Beliefs about life after death.

Learning Objectives:To understand Jewish beliefs about life after deathExamine the importance of these beliefs to Jewish people.

Please write keywords in the back of your books, with a

sentence to explain what they mean.

Gan Eden

Gehenna

Sheol Shabba

t

Havdalah

Write down five words that reflect your idea of each of these terms.

Heaven Hell Purgatory

Heaven

Hell

HellPurgatory

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Watch the clips

What images do these adverts create about heaven?

>> 0 >> 1 >> 2 >> 3 >> 4 >>

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Write a paragraph about what you think happens when you die.

Be prepared to share what you have written.

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.

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.

Judaism – life after death.

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).

Havdalah ceremony utensils

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.

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.

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.

Judaism – Heaven and Hell

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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,’

‘If Jews believe in G-d then they must believe in life after death’.

1) Do you agree with this statement? Half a page please.

2) How might a Jew respond to this? Half a page please.

3) Use and research these scriptures to use in your answers.

Genesis 2:7 Daniel 12:2-3 2 Maccabees 7:94) Make sure you use all of today's key words and

complete in back of books