r/JewsOfConscience • u/AutoModerator • Jul 17 '24

AAJ "Ask A Jew" Wednesday

It's everyone's favorite day of the week, "Ask A (Anti-Zionist) Jew" Wednesday! Ask whatever you want to know, within the sub rules, notably that this is not a debate sub and do not import drama from other subreddits. That aside, have fun! We love to dialogue with our non-Jewish siblings.

21 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

108 comments sorted by

View all comments

7

u/bbbojackhorseman Non-Jewish Ally Jul 17 '24

Hello everybody.

I have been seeing on social media during these last few months that « Jews don’t believe in heaven/hell » so I guess my question is : is that true? And if it is, what do you guys believe will happen after we all die?

For context I’m muslim and if I’m not mistaken, in both Christianity and Islam we believe that people will be judged for their actions and either go to heaven or hell, so I always assumed that was the same thing in judaism. Thank you

12

u/sudo_apt-get_intrnet LGBTQ Jew Jul 17 '24

I've studied with many different rabbis, and here are just some of the different afterlife ideas I've encountered:

  • Everyone goes to what could definitely be described as "heaven". Different people go to different levels of heaven depending on how good they were. Bad people go through a temporary (6 month IIRC?) "hell process" to cleanse them of their sins, and get Shabbat off.
  • Jews reincarnate to be able to fulfill all the mitzvot, and once we succeed the Messiah will come.
  • When Jews die they enter a sort of "holding pattern" similar to sleep and will do so until the Messiah comes, in which case the Messiah will create the equivalent of heaven on Earth.
  • Death reabsorbs your spirit back into Gd, with how "good" you are in life determining how difficult/ "painful" the process will be.
  • A combination of multiple of the above.

Worth noting too that these were all Orthodox rabbis, so other denominations could have even more different opinions!

6

u/bbbojackhorseman Non-Jewish Ally Jul 17 '24

I see. Thank you.

I think (I may be wrong though) that muslims believe the same thing as your 1st and 4th point.

5

u/PreparationOk1450 Jewish Anti-Zionist Jul 17 '24 edited Jul 18 '24

AFAIK: Muslim beliefs in heaven and hell are more similar to Christians. Although, in most ways, Muslim beliefs are more similar to Jews than Christians. An exception being that Jesus is highly revered by Muslims.

1

u/bbbojackhorseman Non-Jewish Ally Jul 18 '24

Thanks! I didn’t know