1. Beliefs about life after death. Learning Objectives: To understand Jewish beliefs about life after death Examine the importance of these beliefs to Jewish people.
2. Please write keywords in the back of your books, with a sentence to explain what they mean. Havdalah Sheol Shabbat Gan Eden Gehenna
3. Write down five words that reflect your idea of each of these terms.
9. Write a paragraph about what you think happens when you die. Be prepared to share what you have written.
10. Judaism – life after death. Judaism does not have any teaching that mentions the body and soul. However they do believe that G-d breathed the souls into Adams body, Rabbis teach that the souls leaves the body during sleep and gains refreshment from heaven.
11. Judaism – life after death. Judaism teaches that the soul leaves the body at the point of death, but the body and soul are eventually reunited at the end of time. They believe they can not survive without each other.
12. Judaism – life after death. Havdalah ceremony utensils On Shabbat (that Sabbath ordered in the ten commandments) tradition says that G-d gives the body and extra soul, but this is taken back at Havdalah (the ceremony marking the end of Shabbat).
13. Sheol At the time when most Jewish scriptures were written some Jews believed that after death everyone went to Sheol. This is described as a dark place where people went and stayed for eternity.
14. Sheol The idea of Sheol arises from the belief that Adam and Eve would have lived for ever in the garden of Eden, but when the disobeyed G-d they became mortal. Since then everyone has grown old and died.
15. Judaism – Heaven and Hell Beliefs about heaven and hell come much later in Jewish thought. By the 2nd century BCE some Jews had come to believe that Sheol was a waiting place until the day of judgement.
16. Judaism – Heaven and Hell Some people said that the righteous would enter Gan Eden (paradise). While the wicked would got to Gehenna after the last judgement. However some rabbis said that people go to theses places straight away
17. Judaism – Heaven and Hell Gehenna is not the same as Sheol, Sheol was seen as a place of waiting. Where as Gehenna is hell, where someone is judged by G-d. where the body can’t blame the souls for it’s actions. Jews believe this will happen after the coming of the Messiah.
18. Judaism – Heaven and Hell Some also believed that eventually G-d would judge people, and those that had not lived by G-d’s laws would go to hell. Towards the end of the period when the Jewish scriptures were written some of them explained that there might be an eternal life with G-d after death.
19. Judaism – Heaven and Hell? So although Jews believe the may be punished or rewarded for the way they have lived, there is no clear teaching about it in Jewish scripture For Jews it is important not to worry about what will happen when they die, G-d will take care of that. It is more important how they live their life on earth
20. Jewish tradition The belief that life on earth is more important that after can be seen in a number of Jewish traditions.These examples show that Judaism is more concerned with life that what happens after. When Jewish people make a toast they say ‘L’Chaim’ – ’to life’. Traditional birthday cards say ‘May you live to be 120,’
