The
afterlife is known as
olam ha-ba (), being related to the concepts of
Gan Eden— heavenly "
Garden in Eden", or
Paradise—and
Gehinnom. The phrase
olam ha-ba itself does not occur in the
Hebrew Bible. In Jewish theology, the widely accepted
Halakha is that it is impossible for living human beings to know what the world to come is like.
Second Temple period In the late
Second Temple period, beliefs about the ultimate fate of individuals were diverse. The
Pharisees and
Essenes believed in the
immortality of the soul, but the
Sadducees did not. The
Dead Sea Scrolls, Jewish
pseudepigrapha, and
Jewish magical papyri all reflect this variety of opinions.
Medieval rabbinical views While classical rabbinic sources discuss the afterlife,
medieval scholars disputed the nature of individuals' continued existence after the
Messianic Age. While
Maimonides describes an entirely spiritual existence for souls, which he calls "disembodied intellects",
Nachmanides proposes a spiritual existence on Earth in which spirituality and physicality are merged. Both agree that life after death is, as Maimonides describes, the "End of Days". This existence entails a heightened understanding of and connection to the
Shekhinah. All classical rabbinic scholars share this latter view. According to Maimonides, any
non-Jew who lives according to the
Seven Laws of Noah is regarded as a
righteous gentile and assured a place in the world to come (the final reward of the righteous). There is a great deal of surviving rabbinic material concerning the fate of the
soul after death, its experiences, and where it goes. At various points in the afterlife journey, the soul may encounter:
hibbut ha-kever, the pains and other experiences of physico-spiritual dissolution or reconfiguration within the grave;
Dumah, the
angel in charge of funerary matters;
Satan, as the
angel of death or another equally grim figure; the
Kaf ha-Kela, the ensnarement or confinement of the stripped-down soul within ghostly material reallocations, described in chapter 8 of the
Tanya,
Chabad's primary philosophical text, as devised for the cleansing of souls needing punishment not severe enough to warrant
Gehinnom;
Gehinnom; and
Gan Eden (a place of
heavenly respite or
paradise characterized by spiritual purity). Classical rabbinic scholars agree that these concepts are beyond typical human understanding, so these ideas are expressed throughout rabbinic literature as
parables and analogies. Seven clouds of glory overshadow Paradise, and under them, in the center of Paradise, stands the
Tree of Life. The soul is transfigured into an angel, with the ugliest person becoming as beautiful and shining as "the grains of a silver
pomegranate upon which fall the rays of the sun". The
Book of Daniel promised literal resurrection to the Jews in concrete detail. Alan Segal interprets Daniel as writing that with the coming of the archangel
Michael, misery would beset the world, and only those whose names were written in a divine book would be resurrected. The
Mishnah lists belief in the
resurrection of the dead as one of three essential beliefs of Judaism: In the late
Second Temple period, the
Pharisees and
Essenes believed in
resurrection, while
Sadducees did not. In contemporary Judaism, both
Orthodox Judaism and
Conservative Judaism maintain the traditional references to it in their liturgy. However, Conservative Jewish leadership has officially acknowledged metaphorical rather than literal interpretations, too. Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism have altered traditional references to the resurrection of the dead in the liturgy, revising "who gives life to the dead" to "who gives life to all" in the second blessing of the
Amidah.
The last judgment In Judaism, the day of judgment happens every year on
Rosh Hashanah; therefore, a future "last day" of judgment for all humankind is disputed. Some hold that there will be such a day following the resurrection of the dead. Others maintain that there is no need for that because of Rosh Hashanah. Yet others hold that this accounting and judgment occur at death. Others contend that the last judgment only applies to the gentile nations and not the Jewish people.
In contemporary Judaism Irving Greenberg, representing an
Open Orthodox viewpoint, describes the afterlife as a central Jewish teaching deriving from the belief in reward and punishment. According to Greenberg, suffering
medieval Jews emphasized the world to come as a counterpoint to the difficulties of this life, while early Jewish modernizers portrayed Judaism as concerned only with this world, in contrast to "otherworldly" Christianity. Greenberg sees each of these views as leading to an undesired extreme—overemphasizing the afterlife leads to asceticism, while devaluing the afterlife deprives Jews of the consolation of eternal life and justice—and calls for a synthesis, in which Jews can work to perfect this world, while also recognizing the immortality of the soul. Conservative Judaism both affirms belief in the world beyond (as referenced in the
Amidah and Maimonides's
principles of faith) while recognizing that human understanding is limited and we cannot know exactly what the world beyond consists of. Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism affirm belief in the afterlife, though they downplay the theological implications in favor of emphasizing the importance of the "here and now" as opposed to reward and punishment. The
Union for Reform Judaism believes the righteous of any faith have a place in heaven, but does not believe in a concept of hell. ==Jewish messianism==