Dare To Ask Talk And News About Our Differences By PHILLIP MILANO,
Question
Do Jewish people believe in a life after death in heaven?
Dan, 49, Catholic, Mount Prospect, Ill.
Replies
Absolutely. After death, the soul goes to heaven or purgatory (no eternal damnation in Judaism).
Ed, 25, Jewish, New York
I feel considering an afterlife in your actions is wrong. For example, if I give food to a homeless person, I do it because God says I should give tzedakah (charity). If I did it because I was trying to assure my entrance to heaven, it would make my gesture seem selfish and less meaningful.
Thomas, 27, Jewish, Richmond, Va.
I’ve been told by a leading scholar of the Old Testament that the afterlife is an invention of Christianity. A very successful one, I might add!
Dan S., 66, Jewish, Boston
In general, Jews are much more interested in social justice — their concept is of doing God’s will to perfect the world.
Raymond, 68, Jewish, Portland, Conn.
Life, and living properly, is simply expected. It’s not an optional thing, and no “reward” is a necessary enticement. By the same token, if one chooses to not live up to his or her obligations, no threat, no matter how dire (read: hell), would be a deterrent.
Rebecca, 25, Jewish, Miami
Expert says
“Jews as individuals believe everything from absolute clarity that there’s an afterlife to ‘Are you crazy? When you’re gone, it’s over,'” said Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, vice president of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership in New York. “Jews, like all people, claim different parts of their traditions to help give them a sense of grounding and comfort.”
An erroneous assumption is that Jews worry about this life while Christians worry about the next life, said Hirschfield, an Orthodox rabbi and co-author of Embracing Life & Facing Death: A Jewish Guide to Palliative Care (CLAL).
“It’s irresponsible to say a Christian focus on the hereafter distracts from a commitment to making this world a better place, or to say that Jews focus only on the here and now, when we have plenty of literature that affirms that when it’s over, it’s not over.”
The Talmud, in fact, discusses Olam Ha Ba (the World to Come), often referred to as the Garden of Eden, where body and soul reunite and one reaps what one has sown. Some interpretations say the more righteous receive a bigger share of the rewards.
“To simplify: Jewish life says focus on the here and now and the afterlife will take care of itself,” Hirschfield said. “Christians say use the afterlife as a model and the here and now will be just fine. Both are beautiful ways to look at life.”
But they’re not very funny ways to look, now are they?
So, how about this:
In Jewish Literacy (William Morrow), Rabbi Joseph Telushkin notes that some Jewish folklore discusses a heaven in which Moses “sits and teaches Torah all day long.”
“For the righteous people, this is heaven,” he writes. “For the evil people, it is hell.”