What do Jews think happens after you die?
Judaism in Five Minutes - Sarah Imhoff
Matthew J. Suriano [+]
University of Maryland
Matthew J. Suriano is an Associate Professor in the Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Maryland. He teaches classes on the Hebrew Bible, the archaeology of ancient Israel, and religions of ancient Western Asia.
Description
There is a wide variety of beliefs about death in Judaism today. The earliest sources lack any systematic treatment of the afterlife. There was the vague concept of Sheol that is often portrayed as a tomb-like netherworld, but there is no afterlife dichotomy of heaven or hell. What we find in the Hebrew Bible is a postmortem ideal of being reunited with dead kin. This is apparent in biblical idioms for death such as “gathered to their peoples” and “lay down with their fathers,” as well as in the expressed desire to be buried in a family tomb.