Page 28 - Perceptions papers

JUDAISM

Alice Tucker

Concepts about the afterlife or after death and how life is lived on earth are fundamental

to all religions. Belief in the afterlife almost always helps people to make sense when life seems

unfair. It also gives support and comfort at times of loss and bereavement. Therefore, it is

surprising that Jewish sacred texts and literature have relatively little to say about what happens

after death. This may seem surprising to non-Jews, since Christian and Islamic sacred texts ---

both of which have their foundations in Judaism---focus significantly on the afterlife.

The afterlife is not addressed explicitly in the Torah. The Torah is Jewish written law, and

consists of the five books of the Hebrew Bible, known most commonly to non-Jews as the Old

Testament. The Torah teaches that Jews have to focus on our life in this world, although

consideration of an eternal life and “good” afterlife would be a great incentive for us in our

earthly life. Judaism is much more focused on actions than beliefs, so the prophets and sages

didn’t concentrate so much on the world to come as they did on the mitzvoth, the good deeds,

that can be performed in this life. The focus of Judaism is on the earthly life, which is to fulfill

one’s duties to God and one’s fellow man.

There are many different perspectives on the topic of the afterlife. Many learned Jews don’t

believe in an afterlife, but ancient Judaism certainly did. In the biblical period Jews believed that

people went to Sheol, a shadowy pit beneath the earth. However, Sheol seems to be more a

metaphor for oblivion than an actual place where the dead “live”.

That was the prevalent view until the last book of the Bible, Daniel, was written. Daniel

11:2-3 states, “The knowledgeable will be radiant like the bright expanse of the sky and those

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