I’m not asking about Jewish practice, I’m trying to understand the driving belief.
First I should say I was raised without any kind of religion, but I still have a pretty in-depth understanding of Christian theology, since it permeates the culture. So that’s my frame of reference, and what I know of Islam matches Christian belief to this extent: there is a God who created all things, and there is an afterlife. Worshipping God and doing what He wants leads to a more positive afterlife experience.
However, it has only become clear to me very recently that Jews don’t believe in an afterlife.
Since my frame of reference about religion is that it’s pretty much all founded on trying to get a ticket to heaven, however that’s defined, this stumps me.
So can someone explain to me exactly what Jews believe about life/afterlife/the purpose of God and worshipping God, because if it’s not goal-oriented in the way christian and muslim belief is, then what’s the point? I’m sure there is one, I just want someone to explain it.
The point is to do good on Earth in the here and now. To honor this life we’ve been given by respecting ourselves and others and trying to do good, until the messiah arrives.
Back when I was Jewish, the reason was the Covenant that got entered into by God and Abraham. We get enrolled into this by the bris ceremony, and do it with a bit more awareness of what we are doing in the bar mitzvah ceremony.
I was hardly devout as a kid, but I did go to Temple a lot, more than I had to, and I never actually thought about an afterlife. You tend not to when your religious leader isn’t cramming it down your throat. So most of what gets done is done not for eventual reward but out of commitment to the culture, habit, and a bit of selflessness. Does a kid have to respect a parent out of fear, or can it be done purely out of respect for the position?
First, there’s no official reason given in Judaism why you’re supposed to follow the mitzvot (commandments or Jewish laws). So different Jews are going to follow mitzvot for different reasons. And, in general, following the mitzvot is more important than why you follow them. What you do is more important than what you believe, in contrast to Christianity.
There is a concept that following the mitzvot makes the world a better place (tikkun olam, literally “repairing the world”). There are some that it’s obvious how they make the world a better place, like “don’t murder” or “don’t steal”. But some of us believe that at least some of the other mitzvot also make the world a better place in some way. We might not understand or see how that is, but we have faith that it is true. Or some people follow mitzvot because they make their own lives better. I like having an excuse to not do chores or errands on Shabbat. Things like lighting Hanukkah candles are fun, and some traditional foods like latkes are yummy. Other people might follow some mitzvot because it’s their family tradition, in the same spirit that some atheists and agnostics put up Christmas decorations. Going to a Passover Seder or not eating pork are examples of mitzvot that might be followed for this reason.
Rabbinical Judaism certainly includes the idea of an afterlife. According to the medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides, belief in divine reward and punishment is one of the 13 essential elements of Jewish faith.
However, there is also an important Rabbinic teaching that one should obey the commandments out of love for God and your fellow man, not because one wants to be rewarded for it.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought Judaism was officially agnostic on the subject of an afterlife, and that different individual Jews believe different things on the subject.
And I don’t think this is an accurate description even of Christianity (certainly not of all forms of it).
This is a tantalizing tease! What’s the messiah part? If a hundred million Jews have lived and died already, and tomorrow the Jewish Messiah shows up, what happens after that??? Anything for already-dead Jews? Something for future-dead Jews? Only something for now-alive Jews?? I’m breathless!
THAT is excellent!
I reiterate: tease! What is the “whole World to Come, Gan Eden, Gehinnom thing”, please!
I am very much aware that Christianity comes in…hundreds? of flavors with all kinds of detail variations…but I have never heard of a single variant of Christianity that did not include a post-death reward of some kind.
Especially when it comes to matters of Jewish belief and practice, “Two Jews, three opinions.”
There is a running debate between Orthodox and Conservative Judaism on one hand and Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism on the other over whether the second prayer in the Amidah (Standing Prayers, the core of each worship service) should read “… gives life to the dead”, “… gives life to the dying”, or “… gives life to all.” (I have no idea where Humanist, Samaritan, Karaite, Mizrachi, or other branches stand on the debate.)
As to the OP - I understand exactly what you are saying. Christianity (at least, the form I’m most familiar with) definitely has a “reward” for being Christian, above and beyond simply being considered a good thing for it’s own sweet sake: eternal life.
Judaism really lacks that. Jews don’t consider this a problem. Perhaps this lack explains the relative approach to prosthelytism - Jews by and large do not prostheletize and consider it rude in others; many Christians consider it a duty. Prosthetism combined with reward may explain why there are few Jews and many Christians …
My own view, though I am not a practicing Jew any more, is this: that Judaism is basically an inherited honour combined with burden. Jews carry out the rituals of Judaism because as a group or tribe they were honoured by God, way back in the beginnings of civilization, to carry this burden (the Covenant with Abraham - Jews consider themselves the people of the Covenant) - to be an example to others of how to live one’s life. Jews by and large are proud to accept this burden, even though it has exposed them to persecution (perhaps all the more so because of that).
