Jewish afterlife question

I know that Judaism emphesizes this life over the next. However, are there any Jewish groups with developed ideas of the afterlife? I’m sorry if this sounds ignorant, but I’m just curious.

Short answer: Yes, there are lots of organized ideas, but they do conflict with each other and its pretty much impossible to separate what is meant literally from what is meant allegorically.

Long answer: http://shamash.org/lists/scj-faq/HTML/faq/12-08.html

captainQwark:

In generalities, yes: It’s a world of spirits-only, nothing physical, and people are rewarded and/or punished for their deeds done during their physical life.

In specifics, there are many descriptions, but they are all necessarily physical metaphors for a non-physical experience, so may seem “disorganized” when in fact, they are merely alternative attempts to describe the not-very-describable.

The traditional Jewish expectation is that there will be a resurrection and judgement of the dead, followed by eternal life (for the righteous) in a sort of renewed Eden on earth. This is seen as a physical resurrection and a physical immortality. What happens to the dead while they’re waiting for resurrection varies from ideas that it’s a non-consciious sleeping state to some ideas of shadowy underworlds where there may or not be punishment/reward. Hebrew scriptures refer to Sheol, which was very similar to Hades. There is no eterrnal Hell in Judaism. The bad people just get annihilated (although they might get punished for a while before the final resurrection).