Jews..........Please Enlighten Me?

Early Judaism - the religion of the biblical Israelites, offered very little information about an afterlife. Jews then, as now, placed far more emphasis on physical existence than on afterlife. Like the surrounding Babylonians, Assyrians, and Akkadians, the Israelites

conceived of a netherworld, a dark, clammy, dreary realm where the dead sleep eternally.

As Job says:

But man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last and is no more.

As water disappears from the sea or a riverbed becomes parched and dry, So man lies down and does not rise; till the heavens are no more, Men will not awake or be roused from their sleep.

-%26gt; Job 14:10-12.

The Book of Ecclesiastes provides stark and seemingly unfair images of death and reward. The first passage suggests that man and

beast may all suffer the same end, and what happens after that is not knowable:

For what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other. Surely, they all have one breath; man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity. All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust. Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, which goes down to the earth? So I perceived that nothing is better than that a man should rejoice in his own works, for that is his heritage. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him? -%26gt; Ecclesiastes 3:19-22



This passage asserts that there is no reward in death:

For the living know that they will die;

But the dead know nothing,

And they have no more reward,

For the memory of them is forgotten.

-%26gt; Ecclesiastes 9:5



By the second century B.C.E., the idea of the resurrection of the dead was appearing in Jewish writings, perhaps, in part, an influence of Persian Zoroastrian beliefs. As messianic ideas of the prophets crystallized, one of the events that was agreed would occur in the

messianic age was the rising of the dead. This resurrection was thought to be a physical one, in which our whole bodies would live again, and not merely our discorporate souls.

Judaism generally rejects the Greek belief that body and soul, like matter and form, are separate entities. Flesh and spirit are intermingled and interdependent aspects that are inseparable and indivisible. The Jewish tradition that bodies are buried whole and the

prohibition against cremation are meant as safeguards to bodily resurrection at the time of the Messiah.



The Talmud is filled with references to paradise, Gan Eden (Garden of Eden), and olam haba (world-to-come) as afterlife rewards. While the Rabbis of the Talmud stressed that the reward in fulfilling a mitzvah was the mitzvah itself, the Rabbis also pointed out that

our conduct in this world is directly related to our reception in the world-to-come:

Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani said in the name of Rabbi Yonatan: When a man performs a mitzvah in this world, it precedes him鈥攇oes ahead of him鈥攊n the world-to-come. And when a man commits a transgression in this world, it clings to him and goes before him on the Day of Judgment.

Rabbi Elazar said it attaches itself to him like a dog.

-%26gt; Babylonian Talmud, Sotah 3b



The reward and punishment that the Rabbis describe is reminiscent of the Hindu idea of karma. The imagery of actions clinging to a person is identical to that found in Hindu teachings, which refer to karma (action) as a substance that clings to the individual.

There are numerous descriptions of the world-to-come found in the Talmud and other rabbinic writings. In the following passage, olam hazeh (this life) is viewed as a mere prologue to the olam haba (world-to-come):

Rabbi Yaakov said: This world is like an entrance hall before the

world-to-come. Prepare yourself in the entrance hall so that you may enter the banquet hall.

-%26gt; Pirkei Avot 4:21



My questions are :

Which one do you believe regarding the Afterlife: Tanakh or Talmud ? Please explain why.....



PS : todah rabah shalom !!!Jews..........Please Enlighten Me?
the concept of an afterlife has changed drastically over the years in the jewish religion. ok pretty much jews believe in a heaven but there has never been any refences to the devil in any jewish text over thousands of years. btw this is coming from a good source because i am a jew lol