Someone…perhaps Maimonides said, “If you are planting a tree, and hear that the Messiah has come, finish planting your tree before you go to look.” 
I believe that I have added something factual to the discussion.
Yup, because the OP did ask whether an afterlife exists. Good point.
I disagree. The OP is titled “If Jews don’t believe in an afterlife…”
I was all but ready to have Judaism as my back up faith. So, what’s a religion I can convert to that doesn’t have an afterlife? I enjoy being nonreligious, but I might one day have an overwhelming urge to worship something. You never know.
No afterlife lends integrity to this life, and I’d like to retain that aspect in my contingency plan. Like, when bombs start falling or sperm starts coming out of my Johnson.
Sorry if this is somewhat disjointed.
OTTOMH, there is a daily prayer which says “Thou keepest faith with those who sleep in the dust.” Somewhere in the Torah is also a divine promise to ‘Reunite the fathers with the sons’
In my experience, it is not Reform but Reconstructionist Jews who are likely to be atheists and not believe in an afterlife. Reconstructionism focuses on the Jews as a people, in extreme cases to the exclusion of G-d.
Finally,
“If Jews don’t believe in an afterlife, where do all the old people go?”
“Florida.”
Read the old Testament. The big motivation is to keep God from getting angry and turning you into a pillar of salt or making it rain for over a month straight and almost everybody drowns.
I’m no religious scholar, but I think Christianity and it’s forgiving God had to really push the heaven and hell afterlife to get people to go along.
Oh, yeah. I don’t believe it either.
But I like the idea that doing good works here on earth is purpose enough.
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Great word that, mod.
You may have posted something you believe to be factual, but you contributed nothing to answering the OP.
It’s difficult to say what Jews believe or what Judaism preaches, because (as many have noted) there’s lots of Jews and lots of variations within Judaism. Biblically, many prophets mention a perfected world, a messianic era, when the lion shall lie down the lamb and nation shall not lift up sword about nation. (We don’t accept Jesus as Messiah because these things haven’t happened.) There’s no specific mention of an afterlife: that doesn’t mean the Hebrew Bible doesn’t accept an afterlife, it’s just silent on the issue.
Jews who don’t believe in God, obviously won’t believe in an after-life: see Can you be an atheist and still be Jewish? - The Straight Dope. But most Jews who believe in God, believe in a God of Justice, and of Mercy. There’s clearly not justice in this world, so there must be another world in which Justice is worked out.
Reform Jew here.
That’s basically the gist of it as taught in our local temple. That’s one of the reasons I am a Reform Jew as it is a viewpoint that makes perfect sense to me. I am pleased this viewpoint is being taught to my daughters.
It just doesn’t really come up on the radar for many Jews.
I grew up in a largely Jewish neighborhood as a child in the 1970’s/80’s, attended an Orthodox yeshiva (Hebrew school) and had mostly Jewish friends. So I wasn’t really exposed to any sort of Christian theology until about junior high school. It was a shock to me personally to study Christian beliefs in the context of history and learn that Christians were so sure of the details of the afterlife and placed such importance on it.
I mean no offense to any Christians when I write that.
I think the point was that this Gospel story, which will be familiar to many, reflects a controversy that is known to have taken place among Jews at that time. We know that there really was such a controversy from other sources, such as Josephus.
Well, IIRC (ultra-simplified):
Catholicism requires faith and good works.
Martin Luther relied on the Biblical text “The just shall live by faith alone” and that gave rise to Protestantism.
You’d have to examine the history of that and the various denominations as to exactly how they work that out.
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CC: I have a little shout out for you in the Pit. Not a big deal at all, I just didn’t want to do it here, for obvious reasons.
The general consensus amongst Protestants, as I understand it, is that faith gets you to heaven, but that “faith without works is dead.” In other words, if you don’t have good works, then you don’t really believe.
Even those who believe in Eternal Security believe that, although the more familiar “once saved always saved” meme amongst amongst the laity often forgets it.
I heard the story as an one one about the Russian Jew who was paid a rouble a month to stand on the edge of town to greet the Messiah when he comes: “The pay, it’s terrible, but job security I got.”
As to why do what’s right, if not for reward in the afterlife? Well Einstein doesn’t count as a spokesperson for Jewish religious thought, but he stated it in a way that resonates with many Jews:
He also said
(“The Expanded Quotable Einstein” pg 212)
You do what is right because it is right, because it is our job to do what is right, not for reward. My sense of the Jewish tradition is that it is the converse of the Christian one. Jews do not know God and therefore do the right things; Jews do the right things and by so doing begin to know God. The difference may be subtle but it answers the question.
There’s the idea of the Covenant to be considered. God made promises to the Jewish people and the Jewish people are supposed to do certain things for God. So a devout Jew would worship God and obey his laws not out of a sense of personal reward but out of a sense of duty.
On the radio the other day I listened to the pastor/biblical historian explain how ALL people… regardless of faith and virtue…went straight to hell (sheol in ancient Hebrew). Due to the Fall of Adam, hell was the only destination for human souls. The only rewards man had were the blessings received in this life.
Only with the Advent of Christ was mankind given a chance at eternal deliverance. Upon His death at the Cross, Christ decended into hell for the express purpose of gathering up Abel, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and all the other souls who died in faithful obedience to the Father…all asleep, waiting for that moment.
(I imagine there is some temperate island in the middle of the Lake Of Fire created to store unconcious Israelites :dubious:)
Now, one can recieve salvation by accepting the Will and Law of Almighty God in the perfect form of His only begotten Son, Christ.
Hell, is now just a default setting reserved for all but the Select Few who accepted Him.