GHSTRDER: In Judaism, what happens when certain people die and what happens to people on the day of Judgment?
What happens to the disbelievers when they die, there is no Hell in Judaism so, what happens to them? We already know what happens to the believers. However, I also ask:
A)What happens to the people who believe in God but didn’t follow all his laws?
B)What happens to people who don’t believe in God, but still did good deeds?
C)What happens to people who did an evil deed they realized they shouldn’t have done, but by the time they realize it they die?
Any specifics?
Answers and Views:
Answer by annabelleleedowd
A) In Heaven, they are given reserved parking spaces.
B) VISA forgives their balance.
C) They are returned to Earth, marked, ‘irregular.’
In Judaism, when you die, you either move on to paradise or you spend some time in purification and then move on to paradise. This is true for ALL of your questions. Of course, this assumes you don’t complicate the issue by drawing upon Kabbalistic teachings which actually indicate a sort of reincarnation through the spiritual realms before reaching paradise.
However, you also have another misconception in your question itself. Judaism does not teach of a “Day of Judgement.”
It’s worth also noting that Judaism as a whole seems almost entirely unconcerned with the afterlife. To most Jews, it matters no more or no less if there even is an afterlife or not. What is important in Judaism is how one seeks G-D and tries to do good in the here-and-now.
Answer by Mz.Rahi, Jewish Minx,I’m sorry to tell you this- but Judaism doesn’t have any punishment/ reward system for belief, either 😉
Judaism is simply *not* belief based. One can be a very moral, ethical and even abiding Jew and not believe in G-d. I stated this the other day in a different question,- At times in my life I have not believed in G-d, at times in my life I have doubted, and even been angry at G-d, but at none of those times was I no longer a Jew. I still lived as a Jew, I was still moral as a Jew, I still kept shabbat, and in the end, shabbat kept me. It is far more important that one live a moral life than that one believe, and often living that morally Jewish life will bring one to understanding and ‘believing in’ their G-d. There may or may not be a system of purification but by no means an eternal punishment IE ‘lake o’fire’- we don’t have nearly as much dogma on death/ after-death because we are more focused on life.
Answer by PaperbackWriter :Infidels Unite!It’s very hard to understand Judaism via a basically Christian outlook 🙂
Judaism is about actions – not beliefs. In other words: a person can be born to a Jewish mother, and therefore Jewish; even if they never set foot in a Synagogue or celebrate a Jewish festival, they remain Jewish UNLESS they join another faith. If this person lives a moral, meaningful life, if their ACTIONS are honourable, we can still say they are a ‘good’ person.
We do have a form of ‘purgatory’, where souls reside for up to one year, for ‘purification’. This is apparently an unpleasant process, but nothing like ‘hell’.
In Judaism, the ultimate ‘hell’ would be separation from G-d.
MARK S gave a wonderful answer to this question some months ago; he said a Rabbi explained it by saying: imagine that the afterlife is like a huge football stadium, with G-d right in the centre. Everyone will get a seat – but some will be much closer to G-d than others…
Hope that helps to answer 🙂
https://jewishanswerstochristianquestions.wordpress.com
Answer by Am Israel Chai!You’ll find many answers here:
https://www.jewfaq.org/olamhaba.htm#Resurrection
No one can give you specific answers about the afterlife because no one has returned to tell us about it. Each of us have our own opinions. As for me, I learned long ago that I don’t need to know. I live life the best way I can and trust in God to be merciful. He has watched over me thus far; I trust Him to continue to do so in the afterlife (if there is one).
For Jews, not following all of God’s laws is like missing many opportunities to please God. There is no *punishment* other than the extreme sense of a lost opportunity.
Jews are not required to *believe* in God — only to live a life of righteousness.
Most Jews believe that there is a short period of *cleansing* after death. Many Jews believe that we will review our past and suffer the burning shame of our sins.
Don’t obsess over it! Live life the best you can and put your trust in God. Help others to have the same opportunities you’ve had.
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Views are varied in Judaism but I will go over some of the points here.
Judaism does not focus on life after death, rather the life one currently leads. As such, we are all held accountable for our actions in life and have to be careful with how we conduct ourselves. Christianity tends to focus on life after death and the study of eschatology, which is a major difference between the two beliefs.
There is also no concept of original sin in Judaism: This is a Christian belief. In Judaism the soul is believed to be pure at birth and as we make mistakes the soul gets ‘dirtier’ if you will.
Think of it like an article of clothing: After a lot of wear and tear, an item gets dirty, worn, faded and ragged. The same is true for the soul.
Because of this, at death souls need to be restored to their original state: Meaning every soul (regardless of beliefs) goes through a cleansing process, so that it can be restored to its original state and be allowed a closer connection with the Divine.
Like that article of clothing: Once something gets dingy to a certain point you generally refuse to wear it, or mix it with clean clothing, correct?
So to answer your questions:
A) These souls go through the same process as everyone else and they return to the Divine. How close one gets to the Divine is defined by the positive deeds enacted in life.
Since non-Jews are NOT obligated to uphold the 613 commandments: They do not have to follow them. A righteous person is one who follows the Seven Noahide laws ( ).
This does not mean that all souls do not go through this process: They do. A righteous gentile just merits a closer connection on death.
B) The same thing that happens as stated in A. 😉
C) It is believed that upon death God automatically drops some of our sins and transgressions, which I would assume accounts for things like this (eg. not being able to apologize for an action).
The general premise here is that we should always be accountable for our actions in life. If we wrong someone, it is our responsibility to right those wrongs as a result.
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