewish afterlife ideas.
