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Jewish Views of the Afterlife

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Most Jews are under the mistaken impression that Judaism does not believe in an afterlife. This is not so, and in fact Jewish texts preserve a rich tradition of how this concept has been understood and taught throughout Jewish history. This book is an excellent introduction and overview of how the afterlife is viewed in The Torah, The Talmud, the medieval works, the Midrash and the books of the Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism). One of its special features is that many medieval Jewish texts are presented here for the first time in English!

The fate of the soul after death is the major focus of Simcha Paull Raphael's beautifully written tome. Culled from 4,000 year of classical Jewish source material it's topics include resurrection, Gan Eden and Gehenna, angels; the, history and tradition of the souls appearance and disappearance from the modern Jewish world, etc. You can start anywhere and skip about to your heart's content. Any good Jewish library is incomplete without it.

It is rare to find a scholarly book that is a pleasure to read. Simcha Paull Raphael's book is one of these gems. The scope of his knowledge is amazing, and his writing style is a breath of fresh air. The author explores the evolution of Jewish beliefs about life after death from biblical times to the present. This is, without doubt, the best introduction I have seen. It is must read for anyone interested in this topic.

This book far exceeded my expectations...it covers a huge amount of intellectual material, but remains easy to understand throughout. Though the author will resist the appellation, this is the "Jewish Book of the Dead" for english readers. Highly recommended and downright inspiring. Bravo.

The author wrote in the Preface to this 1994 book, "As I demonstrate throughout this book, teachings on life after death have always been part of the Jewish spiritual legacy. Although I have gathered together the most extensive compilation of Jewish afterlife sources available in one place, and have attempted to produce a resource book that has scholarly integrity, in no way is this book exhaustive. After more than fifteen years, (it) still feels to me like a work in progress." He adds later, "Reb Zalman Schacter-Shalomi encouraged me to take on the task of researching and writing this book."

The book contains sections on "Biblical Roots," "Apocryphal Literature," "The World to Come in Rabbinic Judaism," "Medieval Midrash," "Medieval Philosophy," "Kabbalah," "Hasidic Tales," and "A Contemporary Psychological Model of the Afterlife."

Here are some quotations from the book:

"...in the modern era Judaism does not have an extensive tradition on the afterlife." (Pg. 6)
"...Christian notions of life after death have permeated Jewish awareness, at a very deep, unconscious level." (Pg. 27)
"A Gallup poll in 1952 asked the question 'Do you think that your soul will live on after death?' ... only 35 percent of Jews responded affirmatively. In 1965 the numbers were even lower... only 17 percent of Jewish respondents believed that their souls would live on after death. The remaining 83 percent of the Jews polled said either 'no' or 'don't know.'" (Pg. 29)
"Absolutely nowhere in the Bible do we find a unified view about life after death that reflects postmortem beliefs of the entire biblical era, or even of any one period." (Pg. 42)
"At this stage in biblical history, the notion of a personal immortality does not yet exist." (Pg. 46)
"The idea of individual immortality is not found in the apocryphal and pseudepigraphic writings of Palestinian Judaism. It never replaced the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead..." (Pg. 104)
"As to be expected, there is certainly no monolithic Jewish view of resurrection, but many different ideas coexisting with other, often contradictory, afterlife beliefs." (Pg. 110)
"Jewish teachings on postmortem immortality never supplanted the primacy of belief in physical resurrection." (Pg. 114)
"Even in the gospels we see how Jesus, obviously a product of early first-century Judaism, tacitly accepted the pharisaic belief in a resurrection of the dead for all humanity." (Pg. 156)
"...around this (Medieval) time the doctrine of reincarnation of souls began slowly gaining popularity among mystically oriented schools of Judaism." (Pg. 244)