preview

Jewish Life After Death Essay

Decent Essays

There is no greater unknown in this world than what happens after a person dies. Throughout our lives we are told that there is a world to come, olam haba, which consists of Gan Eden and Gehenom. Olam Haba is greater than any reward in the physical world, and Gehenom is worse than any pain in the physical world. No human has been able to come back from the dead and confirm this for mankind, but we do have strong evidence that supports the idea that there is an after-life filled with reward and punishment. The books of Judaism are largely focused on being a good Jew in this life, and scarcely on the afterlife. Since the Torah does not focus a great deal on the afterlife, we have a limited source of knowledge on the topic. The answers to …show more content…

This teaches us that we should bury people directly in the ground. This practice is done today in Israel, but in places where it is illegal to bury the dead directly into the ground, we place a person in a casket that is later buried into the ground. Unlike gentiles, Jews do not buy expensive fancy coffins. To truly honor the deceased, it is better to spend the money you would have spent on a fancy coffin on charity in memory of your dead relative. This is why Jewish people buy cheap wooden coffins. According to Jewish tradition, a casket should not have any metal on it because metal is used for weapons and war. It is believed that a person should not go to eternal rest accompanied by these materials. After these crucial actions are done to the deceased, they are then ready to face the master of the universe in the World to Come. One basic belief in Judaism is that the life of a human being does not begin with birth, nor does it end with death. In Megillat Kohelet, written by Shlomo Hamelech, Shlomo writes that “the spirit will return to G d, who gave it.” One can derive from this verse that a person’s soul was in G-d’s possession prior to his birth, and will be returned to Him following their death. In addition to this biblical proof, the Lubavitcher Rebbe offers scientific evidence to this idea as well. He says that according to the first law of thermodynamics, energy

Get Access