If one may use an analogy, it is like an ancient patent of nobility bestowed by a monarch in the deep past which has no worldly goods attached to it - just the title - and which in fact costs considerably in terms of having to ‘keep up appearances’ through noble behaviour and even exposes the holder to danger from others. You can renounce it if you like, but holding it and being deserving of holding it through your ow behaviour (keeping the mitzvoh) is a source of enduring pride.
Traditionally, at least, and there are a lot of Jews now who don’t believe it, when you die, if you’re really good, you go to Gan Eden, the garden of Eden, heavenly variety. Otherwise, you go to a place of torment called Gehinnom, where all your sins are burned off you. This can take up to a year. If you’re utterly wicked with no redeeming qualities, you either stop existing at the end of the 12 months, or you’re stuck in Gehinnom forever regretting that you were so rotten, but generally it’s considered to be the former, except in special cases like Balaam and Amalek, and I guess Hitler would qualify too. Everybody else at the end of their purification can go to Gan Eden.
Then eventually, when the messiah comes, the righteous dead will all be resurrected so that they can live under the messiah, and the unrighteous dead won’t be.
Some Jews do, some don’t. Some do believe in a literal Gan Eden (Heaven) and Gehinnom (Hell, sort of). Some believe that you can go to Gehinnom forever, some don’t. Some believe in reincarnation. Some believe that you live on somehow through your descendants or the effect of your deeds on the world.
There is no concept of the afterlife that, if you don’t believe in it, you’re not a Jew in good standing, the way a Catholic who didn’t believe in heaven and hell would not be in good standing. There are not, at least not at any synagogues I’ve ever been to or heard about, sermons about what Gan Eden or Gehinnom are like, or what behaviors might send one to either place after death. We do say prayers in honor of dead people, but these prayers don’t say anything about Gan Eden or Gehinnom.
I went to a Conservative Temple, on the Reform side of Conservative (men and women sat together, unlike a friend’s Conservative Temple.) I don’t recall any sermon or teaching in five years of Hebrew School about an afterlife. Most telling is that during the Yum Kippur service you ask to be written in the Book of Life for the next year, not for any type of after-death salvation.
As Captain Amazing said, Jews do believe in the afterlife, very much so. In Pirkei Avot it says that the mortal world is merely a place to prepare one’s self for the World to Come. Amongst the Orthodox, at least, there is no inconsistency in at least the general belief that how one conducts himself or herself in this world is the basis for how confortable one’s soul will be when it departs this world.
However, Jewish motivation on Earth is more than just a personal quest for post-mortem satisfaction. The Jew’s mission on Earth is to bring about recognition of the greatness of G-d through our actions, which are supposed to be, in our limited way, emulations of his. This is the covenant of Abraham, re-affirmed by the entire nation at Mount Sinai: that if we act in accordance with our recognition of G-d’s supremacy over all existence, then ultimately, this will bring all people closer to G-d.
Classes on conversion to Judaism focus on the what and how of the mitzvot, not the why. They’ll give you instructions on how to keep kosher, but they won’t spend a lot of time telling you the reasons for keeping kosher. There is a lot of debate, in various Jewish writings, about how exactly you are supposed to keep certain mitzvot. What there generally isn’t is a lot of debate on the reasons why to keep these mitzvot. Doing the mitzvot is more important than doing them for the right or wrong reasons. If you’re doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, you’re still doing the right thing, and that’s what counts.
Traditionally, Jews have believed in an afterlife for at least the past two millenia. Plenty of Jews also don’t believe in God, but that doesn’t make it a Jewish belief.
There is precisely such a concept of an afterlife, as I mentioned above re. Maimonides. Of course, there’s no requirement to publicly state what you believe, but from an Orthodox point of view if one were to publicly announce that they do not believe in divine reward and punishment, they would probably not be offered an aliyah, be counted in a minyan, be considered reliable for kosher food, etc.
Agreed, generally not. As I mentioned above, Judaism has consistently emphasized that you shouldn’t do good things because you want to be rewarded or “saved”. On that note, another reason is that in Judaism, you have to do something pretty bad to lose your place in Heaven. You don’t have to do anything to be saved, since you are saved by default.
That’s incorrect. Kaddish has no mention of an afterlife, but it has nothing about dead people at all. It’s just a prayer praising God. OTOH Yizkor is actually a memorial prayer and has the following text:
Well, the “reward” aspect for doing good is weakened considerably if you accept Universal Reconciliation - there is no Hell, and all immortal souls are ultimately “reconciled” to God. A good life might buy you a fast track, but even a rotten one will eventually get you to heaven.
